Prepare plans to counter effects of bird flu, firms told
By HAMISAH HAMID
NST, 22 Oct 2005

MARKET research firm Gartner Inc has urged companies to prepare business continuity plans to avoid potentially damaging consequences due to potential outbreak of avian influenza or bird flu.

The plans, according to Gartner, should start from boardroom down through basic operations, as a pandemic could cause considerable economic disruption through its impact on the workforce and on business activity.

“Organizations must include the possibility of an avian flu pandemic in their business continuity planning and crisis management preparations to ensure they can react quickly and effectively”, Gartner research vice president Roberta J. Witty said in a statement.

Gartner said if a pandemic occurs, the spread may be rapid and affect many industries, economies and regions worldwide --- directly and indirectly.

It said the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak suggests that a pandemic would affect international and local travel, supply chains, health systems, personnel and schools.

“It would also have direct economic impact on most industries, particularly travel, tourism and hospitality”, it said.

Gartner said the World Health Organization has projected that if an avian flu pandemic breaks out, the scale of infection might be considerably greater than it was     with    SARS,   which

infected 8,096 people and killed 774 in 2003.

Gartner research director Steve Bittinger said business continuity and IT leaders are ideally placed to plan for avian flu’s threats.

“Organizations rely on IT to keep the business running, and they can leverage on IT to ensure their business operations continue if travel and transportation restrictions, quarantines or problems with vendors or employees because of illness or fears occur”, he said.

Among steps recommended by Gartner for organizations include making the workforce aware of the avian flu threat and the steps taken to prepare for it, as well as regularly review business continuity plans in response to new information on biological threats.

Gartner feels that companies should plan for absenteeism rates of 25 to 30 per cent.

“Assess your business continuity preparedness for this type of workforce outage scenario and try to improve it”.

“A few to no organization has planned for a 30 per cent absenteeism rate and sustained over a period of weeks and months”, it said.

Companies should establish or expand policies and tools that enable employees to work from home, it added.