In today's information age, contingency planning has become an important business process, much like accounting, marketing or sales. Technology has become so integrated with business processes it's become a process in itself. Businesses heavily rely on IT systems to be up and running and any level of down time where systems are unavailable are likely to result in huge losses of revenue and unsatisfied customers.

There are several steps involved in contingency planning and they not only plan for recovery of IT systems, but plan for restoration of the business itself. Business processes and IT systems are so entwined today, it's become necessary to look at contingency planning as all encompassing.

If you are planning to develop a contingency plan for your business, you've made an excellent decision and one you won't regret if a disaster or other severe interruption were to impact your business. It's important to understand there are expenses associated with contingency planning which will not bring immediate rewards, but will save a lot of costs in the event of a disaster and likely save your business. This is one of the reasons many businesses avoid contingency plans -the costs involved. However, the investment is well worth it because statistics indicate businesses who do not have a contingency plan usually do not survive past a few years.

To get started it's important to attain a full understanding of what the IT contingency planning entails and how it fits into a business continuity plan (NIST, Special Publication 800-34). There are several steps to follow when creating your IT contingency plan:

*Policy Statement. It's vital for your business to compose a solid policy statement to outline the scope of the contingency plan. "The contingency planning policy statement should define the agency's overall contingency objectives and establish the organizational framework and responsibilities for IT contingency planning" (NIST, Special Publication 800-34).

*Business Impact Analysis (BIA) and Risk Assessment. It's imperative to understand how your IT systems fit into your overall business framework and be able to identify any interdependencies in the organization which exist. When you conduct your BIA, you'll be identifying your IT resources and infrastructure needs such as power and environmental controls. The BIA also encompasses examining acceptable down time and how this time offline would impact your business over the course of time. The BIA also

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