Can a Corporation’s Disaster Recovery Plan Protect Revenue?

When Hurricane Matthew made its way along the U.S.’s southeastern coast, the Walt Disney Company, big hotel chains, and Comcast Corporation’s Universal Orlando and SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment lost thousands in revenue. The storm forced Disney to keep its cruise liners docked and reschedule vacations at its resort.

Similarly, several Orlando-area theme parks issued refunds. Large corporations have the ability to turn a crisis into an opportunity. The most resilient and forward-thinking recover faster than their competitors do, getting an edge on customer loyalty and market share. With the latest hurricane season predications already out, corporations with a comprehensive disaster recovery plan have an important role in reinforcing the nation’s readiness and resiliency.

The Benefits of Hurricane Season Preparation to the Bottom Line

Corporations are uniquely affected by disasters because of the financial implications and great number of stakeholders the events affect. Because hurricane-related disruptions can last a few hours to weeks, preparing your corporation today will protect it tomorrow.  

Advantages of preparing a disaster recovery plan include:

• Recover from unexpected costs: Disasters can result in unanticipated costs and significant losses. Being prepared and purchasing the proper insurance reinforces a corporation’s survival.
• Maintain organizational relationships and the brand’s reputation: Interrupted operations and a lack of business continuity may prompt customers and stakeholders to look to the competition to address their needs. Being prepared helps sustain central operations and vital assets.
• Self-sufficiency: Hurricane survivors, including businesses, often wait 72 hours before help arrives. A disaster recovery plan that includes elements such as emergency drying services and document recovery make a corporation more self-sufficient.
• Protect data: One of the most vital assets in a corporation is its physical and electronic data. Data losses, whether they’re from security breaches or water-damaged documents, pose privacy risks and could halt vital operations. A disaster preparedness and recovery plan that includes document recovery for physical files reduces restoration costs and downtime. 
• Policy statement: Create a statement that discusses business continuity, recovery, the organization’s preparedness program, and disaster management. 
• Risk management: Identify the hazards and threats a hurricane poses to each area of the corporation, along with a risk assessment and business impact analysis. Then outline the impacts of the identified hazards and threats.
• Goals and strategies: Outline steps the corporation will take to in regards to disaster-related risk management, prevention, business continuity, recovery, and corrective actions. Then identify the infrastructure, processing, human, and financial resources required to achieve the established goals.
• Identify needs: List the requirements needed to implement the corporation’s disaster recovery strategies, operational procedures and contingency plans. Outline the control measures required to implement the plans, and include copies of the forms that personnel should use before, during and after a hurricane. Then include resource management protocols to ensure adequate administrative and financial resources.
• Communication policies: Outline how the organization will communicate in regards to emergency management, issuing warnings and relaying messages.
• Training: Develop and implement disaster preparedness programs for personnel and key stakeholders.
• Test and evaluate: After creating a disaster preparedness and recovery plan, regularly conduct audits and assessments of the systems and programs designed to evaluate the corporation’s ability to achieve the outlined goals. 
• Ongoing review: Regularly review the disaster recovery program to ensure its sustainability and effectiveness. Make revisions and improvements as needed.

Elements to Add to a Disaster Recovery Plan

Planning to recover after a hurricane is just as important as preparing for the event, even if hurricane season predictions call for a quiet year. As a trusted international leader in emergency drying services, Polygon enhances a corporation’s hurricane season preparation program with Code Blue. The services included in the complimentary program assist with the development of a document recovery plan and response protocol. Code Blue clients receive priority, round-the-clock services and access to our state-of-the-art drying equipment immediately following a hurricane, allowing business continuity efforts to commence immediately. Learn more about reducing the financial impact of a disaster by scheduling a consultation with Polygon today.