Business Continuity And Asset Protection

a business continuity plan starting with a risk analysis, business impact analysis, and alignment of critical

Sixth the executive management team must define the procedures that all employees and essential vendors will use during emergency situations. Seventh, the employee training team must define and execute an awareness campaign that properly informs each employee of their role within the DRP/ECP plan and confirm that employee's understanding of their role. Last, the emergency management team’s members must maintain documentation of the DRP/ECP plan including updating when needed, changing the plan to meet organization changes, and recording of observations post plan execution.

The history of emergency management dates back in 1803 when a great fire struck Portsmouth city in New Hampshire. In response to this firebreak out, the Congress passed into law the Congress Act, 1803 to compensate the Portsmouth merchants. The Portsmouth city fire breakout and the congress response to the disaster set a precedent, which was applied in United States in management of emergencies like the 1835 terrific fire of New york city, fire break out at Chicago in 1871, the Galveston hurricane of 1900, and the 1906 San Francisco horrible earthquake up to mid-20th century (Rubin, 2012).

An emergency manager takes on an extremely wide variety of roles and responsibilities, which are needed to be fulfilled in order to achieve an outcome of a secure and resilient Nation. Resilience, by definition according to the Presidential Policy Directive (PPD-8), refers to “the ability to adapt to changing conditions and withstand and rapidly recover from disruption due to emergencies”. Resilience is built upon preparedness and the actions taken to plan, organize, equip, train, and exercise to perform all elements of emergency management. PPD-8 also states that preparedness requires the entire nations commitment. Resilience is a result of preparedness by the community as a whole. In order for an emergency manager to effectively perform

Emergency management faces many challenges in today’s modern society. In the years prior to 9/11 emergency management was primarily focused on natural disasters. That has since changed; we now face a diverse variety of risks and hazards on a constant basis. As we continue to grow in population current and newer have compounded into more problems that emergency planner must face and find solutions for.

The next measure in establishing an effective EOP is preparedness, preparedness is the continuous cycle of planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and taking corrective action. Training and exercising plans is the cornerstone of preparedness which focuses on readiness to respond to all-hazards incidents and emergencies (FEMA, n.d.). An example of preparedness in relation to a disaster would be evacuation plans implemented after the bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993. This type of training was instrumental in saving the lives of countless people during the terrorists’ attacks on 9/11.

Several important components must be addressed for making the continuity of operation plan. These components including human capital resources, vital

An Office of Emergency Management is in charge of the training and planning to secure a plan for preparedness, to act in response to and convalesce from damages that affects the Department and to ensure that the Office of Emergency Management's mission continues. It is going to be an either local, tribal, state, national or international level agency that holds the responsibility of recovering from all manner of disasters. A major goal of the Office of Emergency Management is in being recognized as the Department that is a center of epitome in management, during an emergency, and continuity planning. An Office of Emergency Management can also be referred to as an Office of Disaster Management. In order for effective emergency management procedures

Emergency Operations in the United States are governed by the National Incident Management System and its sub component Incident Command System. The ICS is an organizational planning tool that helps sort and define incident command responsibilities to aid in the prompt mitigation of disasters and its effects. The primary staff positions govern other subsets of skills and together form a scalable organization that in theory can operate given an incident of any size and still perform the same functions. The primary design of the ICS structure is flawed in that it does not hold medical planning as its primary staff position but regulates it to a lower level. This is the Achilles heel of disaster management, medical operations are vital to the success of any disaster mitigation and management plan. Medical staff planning should be a primary staff position under the ICS structure.

The four phases of comprehensive emergency management includes mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. All four phases are intrusive of each other as there cycles work together to better prepare a community for harmful events whether it be from nature itself or manmade. There are many details and actions that must take place to keep a good active emergency management program. A failure in any one the four cycles could spell disaster for all of a community or part of. Plans have to start with the leadership and understanding that all risk cannot be entirely eliminated; however, it can be planned for.

The significance of each major phase of continuity planning merits attention because each phase contributes to building all four areas of business continuity: disaster recovery, business recovery, business resumption, and contingency planning:

 Elliot, D.; Swartz, E.; Herbane, B. (1999) Just waiting for the next big bang: business continuity planning

Business Continuity Planning Management may have differing guidelines for building a plan, depending on the business sector. However, many are using the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks (NFPA) 1600 as the bases for building a BCP plan. The guideline includes ten essential elements that include: Program Initiation & Management, Risk Evaluation & Control, Business Impact Analysis, Business Continuity Strategies, Emergency Response & Operations, Business Continuity Plan, Awareness & Training, Business Continuity Plan Exercise, Audit & Maintenance, Crisis Communications, and Coordinate with External Agencies. According to Clas (2008), “Going through the emergency preparedness and business continuity planning process is an extensive undertaking for most business. When done correctly, it is a quantifiable, sound investment” (para, 22). Business Continuity Plan falls in middle of these elements and is an integral key to emergency preparedness

ensure that persons identified as being required to perform a function as part of the plan are fully aware of their roles and responsibilities during a business disruption;

The purpose of the BCP is to ensure that in the event of any operation being disrupted or stopped for any reason, that all critical elements of this organization will continue to operate during and after the time of disruption or crisis. It has been designed to minimize any disruption caused due to disabling events or times of crisis such as loss of technology, the building, or a large portion of staff. This BCP shall be followed only when normal business activities cannot be performed because of the crisis or disruption.