The Alternative Worlds system

Making it easy to write exercises

Exercises help to improve your emergency response and business continuity capability. But they can be difficult and complex to plan systematically, and to research and write.

Exercises are a necessary part of preparedness and help to build 'learning organisations'. 'Alternative Worlds' provides a cost-effective, simple way to write and run them. Cut down on time spent planning, on meetings and emails. Minimise the need for staff expertise, allowing expensive personnel more time to focus on their work. At the same time 'Alternative Worlds' is written against the background of government and other standards, and makes sure that your preparedness programme keeps up with 'best industry practice'

The exercise (or drill) is a means of simulating an incident so that the 'players' can practice and validate their response plans, for natural disasters, such as floods, through industrial catastrophes, or for business continutiy and security scenarios. The management of stresses or failures in complex systems demands a complex response from all levels of management. Various government agencies and emergency services, as well as industrial sites, are required by law to have incident response plans and to test these regularly with exercises. All organisations have a 'duty of care' for their employees, the public and the environment.There is a lot of evidence (particularly academic studies in the USA, eg the RAND Corporation in 2005) to suggest that exercises are not always 'fit for purpose'.

Exercises are typically divided into modules, with illustrations as well as text, and presented in a handbook format.

Alternative Worlds - the answer!

'Alternative Worlds' is a computer programme that writes exercises for you. You subscribe to a web site: we customise this for your organisation, and keep it up to date with scenarios, stakeholders, and so on. We also provide help and assistance as needed to operate the site. All you have to do is log on, generate your exercises, then run them.

'Alternative Worlds' is not a computer game: it works the way our clients do, providing briefs and documents on paper, as with the exercises they currently run. These are very precisely tailored to each organisation and its issues.

• Simple table-top or seminar exercise scripts can be prepared within minutes using pre-set patterns.
• For more complex exercises, including role players and simulation, detailed exercise orders can be prepared, for the different types of participant.
• Setting up or changing the exercise date, as well as the scenario, the degree of severity are easily achieved from your PC screen…
• Intelligent algorithms sort and present data to meet your training needs.
• The site can also manage shared or joint exercises between your organisation and others.
• 'Web 2.0' features (such as automatic emails) simplify contact with others inside and outside the organisation, to arrange and track dates, participation agreements, and so on.

• Data remains available for later analysis and statistics. Management information is always available when you need it, for instance to show regulatory compliance.Subscribers have one central record and overview of all the exercises they have done.

'Alternative Worlds' is distributed by Stirling Reid Ltd. Contact David Upton on 07957 597904 or click here to email.