Disasters do come unexpected and the devastation it leaves is usually extensive. This affects even the businesses and the paper therefore looks at the devastation that businesses usually face and the recovery process. This comes from the consideration of the interventions that organizations such as the insurance companies, FEMA, DHS, internet companies have to play in recovery among businesses.
Recovery From Disaster
There can be occurrence of incidences in a small business that prevent the business from its normal operations. These incidences can be such as floods, fires or even serious malfunctioning of the computers or incidences of information security. It is the responsibility of business management to help the business recover from these incidences in the least time possible, with the least disruptions and minimal cost. Small business owners should therefore be interested in best practices in disaster planning so that they can reduce risks in case of the occurrence of a disaster (Walzer, 2009). Every business ought to have a disaster plan that is comprehensive, it is quite unfortunate that most businesses view developing disaster plans as being tedious and time consuming. It is very important for any business to have a disaster plan so that incase disaster strikes they have a framework of bouncing back into business with no problems whatsoever.
Starting point
It is very important for every business to take the development as well as maintenance of business disaster recovery very seriously. This is not a task that can be left until each and every person has the time to deal with it. Disasters can affect the business any time and it is not easy to make predictions on occurrence of these disasters. Therefore, a disaster plan should always be there. The contingency plan has to be developed by a team which should be a representation of the organization's functional areas. The plan should be supported and approved by the top managers of the business down to the employees.
Assessing impact
The first task when it comes to development of a disaster plan is preparing a comprehensive list containing incidences that are potentially serious and can affect the business normal operation. The list should encompass all possible incidences regardless of how remote their likelihood of occurrence is. The manager or the project team should ensure that they indicate a probability rating against the listed items. The potential impact of the incident should also be rated for the potential severity level impact of the listed items. With this information it will be easier for the plan to be framed in context of the organization's real needs.
Plan development
The structure of the plan is to be established after a successful assessment has been done. There will be milestones within the plan that need to be overcome so as to move the business from the disrupted state and ensure that it returns to its normal operations. The first milestone is dealing with the immediate impact of the disaster. This involves interventions from trained specialists and emergency services who are trained in dealing with such extreme situations. The next stage is the determination of the critical business functions that have to resume and the particular order of the urgency. It is a neccesitity to have a detailed plan which identifies key individuals who should all be familiar with the duties bestowed upon them within the plan (Beal, 2012).
Testing the plan
After successful developing of the plan it should be rigorously tested. The process of testing should be planned and carried out in an environment that is suitable so that authentic conditions can be reproduced .Those to undertake the activities stated in the plan are the same people who should test it. There should be a documentation of the test procedures and recording of results also done. This is important since the feedback obtained can be used to make the necessary changes in the plan. The actual plan and contingency should both be audited as well as backup arrangements made just as a precaution.
Personnel training
This is dependent on a successful testing and auditing of the plan. Personnel should be informed on the content of the plan as well as their duties and responsibilities pertaining to the plan. It is very important for all employees to take seriously disaster recovery planning even if events that can trigger the plan are unlikely to happen and remote. There should be feedback obtained from the staff to ensure that they clearly understand their duties and responsibilities clearly as they are stipulated in the plan. This is particularly important for the cases those duties that are dependent on the actions that are undertaken by others.
Maintenance of the plan
The plan should always be updated from time to ensure that it can be applied to circumstances in the current business world. Any changed in the business or important parts of the business process should be properly be reflected on the plan. There should be a person assigned the responsibly of ensuring that the plan is properly maintained and regularly updated. The assigned person should ensure that any changes that are made on the plan is communicated to other personnel. There should also be testing of any changes that are made on the plan (Beal, 2012).
A sound plan is not enough to enable the business to recover from a disaster. The business can not recover fully on its own from a disaster. They will need the assistance from other parties so that they can recover from the disaster. These include insurance companies, computer t companies, FEMA and so on (Walzer, 2009).
Insurance companies
Timely access to finances after a disaster enables the business to make a quick recovery after the disaster. The access to finances enables the organization to overcome any financial barriers that might present themselves after the disaster. The business needs a lot to be done after a disaster and it is often faced with multiple financial needs that are often competing. For instance repairs have to be done or replacement of the damaged business property such as inventory, the premises and equipment. There are also some fixed expenses such as utilities, rent, insurance property taxes which have to continue even after a disaster which can cause a disruption in their cash flow. Most small businesses do not have internal finances that are adequate to cover all these needs after the disaster. Insurance companies are very important when it comes to providing these funds for the organization. These finances will ensure that the business is able to meet its needs after the disaster (Walzer, 2009).
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