Business Continuity

What is the impact on the business if the risk/disaster occurs?

In order to measure the impact of a disaster on a company, the Business Continuity planner needs to know look at the following:

- How much income is lost for typically 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week and 1 month?

- How much will it cost (overtime, supplemental staffing, additional equipment) to ‘catch up’ after an outage of 1 hour, day, week and month?

- What damage can be expected to be done to the organisations image?

- What damage can be expected to be done to the organisation financial status? (stocks, bond rating etc)

- What penalties will be applied by regulating agencies if the organisation is unable to complete a critical process in 1 hour, day, week or month?

The assumption is that full or nearly full operation will be restored within 30 days. Therefore, companies need to look at how they are going to survive in the mean time. This will help them decide what level of Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity is needed for business recovery after a disaster.