Jim Grogan is an expert in information technology resilience, business continuity and information availability. He focuses on the critical business process issues that are supported by automation. As vice president, consulting product development for SunGard Availability Services, Jim supports the development of new consulting services leveraging the experience and expertise of the 200+ members of the SunGard Availability Services professional services team. In this role, Jim examines all aspects of system architecture, software development and information security as they relate to business continuity.
Jim joined SunGard in 1989, and has nearly 30 years of technology R&D and operations management experience ranging from healthcare automation, inventory automation and financial services. He has been particularly involved in the integration of business continuity into business process management, as well as managing the impact of information security on data center and business operations.
Jim is a certified information security manager, and a member of ISACA and Infragard. He received his B.S. in biology from St. Joseph’s University, and received his M.S. in computer science from Villanova University. Jim is a frequent speaker at industry events related to business continuity and is widely quoted in the media on topics related to disaster planning, business continuity and information availability strategy.
Commentary:
Organizations today are more dependent on information systems and automation than ever before. Business automation enables enterprises to operate in a “lean” environment, and while these highly efficient models enhance the profit potential of organizations, they also inherently raise the impact of a technology failure. As the regulatory climate becomes more stringent, and as organizations shift their focus from preparing for rare “catastrophic” events to more frequent operational impacts, a holistic view of enterprise resilience is essential. Managing operational risk – whether within a traditional supply chain or for businesses in the “knowledge economy” – requires a careful assessment of business risk, an understanding of the new threats organizations face today, and alignment of business goals with the strategies that protect the critical automation systems.
Areas of Expertise:
business continuity, business process management, continuity of operations, e-commerce, information availability, high availability, information security, real-time enterprise resilience; RTO/RPO, supply chain management