The "big picture" for planning and managing emergencies is similar, whether you’re working for business or for government, two sectors which are highly interdependent, no more so than during a disaster.
• The goal is survival with minimal
losses and prompt recovery to normal operations.
• The needs are mitigation, preparedness, response,
recovery and continuity.
• The key ingredients are top-level commitment,
teamwork and thoughtful analysis.
• The tools are planning, cooperation and backup.
FOUR PHASES OF A PLAN
Once the CEO says "GO!" a team should be
assembled that includes all the major functions of the organization. There are
four major phases in developing a business continuity plan:
• Risk Analysis
• Identification of Critical Functions
• Vulnerability Analysis
• Plan Preparation
KEY COMPONENTS OF THE PLAN
Key components of the plan include: a risk analysis,
an alternate site study, a security review, and a business impact analysis
(which forms part of the cost justification for the survival plan), building
evacuation plan, and the survival plan (who goes where to do what and when in
order to assure recovery).
It’s important to remember that a business is not alone in this endeavor: there are suppliers and customers to consider; there are employees’ families and the wider community. Coordination with local government emergency planners also is vital, to ensure that a variety of sets of plans are not competing for the same resources during a widespread emergency.
It’s also important to realize that a continuity/survival plan is not an accomplishment to be chalked up as a "plus" on this year’s annual report. It’s a living entity. It requires ongoing training of employees; it demands repeated exercises to try out the procedures and alter them if necessary; it calls for continued vigilance to make sure survival thinking becomes part of everyday operations at all levels.
MAJOR CHALLENGES
As the 21st century looms, the always considerable
challenges of emergency management and business continuity planning only seem to
grow larger.
A major challenge for disaster recovery planning—for business and government—is to reduce the time that critical automated information systems are allowed to be non-functioning following a disaster.
Anything less than continuous operation is becoming unacceptable, given our ever-growing dependence on information processing. Business and government simply cannot function any more if their computers are rendered inoperable. For business, the stakes are high: inability to serve customers, loss of goodwill, missed opportunities, and inability to compete; direct financial loss due to the inability to conduct financial transactions or ship products; and legal liabilities.
Priority should be given toward the mitigation of the effects of natural and man-made disasters.
As urban centers expand, particularly in coastal and other hazard-prone areas, the costs of nature’s calamities are escalating. Better ways must be found to encourage sound planning and building of less vulnerable structures. There also are the uncertainties of predictions that the actual number, patterns and severity of nature’s calamities may be changing due to global climatic changes. Financial questions also raise their head: how do we plan for paying to recover from that worst-case disaster that is difficult to even consider? It is because of these challenges that the resources listed in this guide are so important. Use them well!
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