IT Department

The Landscape

IT and Data backup have long been considered the starting points for business continuity planning, and the methodologies developed here have rapidly spread across organizations everywhere. Obviously, IT-related issues become more important every day because as municipalities become more reliant on technology, many more potential points of failure can be exposed. The sectors that have paid most attention to shoring up their backup strategies have been the financial services industry and higher levels of government. One of the keys to making these enterprise-wide initiatives take flight is for IT departments to not only consider the non-IT elements of continuity planning (typically focusing on more human factors), but also sharing their best practices with broader committees. Muni Continuity provides the platform that brings all these disparate areas together and allows municipal planners to take a uniform approach.

The Benefit

• Muni continuity provides templates that explain core IT concepts to non-IT personnel; by better understanding the basic principles of IT, it enhances the ability of everyone to work together
• What are the different types of data backup and when is it most appropriate to use one from another? Muni Continuity provides the framework to evaluate the most appropriate course of action by using principles of cost-benefit analysis
• It de-mystifies the elements of IT and shows how these principles are transferable to multiple silos of municipal risk management