Disasters, by their very nature, are predictably unpredictable. We know that a disaster will occur sooner or later but don't know when, where or how it will strike. A business impacted by a severe disruption needs a disaster recovery plan that includes a contingency structure for the business to continue operations, as well as a management structure for recovering from a disaster as fully as possible.
A business is likely to experience a serious and unexpected disruption to its operations at some time. Disruptions can be a local occurrence, such as a loss of power, crash of a systems-critical computer server or the sudden death of a senior executive. Other disruptions are regional, such as a hurricane, earthquake or large-scale flood causing a loss of electricity and telephone service and disrupting staff travel and deliveries of supplies and products.
Continuity of Operations
Businesses should prepare continuity of operations (CoOP) plans to deal with unexpected contingencies. A CoOP prepares a business for disaster situations by describing alternatives to regular management procedures, chain of command decisions, communications processes, information management and other key business operations. A CoOP generally includes contingency structures for day-to-day operations during a disaster, as well as a structure for a disaster recovery team.
Contingency Operations Structure
A CoOP prepares a business to continue operations as best it can during a disaster. The plan defines alternate paths for management decisions in the event senior managers are not available. It describes teleworking protocols for situations when an ordinary place of business becomes inaccessible. A CoOP also creates backup procedures for key company records and computer files that can be retrieved from an offsite location when the main business site is inaccessible.
Contingency Recovery Structure
A CoOP also brings into being a special task force charged with assessing damage from a disaster and plotting a path to recovery for the business. Depending on the nature of the business, the contingency structure for disaster recovery could include an incident commander and sub-leads to focus on key business areas, such as emergency services, IT management, financial and administrative operations, logistics and supplies, and security of existing staff and physical resources.
Government emergency planning and response agencies provide disaster preparedness advice and resources to businesses for creating a CoOP and taking steps to insure the CoOP can be implemented in a wide variety of disaster situations. The Department of Homeland Security and the Small Business Administration offer considerable resources in these areas, as do many state governments and private disaster planning firms.
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