Friday, April 20, 2012

The Benefit Of A Business Continuity Plan

By Chloe Gib


A concern for many companies is having a business continuity plan in case something catastrophic happens that affects the operation of the company. There can be a number of reasons that would cause this type of situation to arise from fires to terrorist attacks. There will always need to be certain functions that keep going to make sure that orders are filled, sensitive information is kept safe, and people can do their jobs. One of the ways to do this is to think about what might happen and how will one respond to serious disruptions that can occur.

Terrorist attacks have become known to cause great damage to the normal workings of everyday commerce. However, a devastating earthquake or severe flooding can also render a region practically helpless in times of trouble. Something might not happen directly to a particular business, but to a company that supplies essential products to keep a production cycle operating well.

One of the first things to consider is how this would affect the company. Usually, an entity can keep functioning for a particular period of time before things start shutting down. One should know exactly how long this time period can last. Looking at various negative scenarios can help determine what the impact will be on each area of the operations of a company.

There should be a mechanism where important information is duplicated and stored at another location. This could be customer information, formulas and plans of operation. This can help a company to hold onto information that might otherwise be lost if one specific location is irreparable damaged and rendered useless.

Having a location set aside to restart operations can be important. This location should be far enough away from the home office to not be affected by whatever is occurring in that region. One might want this remote spot to have the equipment necessary to quickly replace the functions of the primary office.

Effective recovery planning often requires that processes be activated when they do not need to be used. These drills can alert the planners to areas that are not reacting as they had envisioned. Having an actual incident happen before one can ascertain the effectiveness of the arrangements can lead to serious problems.

There are times when things can go wrong and cause great disturbances to how effectively an organization can operate. Developing a business continuity plan can help to minimize these disruptions. One must look at various ways there organization can be affected and develop working alternatives to keep things running as smoothly as possible.




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