The Need for a Business Recovery Plan

Every company – no matter its size – needs a plan to recover should it lose all or any portion of it’s physical facilities and record keeping systems. Call it a ‘Disaster Plan’ or a ‘Business Recovery plan’ or an ‘Operations Recovery Plan,’ no company in today’s business and world political environment should be caught without one. While this may have been a “nice to have” luxury for public companies (or those considering going public in the future), it is now a FEDERAL REQUIREMENT. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act mandates that publicly traded organizations understand the risks that may impact the financial reporting process, requiring that they plan and prepare a response should a disaster strike. Since September 11, 2001, there has been an increased awareness of business recovery planning and of the need to address survival of critical business operations – or the recovery of those operations in a reasonable time period. Of course, potential terrorism is far from the only reason every company should have a business recovery plan. Natural disasters – such as fire, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes and blizzards – and man-made failures – such as the great Northeastern Blackout – all are reasons every business should have a comprehensive business recovery plan in place that is up-to-date and tested regularly. The Business Recovery Team (SM) concept is designed to assist an organization in developing its own recovery plans – not for just IT data and financial reporting materials – but for the quick recovery of physical operations needed to keep the business going in a post-disaster recovery.