Disaster Preparedness

Disaster preparedness means being prepared for anything. Good planning and preparedness activities an significantly reduce the impact of a disaster and may prevent business failure. While a disaster plan is a key component of preparedness, its is not enough to protect. Take all of the steps necessary to mitigate and to preare for disasters. This includes procuring the necessary emergency equipment and services.

Appendices

Appendices to the plan generally include notification lists and other items that must be routinely updated. Some examples are:

• Notification Lists: Names and numbers of employees and vendors that will need to be contacted, including office and home numbers.
• Recovery team members: List of recovery/salvage team members (including work and home phone numbers) with description of their responsibilities, scope of authority, and reporting lines.
• Detailed building plans: May be incorporated by reference.
• Resource lists: Locations and inventory of emergency supplies, sources of commercial supplies/equipment that may be purchased, names of consultants and other specialists, sources of auxiliary/volunteer personnel, etc.

Disaster Recovery Plan

A typical disaster plan would include the following elements:

• Emergency Sheet: Simple summary of steps to be taken and individuals to be contacted in an emergency.
• Table of Contents: Should be generated based on headings.
• Introduction of the Plan: Its purpose, process, and orgranization.
• Structure of the Planning Organization: Includes the plan maintenance process and the roles and responsibilities of team members.
• Departmental Responsibilities: Addresses the responsibilities of various departments such as human resources, administration, facilities, and information technology.
• Pre-disaster Actions: Outline of procedures to be followed in advance of emergency for which there is advance warning (e.g. hurricane, flooding), including assignment of responsibilities for those actions.
• Specific Response and Recovery Plans: These plans provide, at the functional level, the steps to be taken to maintain services and to recover normal operations. These plans summarize the procedures to be followed in the plan scenarios as well as other emergency incidents.

Disaster Planning Process

First step in the disaster recovery process is to perform a business impact analysis that considers all the potential impacts from each type of disaster. Disaster Recovery Plans should consider how to deal with these possible events:

• Natural Disasters (Earthquake, Fire, Flood, Storms)
• Terrorist Acts (Weapons of Mass Destruction)
• Power Disruptions, Power Failure
• Computer Software or Hardware Failures
• Computer Shutdowns due to Hackers, Viruses etc.
• Processing Shutdowns
• Labor Strike (Walkouts, Shutdowns).

Having determined the potential events, the management must next look at the impacts of each event and the magnitude of the resulting disruptions. This critical activity will determine which scenarios are most likely to occur and what recovery processes are needed.

The key components of a disaster plan include:

• Threat Analysis
• Risk Assessment
• Mitigation Steps (disaster prevention and damage reduction)
• Response and Recovery Plans
• Damage Assessment Process
• Salvage Procedures
• Rehabiliation Plans.

Business Continuity Management

Business Continuity Management means ensuring the continuity or uninterrupted provision of operations and services. Business Continuity Management is an on-going process with several different but complementary elements. Planning for business continuity is a comprehensive process that includes disaster recovery, business recovery, business resumption, and contingency planning.

Enterprise Risk Management Planning

The Risk Management Planning effort should include the following:

1. Awareness - Awareness should be raised about the need for risk management, contingency, and continuity plans for all elements of the organization and for all those entities on which business depends.
2. Risk Assessment Phase - Review information should be gathered in the Awareness Phase. In this phase the management must first look at the currrent risk management efforts and identify additional areas needing risk management. Then prioritize risks in each area of the operation and finally determine how best to diminish those risks.
3. Planning Phase - The recommendations from the Risk Assessment Phase should be considered. For example: update any internal plans that need adjustment. Develop new plans where they are needed.
4. Testing Phase - Durign this phase an approach to testing must be documented and then actual tests of all the contigency plans should be conducted. Results should be documented and used to determine if particular area plans are adequate in the event of a serious problem.

Disaster Planning

Disaster planning is meant to include the planning and preparations, which are necessary to minimize loss and and ensure continuity of the critical business functions of an organization in the event of disaster. Disaster planning has taken on a new sense of urgency in light of recent terrorist attacks and the increased threat of hackers, computer viruses and the increasing occurrence of emergencies and disaster.

Disaster planning is a crucial component of Enterprise risk management and Business continuity planning. It is essential for ensuring continuity of operations. Prior to the creation of a disaster plan, it is essential to review the entire business continuity plan and to consider the potential impacts of disaster. A business impact analysis must be performed and only then it will be easy to understand the underlying risks. This comprehensive planning process is the foundation upon which a sound disaster plan should be built.