Different disaster types often bring with them different needs for services. Sel

Question

Different disaster types often bring with them different needs for services. Select a company, either real or fictitious, and write a report that includes: The key services The way those services might be impacted by the different kinds of disasters (select at least 3 different types of disasters). Which services would first be affected, based on the type of disaster (natural, technical, or human)? The minimum services that must be maintained for that company after each of the selected disasters Which service should be restored first What services can be put off until later What recommendations you would offer to apply/add to the disaster recovery plan and to the business continuity documents Different services will be needed for a human attack (internal or external) than those that will come into play in a natural disaster or that will be connected with a technical disaster. Buildings are rarely impacted by a loss of hardware. Organize your report based on disaster types and address all of the assignment’s tasks listed.

Explanation / Answer

Disaster preparedness is one of the key aspect for any company at present scenario as there is no control over its occurrence. The only control one could have is minimize the effect it has on business.

Here we are going to discuss the impact of such disasters over business of a company XYZ (fictions) which is a paint manufacturing company and its mitigation plan to tackle such situations.

First disaster which we are going to discuss is Natural disaster like flood, earthquake, fire etc.

As the location of this company is near Indian Ocean and is surrounded by range of mountains, there is high risk for natural disaster. Therefore company went for an external survey to identify the assets which are going to be majorly affected in case of natural disaster. As per the report, identified critical assets which were going to be affected by any natural disaster were categorized as recoverable and non-recoverable. As this company has a manufacturing setup therefore it wouldn't be possible to move assets from one place to other. For all such assets which are critical but are non-movable, company contacted an insurance agency for insurance of all such equipment’s individually. This would help them in getting monetary support through which they can repurchase or repair the same. Other category of assets which reports indicated critical and would be affected severely by natural disaster was data and software. In order to mitigate this risk, company changed conventional way of storing data on physical server to uploading it on server like cloud etc... From where it could be recovered at any time.

Further emergency plan with local authorities were also developed and displayed all across indicating emergency path which employees have to take in case of any such event.

Suggestion: One aspect on which company ABC needs to focus is on communication. In an unlikely event of any such cases there is often case of miscommunication to employees as well as client. It would be recommended if company ABC forms a team which takes responsibility of communication whenever such events are triggered. This approach would avoid any case of miscommunication and would keep everyone updated

Second disaster which we are going to discuss are the one caused by Human behavior like theft etc.

One of the most often disaster which a company face are created by human behavior. If any company faces any such disaster, extent of damage could be very high (bankruptcy). In order to avoid any such cases company XYZ has taken various initiatives so that it could avoid any such mishap.

Main focus of company XYZ in order to avoid such cases have been in defining responsibility.

For instance, five steps taken by company XYZ in this directions are:

1) Any material which needs to be purchased goes through purchase order where at least three vendors are contacted and negotiation are done. Further, considering the value of purchase order, approving authorities also keeps on changing

2) There is code of conduct defined for all of employees that they cannot accept anything from vendor

3) Whenever there is payment made, it is done via; checks which goes to three people. One who prepares it, one who authorizes it and one who signs it?

4) Financial reports are prepared by an outside party under confidentiality code but not by internal person who maintains the record

5) There are regular financial audits done by independent third party which submits report directly to top management.

Suggestion: One of the other aspect on which company XYZ can focus is observing employee’s behavior who have critical responsibilities. Human behavior could be very effective check in order to determine any such event.

Third disaster is caused by technological breakdown like computer hacking, power outage etc.

It is a type of disaster where no external agency could help you to rescue and it will have a long lasting effect. For company XYZ it is important to secure there IT system from any potential cyber-attack as companies entire supply chain planning is system based and runs via; different software and algorithms which if stolen would result in plenty of secondary disaster as well.

In order to avoid any such instances company XYZ has taken various initiatives out of which four major are:

Suggestion: Apart from above mentioned steps, one of the key aspect is awareness all employees have regarding data privacy of organization. It is important for company XYZ to give regular training to all employees regarding data privacy policy and conducting regular test to understand the effectiveness.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse D
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.