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Business Continuity Planning, Collaboration, And Training Help Essay

¶ … Business Continuity Planning, Collaboration, and Training Help Private Agencies Prepare for Events Affecting Critical Infrastructure A business continuity plan is a response plan that sets out how an organization or institution will continue operations after a disruption. Business continuity planning, therefore, is the process of identifying both the external and internal threats that may affect these organizations and institutions, and setting out a detailed plan of how they will operate following the unexpected events, as well as how they expect to resume business in the shortest time possible. According to Fulmer (2005), 93% of organizations that experience a disaster without a business continuity plan fail within five years, while 50% of those that lose critical business functions for over ten days after various forms of disasters fail to recover. Thus, it is imperative that both public and private agencies prepare adequately for events that may affect critical infrastructure, which are the assets that are the backbone of the American society and economy.

Business continuity planning assists in critical infrastructure protection in various ways. First, it helps in the identification of contingency plans to ensure that facilities for critical functions such as electricity generation, public health, telecommunication, public health, transport, continue to operate in the event of disasters. Planning...

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Fulmer (2005) further explains that business continuity planning eases decision making during disruptions, minimizes cost, reduces downtime and minimizes immediate damage and disruption.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2013) explains that America's well being relies upon resilient and secure critical infrastructure, which can only be achieved through the joint efforts of partners. This implies that voluntary collaboration between private agencies, public agencies and the community can improve critical infrastructure protection by advancing collective action. The three partners will be able to identify priorities collectively, set clear goals, reduce risk, and track the progress of the infrastructure protection. Moreover, feedback from the community and the private and public agencies will ensure that planning is more effective and that it adapts to changes in the environment. DHS (2013) further explains that collaborations will facilitate efficient sharing of relevant and actionable information between the three partners, which enables risk-informed decision making and builds situational awareness.

The key components that are necessary for joint agency training and joint agency preparation are information sharing, proper funding, risk management and resilience. DHS (2013) explains that data and…

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Fulmer, K.L. (2005). Business Continuity Planning: A Step-by-step Guide with Planning Forms on CD-ROM. (3rd Ed.) Connecticut: Rothstein Associates, Inc.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2013). Partnering for Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience. NIPP 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2015 from http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/NIPP%202013_Partnering%20for%20Critical%20Infrastructure%20Security%20and%20Resilience_508_0.pdf
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