Senior Research Fellow Highlights Critical Gaps in Current Business Continuity Plans, Outlines Steps for Effective Response

On June 8, Interwise® Inc. will be sponsoring a free Webcast to help businesses understand and prepare for a potential Avian Influenza pandemic.

During this 1-hour interactive event, featured Gartner Vice President and Research Fellow Ken McGee will lead a discussion to review likely scenarios offered by global health leaders, explain why conventional business continuity plans will not be effective in addressing those scenarios, and outline the steps that business leaders should take today to prepare for the first pandemic of the information age.

"It is shocking how ill-prepared businesses are for a pandemic," explained McGee. "Without adequate planning today, businesses are putting themselves at great risk." According to the Gartner report, "Scenarios for Avian Influenza and How IT Can Mitigate Risk" published March 7, 2006, "Most businesses are not prepared for an outbreak of avian influenza and have failed to heed earlier warnings...Traditionally, business continuity has been focused on the outage of critical (physical) infrastructure."

Speaking at the World Health Organization Meeting on Avian Influenza and Human Pandemic in November of 2005, the late Dr. Lee Jong-wook, director general of the UN World Health Organization, had sobering words for the delegates: "It is only a matter of time before an avian flu virus - most likely H5N1 - acquires the ability to be transmitted from human to human, sparking the outbreak of human pandemic influenza. We don't know when this will happen. But we do know that it will happen."

Because an Avian Influenza pandemic would constitute the first global-scale business continuity crisis, there is no roadmap for businesses to follow. This Webcast will help IT and business leaders realistically understand the challenges posed by the inability of large numbers of employees, partners, suppliers and customers to get to work and ask the questions necessary to prepare for this challenge: Would their employees be able to work remotely for days or even weeks?

Do key executives have emergency communications backup? How will disruptions to supply chain, customer support or partner interactions be handled? Is impact to offshore vendors accounted for?

The Webcast will be offered in two sessions: 9:00 AM EDT and 2:00 PM EDT. Those interested in participating should visit http://www.interwise.com/Gartner.html to register.