Decision Support Systems – Making Continuity Decisions Work

A Company’s Networks and Personnel Must Support Decisions

When it comes to business continuity, an organization’ leadership must make a lot of touch decisions about what the risks to a business are and what steps to take and systems to implement to prevent or minimize these risks. Decision support systems must be in place to help these leaders make these tough decisions as well as implement them once they are made.

Network Support - For IT Department

Very often a large part of decision support is a function of the IT department. Decision support can mean having up to date and readily available information for a business’s systems and processes. While other departments are responsible for becoming involved in the decision process by assessing their areas and making recommendations, the data they need must be maintained by the IT department. This includes providing secure and reliable systems, network support, and adequate data backup.

Decision Support - and Business Continuity Planning

Decision support also means putting systems in place to support the implementation of the decisions made in business continuity planning. For example, if a company decides that part of their plan includes a certain amount of training for employees then this decision has to be fully supported. Specific personnel must be assigned the tasks of setting up and monitoring this training. An adequate budget must also be set aside to support the training requirement decision. Without this support in place, decisions are ineffective and serve no purpose to a continuity plan.

See: security gate, security labels, security equipment, and network security software

business continuity and disaster recovery

For Information on Business Continuity Planning and Implementation

Business Continuity ▪ Risk Assessment Contingency Planning ▪ Disaster Management Disaster Recovery ▪ Vendor Information