Corporate Profile
Elliot Consulting Services (ECS) was founded in 2003 to provide organizations
with business continuity planning and emergency preparedness services.
Being prepared for the unexpected is the key to the resiliency of one’s
business. A disaster can be the smallest setback that disrupts normal
operations or an unavoidable catastrophic event. Business resiliency
is not just about the process of recovering from a disaster –
it is also about maintaining continuous daily operations and protecting
your critical business operations, systems, and procedures. A resilient
business is prepared to help prevent or minimize the loss or damage
to life and property, and more quickly return their employees to work,
restore essential services, and re-open the business in order to affect
a full and swift economic recovery.
Studies have shown that a corporation which averages $10 million a
year in total revenue will lose about $40,000 a day for each day that
they are unable to open their doors for business. Additionally we have
learned that companies who do not have some type of emergency plan in
place have a significantly higher failure rate than those who invest
in protecting their business. Each dollar that a company spends on pro-active
business continuity planning is worth approximately $15 that would need
to be spent after a crisis event on disaster recovery and restoration
costs.
Companies that choose to develop an in-house business continuity plan
typically leave out several critical pieces of vital information, and
more than likely never complete the project at all because of the time
and specific knowledge required to build an all-hazards management plan.
Those companies who do hire a full-time Business Continuity Planner
pay a salary of between $75,000 and $150,000 for that individual’s
expertise.
Elliot Consulting functions as a third party advocate and facilitator
to help companies create, develop, and implement all-hazards business
resiliency and crisis management plans, and pandemic response strategies,
which are designed to protect their vital business resources and operational
processes. ECS has the experience to review, audit, and help modify
existing disaster recovery and business continuity programs to ensure
that the essential components of their organization will continue to
function in the event of an unplanned disruptive incident. The team
from Elliot Consulting will also assist with staff training and simulation
exercises, and regular plan validations and updates to test the thoroughness
of a company’s preparedness model. At the conclusion of a consulting
engagement ECS will award the client a Certificate of Business Resilience,
recognized by a number of auditing bureaus and insurance adjustors,
for the development of a Business Continuity Plan in accordance with
industry-standard best practices. The ECS consultants are certified
business continuity planners and business resiliency specialists with
Fortune 500 experience.
Elliot Consulting is part of the Department of Homeland Security’s
national vendor list of organizations providing business continuity
planning services that have met the DHS/FEMA standards. In addition
ECS is one of roughly 1200 national, regional, state and local organizations
which cross-markets DHS’s National Preparedness Month (NPM) efforts,
and this information is used within Elliot Consulting’s educational
seminars.
Business Resiliency… A New Paradigm
Today’s business world is fast-paced and ever changing. Data
streams along the information superhighway at broadband speed, with
transactions executed and communications received split seconds after
they are initiated. Downtime tolerance is shrinking to zero in many
business sectors. As a result, businesses can no longer experience a
disruption to the flow of their operations without negatively impacting
revenue, regulatory compliance, or corporate reputation. The very definition
of business disruptions has therefore widened to include not just the
traditional natural disasters and threats from man-made incidents, but
also any event that disturbs this fast-paced operational flow —
from a merger or acquisition, to a new government regulation, to a significant
competitive challenge, to a scheduled system upgrade.
A successful organization in this new business climate must continue
to perform during these times of crisis exactly as it would under normal
circumstances. This harsh reality has resulted in a further evolution
of the concept of disaster recovery and business continuity –
a new standard called business resiliency.
Whereas the focus for traditional business continuity strategies is
on getting an organization back up and running following a disruption,
this new concept of business resiliency starts with the presumption
that operations should never falter in the first place. Business resiliency
solutions build flexibility and redundancy into all mission critical
business processes, including technological and communications infrastructures,
thereby empowering the workforce with anytime - anyplace solutions to
maintain those key business functions. Business resiliency is a move
away from a reactive strategy, instead to a proactive strategy which
is designed to support any business condition.
The most significant benefit of this new shift in thinking is that
the resiliency concept is based upon a holistic operational model that
allows businesses to function more efficiently and effectively during
regular everyday operations. This means that, unlike the traditional
business continuity program that is seen invariably as a “break
– fix” solution which carries an “insurance-like”
expense without an immediately obvious return on the investment, business
resiliency is an investment which immediately begins to pay off as the
organization improves its normal everyday functions.
By putting in place a resiliency infrastructure that bolsters the operations
of the entire company, an organization can leverage its underlying systems
and technologies to support everyday business needs. And if a business
disruption does occur, the operational procedures and the infrastructure
are in place to respond accordingly. The organization can rapidly adapt
and respond to risks, as well as opportunities, to maintain continuous
business operations and enable growth. This represents a shift from
the old way of thinking of "experience a disaster and recover"
to a new paradigm of "anticipate the future and adjust." This,
of course, results in improved customer satisfaction, protection of
valuable business assets, increased revenues, reduced costs, compliance
with regulatory standards and requirements, and enhanced business operations.
Leadership Team
Steve Elliot – President and CEO
William "Bill" Hastings – Senior Consultant
and COO
Jerry Bock – Chief Consultant
Michael K. Connolly - Strategic Business Partner/Consultant
Jack Hipple – Consultant, Predictive Failure
Analyses
Dr. Robert H. Weisberg - Consultant/Storm Surge
Expert
Steve
Elliot – President and CEO
Steve Elliot founded Elliot Consulting Services in 2003 after a highly
successful career as a global account manager, corporate trainer, and
senior sales executive from the communications and high-tech industries.
Steve’s broad professional experience includes sales, marketing,
business development, operations, project management, business continuity
planning, emergency preparedness, and disaster recovery positions with
AT&T, Control Data, Westinghouse, and ABC/Capitol Cities.
During his tenure at AT&T, Mr. Elliot’s responsibilities
included the management of large global enterprise accounts. He focused
on performing detailed assessments of the technological and communications
needs of his clients, and then proposing solutions to help them operate
more efficiently and effectively. Steve was involved with the development
of emergency response and disaster recovery plans for several of his
former clients including Precision Response Corporation, Home Shopping
Network, Expedia, Ticketmaster, Hotels.com, LendingTree.com, Sports
Authority, and Racal-Milgo, to name a few.
Steve has participated in numerous seminars and conferences relating
to business continuity, emergency preparedness planning, hazardous materials
management, homeland security, pandemic planning, and data recovery
issues. Mr. Elliot has been a featured presenter at hurricane awareness
seminars and hazardous material management seminars around the state
of Florida. Steve is a Certified Business Resiliency Manager (CBRM),
and FEMA-certified in Emergency Management, Incident Command System
(ICS), and the National Incident Management System (NIMS). Steve is
also an officer within the Greater Tampa Bay Chapter of the Association
of Contingency Planners, and a member of the Tampa Bay area’s
Local Emergency Planning Committee’s Facilities Disaster Planning
Team, the Institute of Management Consultants, and the American Meteorological
Society. Steve is also a FEMA-certified Disaster Housing Inspector.
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William
"Bill" Hastings – Senior Consultant and COO
With over thirty years of contingency planning and disaster recovery
experience for the United States Navy and Raytheon Company, William
“Bill” Hastings brings to ECS a wealth of knowledge including
severe weather planning, risk analysis, incident response planning,
operational logistics, vital records identification and protection,
and human resources management.
Recently retired from prominent defense contracting company, Raytheon
(and legacy E-Systems), Bill was the Manager of Administrative Services
for the company’s St. Petersburg and Largo, Florida facilities.
Raytheon is an industry leader in defense and government electronics,
space, information technology, technical services, and business aviation
and special mission aircraft. While at Raytheon, Bill was responsible
for converting Raytheon/E-Systems disaster recovery plan into their
first Business Continuity Plan in 1991. Since its inception, Bill served
on Raytheon’s corporate business continuity planning team.
Prior to his 20-year career at Raytheon, Bill Hastings served in the
U.S. Navy. His naval career included assignments ranging from ships
at sea to the Pentagon in Washington, DC. Tours of duty at the United
States European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, and the United States
Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, highlighted his
distinguished 20-year naval career.
Bill Hastings is FEMA-certified in the Incident Command System (ICS),
and the National Incident Management System (NIMS). He was elected as
the President of the Greater Tampa Bay Chapter of the Association of
Contingency Planners at the beginning of 2006, and his focus for the
organization is shared learning experiences from the members plus continual
education on the many facets of business continuity planning.
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Jerry
B. Bock, CBCP, CBRM – Chief Consultant
Jerry Bock is a long-standing industry veteran with
over thirty-five years experience in providing business
continuity and disaster recovery services to the financial
services and information technology industries. Mr.
Bock brings to Elliot Consulting a deep hands-on knowledge
of the entire gamut of business contingency planning
functions, including risk assessment, business impact
analysis, disaster preparedness, business resiliency
and continuity, data security and recovery, backup
systems management, crisis management and disaster
recovery.
Over the years, Mr. Bock has held a series of critical senior positions at
multi-national corporations, including Morgan Stanley Inc., Electronic Data
Systems, Inc., Equifax Inc., Chase Manhattan Bank N.A., Bank of America Corporation
N.A. and General Dynamics, Inc. Mr. Bock is a
Past-President of the Greater Tampa Bay Chapter of the Association of Contingency
Planners, former Director for the National Association of Contingency Planners
and a former BCP Business Technical Advisor for the Tampa Bay Regional
Planning Council’s BCP Steering Committee. Mr. Bock is
well-known in the Tampa Bay area as a major contributor to disaster
preparedness and business continuity efforts within both Pinellas
and Hillsborough counties.
Jerry Bock holds a Certified Business Continuity
Professional (CBCP) certificate from the Disaster Recovery
Institute International, and a Certified Business Resiliency
Manager (CBRM) certificate from the Business Resilience Certification
Consortium International.
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Michael
K. Connolly - Strategic Business Partner/Consultant
Michael K. Connolly is a highly regarded partner and
consultant to Elliot Consulting Services, and the President / Founder
of Business
and Technology Strategies, LLC (BTS), a Florida-based private
consultation company that offers independent, third-party solution
recommendations, cost expectations, and development services through
its direct experience and large network of reputable partners in the
areas of business continuity and disaster recovery (BC / DR), collocation,
managed services, telecommunications, equipment procurement, and business
development.
Prior to founding BTS, Mr. Connolly’s successful career experience spans
25 years in worldwide business development and sales, BC / DR consulting solutions
and services, large scale product training, and the delivery of managed Information
Technology (IT) services and solutions. Traveling extensively throughout the
world, Mr. Connolly has introduced emerging and existing services and technologies
to major corporations on every continent while holding senior level and subject
expert positions with a number of key technology organizations including SunGard
Availability Services, Qwest Communications, Wang Laboratories, Exodus Communications,
Conner Software Products, and Archive Corporation as well as operating his
own private international development organization in the late 1990s. During
his career tenure, Mr. Connolly developed and negotiated plans, solutions,
partnerships, and multimillion dollar contracts with some of the largest and
most recognized organizations in the world including IBM, Marubeni Hytech Corporation,
Hard Rock Café, Sony Germany, Hewlett-Packard, Outback Steakhouse, EMC,
Scotland Yard, Wyndham Resorts, and Tracfone Wireless; to name just a few.
Mr. Connolly holds a Masters of Business Administration
in Technology and a Bachelor's of Science in Computer Information Systems
from the University of Arizona and maintains high levels of expertise
and knowledge in BC / DR standards and practices as well as being a
regular guest speaker at industry events including Chapters of the
Association of Contingency Planners, Information Systems Audit and
Control Association (ISACA), FBI Security Seminars, multiple trade
show events, and local storage and security user groups.
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Jack
Hipple – Consultant, Predictive Failure Analyses
Jack Hipple, President of Innovation-TRIZ, has joined forces with Elliot
Consulting Services (ECS) to offer predictive failure analyses to the
business continuity planning services of ECS.
Hipple, a nationally recognized expert in innovation and problem solving,
has developed a system which utilizes the TRIZ thinking tools in a "reverse"
or saboteurial fashion. This predictive failure analysis is specifically
directed at identifying critical failure points and vulnerabilities
in systems, processes, emergency plans, and organizational systems.
These tools include cause and effect modeling software that identifies
concerns beyond what is possible to achieve with standard industry hazard
analysis techniques.
TRIZ (a Russian algorithm for Theory of Inventive Problems Solving)
is the only scientifically based inventive problem solving process and
tool kit. Its basis is the study of the global patent literature and
the identification of the most inventive patents. Analyzing these patents
yields consistent patterns of invention and lines of technological evolution
that are constantly used across all areas of science and technology.
These generic inventive principles can then be applied to all other
areas of technology, greatly reducing the time to produce breakthrough
ideas and inventions.
Jack Hipple is a chemical engineer, receiving his degree from Carnegie
Mellon University in 1967. After a 30-year career in the chemical industry,
where he spent significant time in the innovation and creativity area,
he became involved with innovation and creativity methods full time
in 1998. His industrial career included responsibility for the Discovery
Research program in Dow Chemical’s largest division as well as
its corporate chemical engineering research program. During this time,
many new commercial products were launched which were outside the existing
business’ focus.
At Cabot Corporation and Ansell Edmont, he was responsible for major
new technology programs in specialty inorganics, and breakthrough process
technology for protective equipment. Jack has published articles, given
presentations, and led major workshops for the Technology Transfer Society,
the TRIZ Journal, the Altshuller Institute, the European TRIZ Association,
the American Creativity Association, the World Future Society, the American
Institute of Chemical Engineers, the National Center for Manufacturing
Sciences, the American Supplier Institute, the Licensing Executive Society,
and the EPA.
Find out more about Predictive Failure
Analysis.
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Dr.
Robert H. Weisberg - Consultant/Storm Surge Expert
Dr. Weisberg is an experimental physical oceanographer engaged in ocean
circulation and ocean-atmosphere interaction studies in the tropics,
on continental shelves, and in estuaries. He is an author on more than
100 refereed professional journal articles. As director of the USF
Ocean Circulation Group and co-director of the USF
Coastal Ocean Modeling and Prediction System his research presently
emphasizes real-time in-situ measurements, analyses, and models of the
West Florida Shelf circulation and the interactions between the shelf
and the deep-ocean and between the shelf and the estuaries.
He maintains a coordinated observing and modeling system through his
Ocean Circulation Group. Observations consist of surface moorings for
real time surface meteorology, water column ocean currents, and temperature/salinity
(T/S), some inclusive of waves; subsurface moorings for currents; HF-radar
for surface currents; profilers for T/S (in collaboration with the CMS-COT);
analyses of satellite data for SST, SSH, and geostrophic currents; and
occasionally surface drifters. Models consist of WFS regional applications
of ROMS nested in the 1/12th degree North Atlantic HYCOM (to study the
WFS and deep-ocean interactions) and the FVCOM (to study the WFS and
estuary interactions) and sub-regional FVCOM applications to individual
estuaries. Additional FVCOM applications, making use of its high resolution
and flooding/drying capabilities, is for coastal inundation by hurricane
storm surge.
Curriculum vitae for Dr.
Robert Weisberg.
Contact Information:
Dr. Robert H. Weisberg
University of South Florida
College of Marine Science
140 7th Avenue South
St. Petersburg, Florida 33701
(727) 553-1568
E-mail: weisberg@marine.usf.edu
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Elliot Consulting Services, Inc. meets all BBBOnLine Reliability participation
and Better Business Bureau membership standards.
Elliot Consulting Services is also a proud member of:
