The Circle of Excellence Award was created as an opportunity to recognize the efforts of campus departments to develop well-written and actionable business continuity plans. Business continuity planning ensures that the University is able to continue its most important work with as little of disruption as possible when unexpected events occur.
You may nominate your department for any of these three achievements:
- Successfully used the business continuity plans after a real disruption. Or…
- Implemented an innovative strategy to mitigate against business disruption risks. Or…
- Developed well written plans that appear feasible and actionable based on these criteria:
- Contact Lists (staff, vendors, other stakeholders)
- Procedures for activating the plans (include people with authorization to activate plans)
- Roles and responsibilities of those implementing the plans. (ex. scripts or checklists).
- Workaround/Downtime Procedures (alternate sites, equipment, IT, etc)
- Information about accessing vital records and other documents (how to access, backups, etc)
- IT disaster recovery plan: departments with their own IT units may need to have documentation on recovering technology, applications, and data.
- Agreements or contracts related to your business continuity plan (if applicable)
Please email Tara Brown your nominations with a copy of your plans or write up of the business continuity strategies you have implemented.
If you are nominating your department based on using the plans during a real event, please use this lessons learned form.
