The disruption of business caused by a wide-spread disaster has a huge impact on the economy, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars being lost. Studies have shown that 40% of companies that were shut down by a disaster for three days failed within 36 months, potentially causing the loss of thousands of jobs. The goal of the Business Continuity Information Network (BCIN, pronounced "bee.kin") is to provide a comprehensive solution aimed at helping businesses, particularly small to medium sized companies, to quickly recover and resume operations after a major hurricane strike.

Utilizing the latest advances in database integration, data mining, Web, and GIS software technologies, Florida International University (FIU) has created a unique user friendly, Internet-based, information-rich service that provides businesses with effective and timely disaster recovery information. BCIN's members become part of a online business continuity community that can increase situational awareness and reduce closure time via shared community information, supply chain updates, and a recovery marketplace.

FIU's current pilot release includes public and private sector partners such as Miami-Dade County's Office of Emergency Management, Palm Beach County's Division of Emergency Management, Office Depot, IBM, Wal-Mart, and the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. Our analysis shows that, if the BCIN network helped 5% of the companies in South Florida to speed up their hurricane recovery by one week, it would prevent $220M of non-property economic losses which would result from that week's closure.

BCIN will:

1. Rapidly report, map and share critical up-to-the-minute information about infrastructure conditions and recovery efforts immediately following a storm by working with County Emergency Management Offices and major private infrastructure providers. BCN will localize and tailor relevant information to business managers who will use this information to better assess the hurricane's impact to their facilities, employees, suppliers and customers.


2. Develop a B2B network, which will include government and NGOs, to assist businesses in obtaining disaster recovery resources, products, and services while allowing them to collaborate in recovery efforts.


3. Provide a channel for businesses to report their operational status and need of assistance back to government and NGOs so that these organizations can prioritize their relief efforts.

The BCIN is composed of three tiers: (a) information for intra-company situation analysis and decision making; (b) information for inter-company situation analysis and communication, which addresses supply chains and dependencies between different companies; and (c) community-wide business information, which collects and disseminates, in real-time, data and information that are relevant to all companies, thus creating a real-time resource center and information exchange that allows businesses to help each other recover faster. Our project is developing a robust, multi-tiered information network which will be extendable, reliable, and secure. The network's data and workflow models will be able to dynamically accommodate new data sources and business processes as they become available, while protecting and segregating private company data from community-sourced data. We are seeking grant funding and/or corporate sponsorship to further develop and sustain BCIN operations.

Copyright @ 2006 - 2008 Florida International University. All rights reserved.

A pilot version of the Business Continuity Information Network has been released with the participation of both Miami-Dade County and Palm Beach County Emergency Management staff and companies participating in their Emergency Support Function 18 efforts such as IBM, Wal-Mart, Office Depot, and FloridaFIRST--a consortium of Florida's financial institutions focused on business continuity.