Imagine a scenario where key personnel become unavailable for lengthy periods. Some choose to stay at home; others have actually passed away. Public transportation is shut down. Quarantines are implemented. Suppliers are forced to close. A panic-stricken public reacts by looting pharmacies and doctors' offices. Hospitals are overrun. Law and order are lost. Absolute chaos results.

This is what can happen when a flu pandemic strikes. How will your government entity fare when it does?


Not a Question of "If"
Experts say it isn't a probability issue; it's going to happen. In addition to the 1918 pandemic, which killed nearly 50 million people worldwide, smaller-scale pandemics in 1958 and 1959, and again in 1968 and 1969 killed nearly 2 million people -- and the victims weren't only the very young and the elderly.

In fact, the most affected demographics were 20- to 40-year-olds who had the strongest immune systems. It seems that when a healthy body is confronted with a new, quickly multiplying virus, it goes into overdrive. Many succumb to the disease because their immune systems begin attacking them.

Clearly we don't know when the next pandemic will happen. But we do know that it will, and most businesses are ill-prepared for its arrival. As CIOs, it's quite possible that you will be charged with overseeing your entity's business continuity planning initiative.


What Can We Do?
Would you know where to begin if you were asked to drive the planning effort? Clearly it's not the same as the vanilla disaster-recovery planning we're accustomed to, and it's different from the Y2K project we all drove a few years ago.

Since we can expect our agencies to be extremely short-handed during a time when public outcry for help will be its most intense (think a nationwide Katrina), we must develop a solid, high-quality preparedness plan.

Here is a simple framework to address business continuity planning in the face of the impending pandemic. It includes the following six steps:


1. Raise Awareness
2. Develop a Plan
3. Establish Emergency Communication Methods
4. Enable Remote Work Capabilities
5. Account for Value Chain Disruptions
6. Appoint a Plan Coordinator and Deputies


STEP 1: Raise Awareness
First we must convince the rest of the senior management team that the pandemic threat is real and worthy of their concern. This can best be done through a deliberate awareness program that includes briefings, seminar attendance and inclusion of the topic in the organization's ongoing risk management agenda. Once a clear and present danger is acknowledged, the management team will want to ensure that a comprehensive business continuity plan is developed to address it.

But raising awareness does not stop there. Once your business continuity plan is completed and ready for publication, attention should be turned to educating the entire work force on the avian flu threat, and the steps your agency is taking to prepare for it. The project team that developed the plan should participate in this awareness-raising phase, and use all the corporate communication devices at its disposal -- newsletters, e-mail, bulletin boards and town hall meetings -- to provide ongoing status updates and progress reports on the organization's preparation activities.


STEP 2: Develop a Plan
Your agency's plan must be tailored specifically to its operation and circumstances. However, all business continuity plans must address the management of spontaneous disruptions to normal business activities, and should articulate procedures for business slowdown and startup through a pandemic occurrence.

As a public CIO, it is wise to encourage the establishment of a cross-agency or cross-department working group to develop the plan so that all related areas are properly represented and accounted for.

For planning purposes, government agencies should expect 50 percent absenteeism. Each plan