Business Recovery Research Paper

A catastrophe can be a sudden and unpredictable event. It’s best to acknowledge that any sort of catastrophe can destroy the daily functions of businesses. So how do we prevent our businesses from collapsing? Every businessman absolutely needs to understand the practicality behind a business recovery plan. In theory, any recovery plan should systematically reallocate proper resources to specific sectors in the quickest possible time whilst minimizing loss. Before we discuss how to prepare a recovery plan, we must understand that every business stands in a different situation. There are many different kinds of businesses that operate in many different styles and environments. For example, we commonly see; location-based, e-commerce and telephone

Any organized company will understand the interdependencies between multitudes of business functions. For example; online service may be a huge business function for your small company. However, you maintain a special online transaction system that has unfortunately shut down due to a natural disaster. Obviously, you will try to find backup providers to help restore the transaction system before service. While online service is a much bigger business function, there are certain preliminary functions that may require your attention ahead of time. It’s always important to understand these interdependent business functions and implement them in your own recovery plans. Another key factor to consider when identifying priority business functions is to consider cost. Some functions may pay heavy prices due to their inability to work. This is especially true in manufacturing firms where contracts state that a lack of productivity will be filled up through monetary funds. When we combine downtime of an operation with interdependencies and key areas, the result looks like a complex and confusing mess. This is where company management and organization comes in. For bigger companies, a special department would exist to specifically deal with such contingencies. A business can’t prepare for the worst if

A company can plan all they want for a contingency; however the plan may become fundamentally impractical due to certain twists of events. There should be multiple recovery plans to cover a variety of potential disasters; depending on the nature and location of your business. It’s highly recommended that all companies test their recovery plans through simulated exercises. This can drastically improve the effectiveness of a recovery plan. Employees can detect issues and report them to senior management for analysis purposes. The main reason behind doing simulations is to see whether or not the plan in action actually achieves the objectives of the blueprints. Failure to do so would indicate a flaw in the plan and may require immediate attention from the company. Continuous executions of simulations should exploit weaknesses in plans over time. If the company operates from online, it would be required to have a crisis communication plan and have it simulated. Maintaining an alternative form of communication is necessary for any online company. Testing is only way to maximize the effectiveness of any recovery