Disaster Management and Business Continuity
Computer Sciences and Information Technology
Suppose you were recently hired for a new initiative as a business continuity lead / manager at a medium-sized healthcare company. You have been asked to prepare a presentation to the Board of Directors on your main duties for the company and how your position could help protect the business in case of a large-scale incident or disaster. You have been alerted that since this is a new initiative and could come with a potentially large price tag, there is skepticism from some of the Board members.
Homework help – Write a three to four (3-4) page paper in which you:
Explain the basic primary tasks, ongoing evaluations, and major policy and procedural changes that would be needed to perform as the BC lead / manager.
Provide insight on how to plan the presentation to garner management and Board buy-in for those who are skeptical.
Assignment help – Discuss the first four (4) high-level activities that would be necessary in starting this initiative in the right direction and describe the potential pitfalls of each.
Speculate on the most comprehensive and / or critical challenge(s) in the infancy of this initiative and explain how to overcome that challenge(s).
Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
This course requires use of new Strayer Writing Standards (SWS). The format is different than other Strayer University courses. Please take a moment to review the SWS documentation for details.
Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow SWS or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
Compare and contrast the methods of disaster recovery and business continuity.
Explain risk management in the context of information security.
Use technology and information resources to research issues in disaster recovery.
Homework help – Write clearly and concisely about disaster recovery topics using proper writing mechanics and technical style conventions
Disaster Management and Business Continuity
As much as most companies fail to realize, there is undoubtedly a relationship between disaster management and business continuity. It is quite challenging for a business to persevere through a disaster without the help of a disaster manager. The basic primary tasks include conducting a risk assessment test, disaster recovery and plans for continuation of the business. Understanding the major policies and procedural needs of both the law and the firm is the main requirement for this role since the firm can rely on the BC Manager to ensure compliance with protocols as stated among corporate rules and regulations. In case of a large scale incident, a business continuity manager plays critical roles that encompass both business continuity and disaster recovery to overcome the challenges that may hinder the organization’s success.
Management may most likely be skeptical about disaster management and business continuity because of poor approaches by BC managers to win them over. It may be difficult to convince the board on adapting new techniques to handle crises by relying on an active member of the staff. Focusing on business continuity as an approach is a tactic that will capture the attention of the board since they are all about making profit (Graham, 2015). Some pointers to focus on to make the Board buy-in could include on-premise disaster recovery, and select if the right plan. On-premise recovery will touch on the benefit of immediate response to disaster considering the BC manager will be on-site and ready to act based on the knowledge acquired about the company’s system over time. The issue of selecting the right plan will include the benefits of analyzing possible threats, how to mitigate them, and lessons learned from previous disasters. All the information combined will give a clear and concise strategy for organizing plans.
It is vital first to compare and contrast disaster recovery and business continuity to avoid any confusion. Business continuity is a combination of several processes that ensure business kees on running even in the process of working through a disaster. A business recovery plan, on the other hand, is the process of restoring data and critical applications that were destroyed when the disaster occurred. While business continuity focusses on maintaining clients through the continuous provisions of services, disaster recovery works on the background to ensure that the failed system is being fixed. Both practices, however, are related and aim at the organization’s success.
The first four high-level activities to indulge in would include mitigation, preparedness, communication, and response (Bullock, 2013). Mitigation includes means to reduce the impact of a disaster such that the inconveniences are greatly reduced or eliminated. The disadvantage with such an activity would be negligence and ignorance among people making it difficult to work on the same side of identifying the threats. For the case of preparedness, this would mean the state of readiness to respond to disaster. The biggest challenge for such an activity would be the willingness of members to cooperate willingly. In terms of communication, being on the same page with all members of the company is essential. Everyone needs to understand what aspects are considered as disasters and how to respond. Carrying out awareness events allows the BC management to give formal presentations or training sessions (Watters, 2014). However, as much as communication acts as a medium to relay information on disaster, choosing the most preferred platform may be challenging due to the disruptive nature of social media and the internet. Fourth and finally, response will entail the rescue process as well as preparing for recovery. Challenges within this activity will include failure of some members to understand proper procedure in the case of disaster.
During the infancy of the initiative, the biggest challenges faced would be budget restraints and support from management. Since businesses have another top priority focusses, such as selling their products and services for profit, disaster management may not receive the attention it requires financially. The best way to overcome this challenge would be breaking down the whole process into sections and requesting funding in small bits rather than a lump sum of money to cover the whole process. Resenting the most important sections to management will enable them to understand when there is need to facilitate budgets. Once the processes have funds, business continuity is possible. Another issue is winning over the favor of management since disaster management relies on foreseeability/unforeseeability of future business. Managers may not be moved by scenarios that may not come to life. To gain support, it would be best to present the impacts of disasters against the finances of the company to ensure that management understands what is at risk.
In conclusion, a business continuity manager is important to a company because it can perform forecasting of threats that may affect the organization financially. A BC manager can identify the challenges that may hinder the success of business continuity if they are not given special attention during the disaster management strategy.
References
Graham, J. (2015). A Risk Management Approach to Business Continuity (pp. 1-5). Rathstein Publishing.
Bullock, J. (2013). Introduction to Emergency Management (pp. 71, 101, 139, 175). Butterworth-Heinemann.
Watters, J. (2014). Disaster Recovery, Crisis Response, and Business Continuity: A Management Desk Reference (pp. 57). Apress.
