Business continuity and the CIO role – synergies and partnership
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This session will discuss how the strategic and operational objectives and scope of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) role are enabling-of and compatible-with that of the Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity functions. The CIO can and should facilitate DR/BCP involvement in all processes and systems in an organization. In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, the CIO's role extends beyond managing IT infrastructure to becoming a pivotal player in ensuring organizational resilience. This session will delve into the critical intersection of IT strategy and business continuity, highlighting how CIOs can leverage their unique position to champion DR/BCP initiatives. Attendees will gain insights into best practices for integrating DR/BCP into the IT governance framework, ensuring that these plans are not only robust but also aligned with the organization's overall strategic goals. By the end of this session, participants will have an understanding of the CIO's role in fostering a culture of resilience and continuity, ensuring that their organizations can withstand and quickly recover from disruptions. This is an essential discussion for CIOs, IT leaders, and anyone involved in business continuity and disaster recovery planning.
Speakers:
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Erik Hanson
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Erwin Martinez
I, Erwin Martinez have been ‘paying the rent’ doing information technology work for the past 48 years – dating all the way back to working as a programmer and technical support person while in college.
These years include 15 years in systems integration consulting where I often worked on large-scale IT projects typically with large custom development components. That was followed by 27 years as an IT executive in various companies—including 24 years as a Chief Information Officer. I worked in multiple industries, although the majority of my CIO experiences are in banking.
As a CIO I built my own model of the scope of a CIO’s job, that I called ‘IT Systems of Management.’ This model is designed to capture all the major focus areas of a CIO. While there are some good models out there for IT – ISACA COBIT being an excellent example – I could not find one that focused entirely on what a CIO should be doing, what a CIO should be spending his time on.
Not surprisingly, my model of what a CIO should be focused on includes IT Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity. It also includes an emphasis on the IT DR/BCP related areas of risk assessment, risk management, and IT controls.
I have several times joined a company as a new CIO only to discover inadequate attention and funding on IT DR and BCP. The things I have seen include: no DR/BCP policy, no dedicated DR/BCP plan, no DR/BCP testing, no DR/BCP staff, etc. I learned how to ‘sell’ the benefits of investing in DR/BCP to CEO’s and fellow executives.
As an Author
I am also the author of the recently published book, Writing Business Decision Papers. It is a comprehensive how-to guide on writing decision papers on areas of major strategic consequence to a business or other organization.
I have published articles (as the sole author) in several educational and professional publications, including: MIT Sloan Management Review, Project Management Institute’s Project Management Journal, Canadian Institute of Corporate Director’s Director Journal, and Technology Review.
I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in the area of Administrative Sciences, from Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. I have Directors Certificate (ICD.D) from the Institute of Corporate Directors and The SFU Beedie School of Business, in Vancouver, British Columbia.
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