Reply 1 & 2

Disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan have their own significance in an organization. The purpose of disaster recovery plan is to protect the business even at the time of disaster. This plan will contain the set of instructions that need to be followed to maintain the business operations. The main objective of disaster recovery plan having attested plan ready with the organization which will minimize the effect of the disaster on the organization. Having the plan ready with us will make the situation less stressful. The risk will be minimized. Business continuity plan purpose is identifying the risks and threats organization is going to face and define the strategies to mitigate it. The main objective of this plan is to identify the major risks and critical operations in the business. This plan will ensure that these operations will be continues even at that time of any mishaps. By conducting risk assessments we will know what the risks in the organization are and what mitigation steps need to be taken (Jensen Michele, 2016).

The similarities between both the plans are, they are going to be getting reviewed on a periodic basis. For both the plans it is necessary to consider all the factors. Both the plans are used to maintain the critical business operations at the time of crisis. Now the differences between BCP and DR are, BCP used to plan the business operations and some critical operations in advance and will deliver the product to the customer at right time. DR will have the instructions that need to done to escape from disaster events immediately. Business strategy planning, continuity planning, analyzing the impact these are part of BCP.  Evacuation plans, incident response these are part of DR (Jensen Michele, 2016).

Regarding organization availability, as the organization may maintain some other branches in the same city or nearer to the city. We can shift all the business operations are there until the affected place got recovered. In this way we can continue the operations. It is always welcome to have a temporary site in our hand. It will be useful at this type of situations. Now regarding the accessibility of both the documents, it is necessary to store it in electronically or digitally. In this way employees will access the plans easily and they can educate themselves regarding this. The policies can only be developed based upon the company need and maintain the policy proposed by the government to run the organization. For defining the policy organization need to have templates and information what they want to say regarding the policy. Then a separate team needs to take the responsibility of making policy and make it available to the employees. Review the policies periodically and do the necessary changes if needed. In this competition world confidentiality is more important. Any misuse of information will leads to loss to company. That’s why even the laws of state have made some policies regarding the confidentiality which organizations have to maintain. So make sure to keep all the documents and information securely (Chris Britton, 2017).

In my opinion, business continuity plan will lead to more concern, if in any case, our competitor got it. In that plan, we mentioned about our business critical operations and risks along with the solutions. They will know by affecting which operation the business will go down. Disaster recovery plan will contain the recovery steps we need to take after the disaster occurs. So it will not contain anything about regarding business. So among these two plans, BCP will have more impact on the organization.

If any disaster occurs in the city, the first responders will be law enforcement team. We know the emergencies will never come with notice. They are unexpected. The officials are trained to face any emergency at any time. If any disaster occurs the first thing we see are, police officials, paramedics, and fire engines. They are the first one to give helping hand to the survivors and give them the strength. The officials are trained to know the materials and what instructions need to be followed at the disaster time (Roberto Hylton, 2017).

As a part of testing business continuity plan or disaster management plan organizations will conduct mock drills some time. It will be good if the organizations involve law enforcement officials also. They will provide the good instructions and surviving skills to the employees. It will form nice bonding between police officials and the citizens. By involvement of law enforcement in an organization will have the only good impact. It will be beneficial for the organization only.

I didn’t see any benefit by keeping the disastrous effect on the internal operations of the organization. Because of disaster there some business operations might have an impact on them. Just having disaster management plan will not save the organization without affecting it. If any disaster occurs it leaves its impact in that place. So in my opinion, if any organization got affected by a disaster, it’s better to make an announcement regarding this through any communication. It will be good to mention what business operations they are not going to support at that critical time. So that even the customers will understand their situation will give their support.

References:

1. Jensen, Michele. (2016). Definition of Business Continuity Plan Objectives. Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved from  http://smallbusiness.chron.com/definition-business-continuity-plan-objectives-4528.html

2. Chris Britton. (2017, May 4). 3 Reasons an Accessible Business Continuity Plan Is a Necessity. Rockdovesolutions.com. Retrieved from  https://www.rockdovesolutions.com/blog/3-reasons-an-accessible-business-continuity-plan-is-a-necessity .

3. Roberto Hylton. (2017, Feb 2). Law Enforcement’s Role in Responding to Disasters. Fema.gov. Retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/blog/2013-08-12/law-enforcements-role-responding-disasters .