Xanthos Systems, LLC, in Partnership with
Bold Planning Solutions, Launches First Round of
Continuity of Operations Planning for Merced County

January 23, 2008 —Merced County began training employees for Continuity of Operations Planning using Bold Planning Solution’s Emplans.com™.  In a classroom setting, over a two-day period, more than 40 Merced county and city employees from a diverse group of departments brought their laptops and launched their first round of COOP training mandated in April of 2006 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Executive Order S-04-06.

Merced County selected Xanthos Systems in late 2007 to provide COOP planning for the county and six surrounding cities.  “The training went very well,” said Bill McSwain, Implementation Manager at Xanthos Systems, LLC.  “We had a mix of county and city personnel with a diverse set of requirements.  The planners were dedicated to the process of learning the importance of how to develop their continuity of operations plans and why COOP planning and effort is essential to effective operations in the event of an emergency.”

Xanthos Systems and Bold Planning Solutions have developed a strategic partnership to provide a state-of-the-art “living” solution for COOP planning, implementation and training to California’s local, state and government agencies.  EMplans.com™ is a web-based solution designed to easily lead planners, who have no training or experience, through the COOP process.  EMplans.com™ covers all aspects of continuity planning such as biological attacks, pandemic, explosive attacks, earthquakes, wind and fires.  It also covers simple things, such as workplace disruptions, relocation to new office space or reorganization of divisional units, workforce reduction issues, high levels of absenteeism due to sickness, loss of key staff due to attrition and the inability to hire sufficient new workers in a timely manner.

Merced County’s COOP planning project will continue to run through mid-2008 with Xanthos Systems providing additional onsite training seminars, ongoing COOP planning guidance, plan grading, plan testing and tabletop exercises.

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California Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)
Selects Emplane™ Solution for State-Wide COOP Planning Project

September 28, 2007— In July, the State of California, Administrative Office of the Courts, selected Bold Planning Solutions and their proprietary web-based COOP planning system, EMplans.com for their state-wide Continuity of Operations Planning Project. The multi-year project is designed to provide onsite COOP training seminars, plan development services, and overall COOP guidance to each of the 58 individual Superior Courts in California.

Using the EMplans.com™ system as a base, Bold Planning Solutions created a customized California Courts planning system designed to match the specific COOP planning needs of court planners.  The customized version was deployed online at www.COOP.Courts.CA.gov and now allows each of the 58 Superior Courts to create their own individual COOP plans online in an easy-to-use, standardized planning environment.  The major benefits of using a web-based COOP planning system are:

• COOP data for each Superior Court is live, online at all times, and accessible by officials as needed during times of COP activation and relocation
• ALL COOP plans developed within the system from the various departments within each Superior Court are similar in structure and plan layout
• COOP data can be viewed and easily updated online at any time to ensure up to the minute accuracy
• Senior level planners can grade plans online, in real time, and provide constructive feedback to COOP planners for ongoing plan development

Malcolm Franklin, the AOC’s Senior Manager of the Emergency Response and Security Unit, was the visionary behind this project and was primarily responsible for the selection of the web-based solution.  “Using a web-based format made so much sense for a State with over 450 court facilities.  The systems easy of use, accessibility from any computer, and simplicity in design make it an ideal solution for both large and small courts.  Now that we have the Superior Court program started, we are offering the same system to the Appellate courts and other agencies within the Judicial Branch. “  To date, the project has been highly effective and efficient.  In just the first three months of project launch, over 400 departmental COOP plans have been created within a dozen county Superior Courts.

The California Courts COOP planning process will continue to run through 2008 with Bold Planning Solutions providing continual onsite training seminars, ongoing COOP planning guidance, as well as enhancing the planning system to include the next modules to address pandemic flu planning and emergency operations planning.