Ensuring Your Business Will Survive!
Disaster Recovery and Contingency Planning
(continued)

One of the best ways to obtain management support is to perform an impact analysis. This will highlight the underlying costs in the event a company is out of business due to loss of operations or information. An impact analysis should take into consideration loss of cash flow, loss of sales, insurance coverage, employee morale, vendor and customer relations. Once the financial impact on a business is determined, justifying the cost of a contingency plan becomes more apparent.

The next big step in the process is to form a contingency planning committee. High level representatives from each functional area, especially operations and IT, must be included. The contingency plan will provide a tested and documented course of action for contingency members to follow, to reduce the risk of delays and decision making under pressure.

Steps to Prepare a Corporate Contingency Plan

1. Obtain top management consent.
2. Perform impact analysis / risk analysis.
3. Form planning committee - should contain representatives from each functional area, especially operations and information technology.
4. Document assumptions (type of disaster, type of losses, etc.).
5. Identify mission critical systems, personnel, equipment and information.
6. Establish acceptable downtimes.
7. Inventory all critical hardware, software, telecommunications equipment, etc.
8. Plan recovery strategies, including facilities, data files, operations.
9. Organize and document the plan.
10. Instruct Contingency Committee in plan implementation.
11. Test the plan.
12. Update the plan at least annually.

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