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What happens when there is a major disruption in your city that might affect your employees?  Say the local transit is attacked (like the Underground was attacked in London in 2005).  As CIO, do you know if your employees are safe? Do you have a record of all the employees on vacation or out sick that day?  Do you know if you have employees visiting from other locations in your office that day?  Even more, do you have a record of all your employees and their contact information and location?

According to a ComputerWorld article, it’s crucial for CIOs to have a crisis plan ready, which spells out what everyone’s responsibilities will be in a crisis situation, and includes all the details you will need. There’s no such thing as a safe location; disruptions can happen anywhere.  You need redundant communications systems because “normal” methods of communication will likely fail — especially mobile, which is quickly overwhelmed by the spike in local demand that takes place during any crisis.

What do you think about a crisis plan for CIOs?  Is this concept Hype (you don’t need a specific crisis plan in place as a CIO), or is the Ripe (crisis plans should be developed and ready in case of a crisis situation)?

As a CIO, if you have a crisis plan in place, we’d love to hear your comments below.

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