A business continuity plan that has never been tested can be worse than no plan at all and is contrary to established best practices. Testing finds weaknesses in the
assumptions, controls and procedures in the plan. This helps to ensure that when a disaster or disruption strikes, the organization will actually be able to use the plan to minimize the impact to on-going operations.
Organizations that do test their plans often rely on table top exercises, but these tests can be inadequate:
Events do not occur in real-time
Participants lack visual cues to guide decision making
Emergency service responses are not integrated into the exercise
Consequences of events are difficult to measure The more complete and realistic the testing is, the more resilient the organization will be.Functional tests are more thorough than table tops exercises, but the costs to do live functional—or full scale—testing can be cost prohibitive since it reduces personnel productivity and disrupts normal operations.
How Are You Testing Your Business Continuity Plan?
The Advanced Disaster Management Simulator at Millersville University
The Advanced Disaster Management Simulator (ADMS) at Millersville University’s Center for Disaster Research and Education (CDRE) is a portable, state-of-the-art, 3-D virtual reality system that will hopefully be available for use by businesses and emergency responders in South Central PA sometime in 2013.
ADMS uses artificial intelligence and physics-based models to provide for interactive decision making. ADMS simulations allow organizations to perform in-depth testing of responses to real-world emergencies. The system provides an effective mechanism to test command, control, coordination and communication requirements for managing both simple and complex incidents. The simulations are open ended with no pre-determined outcome and occur in a safe, controlled and true-to-life training environment.
Unlike live functional tests that usually run only once, in ADMS the same simulation can be used repeatedly to test and train multiple response teams. The end result is a comprehensive testing and training program at
Benefits of the ADMS Disaster Simulator
The ADMS Disaster Simulator at Millersville University’s Center for Disaster Research and Education (CDRE) will be a community resource that will provide significant opportunities in South Central PA, including:
Fire service personnel at all command levels can practice strategic and tactical decision making for a number of high-risk, low frequency incidents
Emergency medical personnel can train on triage, treatment and transport requirements for mass casualty incidents
Law enforcement personnel can train on strategic management of active shooter and hostage situations
All emergency services can train on complex multi-discipline incidents to improve management and coordination
Organizations can interact with emergency services in a safe and controlled exercise environment in real time as the incident unfolds
Overall community resiliency is enhanced as a collaborative approach to emergencies can be practiced and refined before a real emergency or disaster strikes
Organizations can train on activating theiremergency operations centers to support ongoing incidents of various sizes and impacts
Employees at all management levels can practice strategic and tactical decision making in response to identified vulnerabilities
Simulations minimize the disruption of ongoing operations, reducing training costsFor more information, contact:
Millersville University
Center for Disaster Research and Education
PO Box 1002
Millersville, PA 17551-0302
Visit Our Website:
www.millersville.edu/cdre
Email Us At:
BUSINESS CONTINUITY
A BETTER WAY TO TRAIN AND TEST
BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANS
The effectiveness of a Business Continuity (BC) Plan can only be validated with testing. Since the ultimate test of a BC Plan is an actual disaster, the degree of realism is a critical factor in any business continuity testing and training program. However, increased realism often results in significantly higher costs and the disruption of normal operations.
The Advanced Disaster Management Simulator (ADMS) provides a new way for organizations to rehearse and test their Business Continuity Plans. Trainees face open-ended and interactive scenarios. The physics based modeling and embedded artificial intelligence create powerfully realistic environments which immerse trainees in the exercise. ADMS goes beyond live training by creating custom incidents that are difficult to simulate outside of a virtual environment. Objective scoring and assessment tools are built in to support a comprehensive after action review, allowing you to validate your procedures and enhance them as needed.
ADMS provides a new way for organizations to train and test their Business Continuity plans in an open-ended, interactive, and realistic way.
ADMS is a flexible training platform, allowing custom exercises specific to your business continuity needs to be created, modified and saved for future use, including:
CUSTOM EXERCISES FOR BUSINESS
?Active shooter / terrorist?Airplane crash
?Hazardous materials incident
?Fuel farm spill or fire
?Improvised explosive device
?Office building fire
?Roadway incident
?Suspicious package
?Tunnel accident
?Vehicle fire
?Warehouse building fire
STATE-OF-THE-ART
BUSINESS CONTINUITY TRAINING
ADMS INNOVATION CENTER
2100 N. Alafaya Trail, Suite 900 | Orlando, FL 32826 USA +1.407.282.3378 |
ADMS™ is a trademark of Environmental Tectonics Corporation. ©2012 Environmental Tectonics Corporation
info@ETCsimulation.com ETCsimulation.com (05/12) 072
Testing and training with the Advanced Disaster Management Simulator (ADMS) be can be done at a fraction of the cost of functional and full-scale exercises while minimizing disruptions to ongoing operations. ADMS scenarios can test all emergency management levels within an organization, including:
?Individual functional units
?Facility response, damage assessment and recovery teams
?Facility incident management team
?On-scene unified command with emergency responders
?Corporate emergency operations center
?Crisis communications team
?Executive management
ADMS can also simulate the same scenario multiple times, providing a consistent testing environment to address:
?Training and testing both primary and backup personnel
?Training and testing personnel on all shifts
?Re-testing of plans after implementing corrective actions
ADMS is a flexible training solution and can assist organizations in meeting various their standards and regulatory requirements for business continuity testing, including:
ASIS/BSI BCM.01 2010 NFPA 1600 ISO 22301 ? ? ? ?FCD 1 ?TJC EM 03.01.03 ?NIMS/ICS
REGISTRATION
All attendees must pre-register, as seating is limited. To register, you must complete the attached registration form. Registration is on a “first come, first served” basis.
LIMIT 5 PER COMPANY
DIRECTIONS
81 south to Front Street South exit. Proceed south on Front Street along the Susquehanna River for approximately 1 mile. Turn left on Edward Street. Turn right onto Second Street. Proceed south on Second Street for two blocks.
QUESTIONS
If you have any questions about the demonstration day, please contact CDRE at:
cdre@millersville.edu
HOW TO REGISTER
Completed registration forms should be faxed to Millersville University’s CDRE at
(717) 871-2429 or emailed to cdre@millersville.edu.
REGISTRATION—PRIMARY CONTACT INFORMATION:
Last Name First Name E-mail
Organization/Company Name Mailing Address City State Zip
REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS FRIDAY OCTOBER 26
Number of employees attending each
session: (Limit 5 per company total) ___ Session 1: 09:00-10:00 am ___ Session 2: 1:00-2:00 pm ___ Session 3: 3:00-4:00 pm
You are invited to attend a
LIVE
demonstration!
WHERE:
Dixon University Center
2986 North Second Street
Harrisburg PA 17110
Administration Building
Conference Room B/C
WHEN:
Thursday, November 8th, 2012
Session 1: 9:00-10:00 am
Session 2: 1:00-2:00 pm
Session 3: 3:00-4:00 pm
See first-hand how to enhance the emergency planning, training and testing needs of
your organization with the ADMS Disaster Simulator.
Advanced Disaster Management Simulator
Advanced Disaster Management Simulator (ADMS) Demonstration
ADMS is an interactive state-of-the-art virtual reality computer-based system designed to provide the user with realistic, real-time exposure to disasters and emergencies. The free, live, one-hour demonstration will showcase capabilities of ADMS that can assist businesses with achieving their business continuity training and testing needs.
About the Center for Disaster Research and Education at Millersville University
Millersville University’s Center for Disaster Research and Education provides multi-disciplinary education, research and internship opportunities, including a Master of Science in Emergency Management and a Minor in Environmental Hazards and Emergency Management. Their website is:
www.millersville.edu/cdre. About Dixon University Center
Dixon University Center is an academic and governance center for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE). Their website is: www.dixonuniversitycenter.org.
