Disaster Planning

Gathering Information "The process of creating a disaster planning and recovery strategy is, in reality, the result of determining the organization's goals and objectives for business continuation—the ability to deliver its goods and services in the as-intended manner, utilizing its as-intended processes, methods, and procedures—whenever any out-of-course event might impair, impact, impede, interrupt, or halt the as-intended workings and operations," stated Levitt. " A disaster planning and recovery strategy is not a method; it is a medium to sustain '¦ the organization." With this in mind, businesses should make an extra effort to solicit the opinions of all functional areas when putting together a disaster and recovery plan. Facility management areas may be most knowledgeable when it comes to the vulnerabilities of computer systems, office areas, etc., but other areas can often provide helpful information about the areas of the business that most need protection or fall-back plans so that the business can continue to operate in the case of a disaster.

Reconciling Findings with Principle Objectives All businesses should be concerned with meeting certain fundamental goals of disaster prevention, safety, and fiscal well-being when working on contingency plans. Analysts offer largely similar assessments of priorities in this regard, although minor differences in nuance and emphasis are inevitable, depending on the industry, the size of the business, and the viewpoint of the analyst. Most experts agree, however, that the primary objectives of a good disaster response plan should include:

• Preventing disasters from occurring whenever possible (through use of annual reviews, disaster prevention devices such as fire detectors and alarm systems, and physical access control procedures).
• Containment of disasters when they do occur.
• Protecting the lives, safety, and health of employers and customers.
• Protecting property and assets.
• Establishing priorities for utilization of internal resources (such as manpower, talent, and materials)
• Providing an organized response to a disaster/incident.
• Minimize risk exposure and financial loss (disruptions to cash flow as a result of canceled orders, etc.) through alternate procedures and practices.
• Prevent a significant long-term loss of market share.

Disaster response strategies will vary from business to business, but in the final analysis, they should all be structured in ways that will best ensure that essential business functions can be maintained until operations can be returned to normal.

Communication of Plan

Disaster contingency plans should be widely disseminated throughout the company. All employees should be cognizant of the business's basic disaster plan, but this is particularly important for managers, who are often called upon to make important operational decisions in the aftermath of crisis events.

Recovery

This final stage of contingency planning is concerned with returning the business to its pre-disaster competitive position (or at least returning it as close to the position as is possible) and normal business operations in the event that a crisis event does take place. According to Industry Week's Karen G. Strouse, this entails restoring productivity in three primary areas: people, information, and facilities. "People are the priority," stated Strouse. "You need to account for them physically and emotionally, and enlist them in your recovery efforts'¦. Contact each employee personally; don't be satisfied with an answering-machine connection. Restoring technology is critical for two reasons. First, most companies rely on technology to conduct day-today business. Second, technology may represent your only means of giving your employees, customers, and the media important information as soon as they need it." Finally, Strouse observed that while information and employees are portable, "facilities are not. Your central facilities—mailroom, copy center, file room—need to be restored immediately. Office space is often on the critical path to people and information; without it, nothing else can happen." She also warned business owners to ensure that safe practices are followed when searching for and conducting operations in temporary locations.

Levitt, meanwhile, broke the recovery stage down into two elements: "First is the aspect of planning concerned with providing the resources for recovery. This encompasses the resources of a workplace, equipment, facilities, power, communication capabilities, information and data, forms and other supplies, people, food, lodging, transport, and all else that enables to the business processes to continue or to be re-established—within the planned time-line basis—after being impeded, impaired, interrupted, or halted." The other aspect of the recovery phase, wrote Levitt, is "concerned with impact, consequence and affect mitigation, and damage restoration requisite for the return to as-intended functioning."

 PREV  1 | 2