Business Continuity Plan and Disaster Recovery Plan

This article discusses the importance of business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan for small and medium enterprises. It covers the key elements of business continuity plan such as defined team, plan, testing, communication in crisis, safety, access for business resources, and IT operations continuity. It also highlights the reasons why government agencies help small enterprises during crisis and the resources they provide. The article provides useful insights for SMEs to enhance their business resilience.

Running Head: Business Continuity Plan and Disaster Recovery Plan
Business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan

Business Continuity Plan and Disaster Recovery Plan
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Planning for business continuity is rising in Asia and in other countries since past few years. This
is actually true for the companies which are being operated in regulated industries. In Asia
region, there are larger companies who are investing huge amount for improving their resilience
against the disruptions to operations in business. Irrespective of the awareness that is growing
about business continuity, small companies are not taking any action for enhancing their
business. It is still not understood by SME’s. SME’s usually lacks in terms of money when it
comes to be getting involved in business continuity. But because of the growing large industries,
the government legislation forces on the adoption of the business continuity (central, 2015).
Hence, SME’s should no longer ideally ignore business continuity. And business continuity plan
can surely be made for SME’s as well. If a small enterprise wants to succeed, a good financial
management is very necessary. Good management of finance will always go a long way for
ensuring all available business resources which can be used efficiently. All small enterprises are
financially capable of handling disasters only if they are well planned and organized (Lee, 2012).
Following are the elements which are important for business continuity.
 Team that is defined: A business continuity plan should be developed where members
can be included in every part of the company irrespective of the location. Individuals like
these will respond to the local events and also for the organization response. These
individuals must be involved in the resting and the planning phase for the complete year
so that they are able to take up whenever there is an emergency.
 Plan: For business continuity, one should always think of the worst thing that can happen
and based on that, enterprise should prioritize regulatory implications according to
whatever is important for the organization. An organization might start with the
identification of the recovery strategies or the cost that will be used in each process.
 Testing: The plan should be reviewed at least once a year. Ideally it should be more times
than a year. This will reflect if there are any changes in the environment or the priorities
in business and other factors if any.
 Communication in crisis: If the communication is effective than it can make the situation
even smoother and in case of panic times, it might lower that down. An Organization

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should create the toolkit for better communication which should include address, email,
phone, and intranet and company website.
 Safety: Keeping people safe is the most important element for the company. FEMA,
CERT and other agencies like these helps in providing training and guidance for
employee’s safety.
 Access for business resources: A very important task is that the resources should keep on
working not only in order to earn profit but also because of the protection of data and to
make sure that the customers are getting responses on time. Technologies of remote
access help the resources to work form wherever it is safe for them to work. They can
also work from home without any interruptions.
 IT operations continuity: The last and the final element is the data center continuity.
Large operating companies might have more than one data centers for their redundancy.
If one is not working for any reason then there are others. Organization should be able to
provide access to another data center if one is not working so that resources can have
uninterrupted flow (Citrix, 2018).
Leaders who are local always realize the significance of growing entrepreneurial small business
community. Still, when it comes to giving support, most locals are not sure as to in what way
they can make an impact. Government and agencies do help the small enterprises at the time of
crisis. Reasons for the government agencies for helping them are:
 Companies that are new always create new opportunities in the market
 Local residents are employed by small businesses.
 New businesses create a different sense of place which enhances good quality of life
(Mcconnell, Mcfarland, & Common, 2012).
The resources that agencies provide to help and assist small enterprises by providing them home
loans and property loans, assistance for disaster loans, injury loans, military reservist economic
injury disaster loans and farm loans in case of emergency (Business, 2015).

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References
Business, S. (2015). Retrieved FEBRUARY 22, 2018, from Smallbusiness.com:
http://smallbusiness.com/operating/disaster-relief-resources/
central, C. (2015). Retrieved February 22, 2018, from continuitycentral.com:
http://www.continuitycentral.com/index.php/news/business-continuity-news/338-business-
continuity-management-implementation-for-small-and-medium-sized-enterprises
Citrix. (2018). 7 Key Elements of Business Continuity. Retrieved February 24, 2018, from citrix.co.in:
https://www.citrix.co.in/articles/7-key-elements-of-business-continuity.html
LaChapelle, C. (2014). Retrieved February 22, 2018, from Networkworld.com:
https://www.networkworld.com/article/2174112/tech-primers/disaster-recovery-options-for-
smaller-companies.html
Lee, B. (2012). Financial Guide for Small and Medium Enterprises. Retrieved February 28, 2018, from
cpaaustralia.com.au: https://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/documents/Financial-Guide-for-SME.pdf
Mackay. (2009). Retrieved February 22, 2018, from mackay.qld.gov.au:
http://www.mackay.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/151434/Business_Continuity_Planni
ng_Guide.pdf
Mcconnell, J. K., Mcfarland, C., & Common, B. (2012). Retrieved February 22, 2018, from nist.gov:
https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ineap/RI_SmallBizToolkit-2012-Web.pdf