The impact of cost management on the effectiveness of the disaster recovery plan of selected group A public auditing firms in Metro Manila, Philippines

Disaster recovery planning has gained the attention of most companies, both foreign and local, due to the increasing number of natural hazards being experienced across the globe. It has enabled companies to continue operations despite the damages being caused by unforeseeable disasters. However, the amount of time needed by companies to resume operations or even to survive depends on the effectiveness of the emergency response being implemented. This, in turn, lead to probable costs to be incurred due to the continual effort to establish and maintain an effective disaster recovery plan. Studies, which are mostly foreign, have focused on the cost management of specific projects and disaster recovery plans of foreign companies, independently. In this study, the researchers will be presenting the impact of cost management on the effectiveness of the disaster recovery plan of local companies, specifically, the Group A classified public auditing firms in Metro Manila, Philippines.Thus, this study is driven to: a) determine the specific procedures being followed by companies in order to systematically organize and implement a suitable disaster recovery plan b) present the various strategies that companies use to address the unpredictability of disasters to the extent of resources being allocated by companies specifically for their respective disaster recovery plan and c) determine the impact of the companies’ planning, budgeting and controlling procedures related to cost on the effectiveness of their existing disaster recovery plans measured by recovery time objective, recovery point objective, level of protection as to assets, prior year financial losses due to calamities and operational downtime.In this study, the stratified random sampling technique was used wherein the population is divided into subpopulations called strata. Such technique was used because it reduces the risk of sampling error, which may occur when the sample is not representative of the population. Furthermore, a random sampling technique gives a reasonable assurance that the sample is unbiased. Originally, the researchers targeted a total of 24 public auditing firms. However, only 12 companies cooperated to answer the survey questionnaires which the researchers then divided into subpopulations in accordance with their location. With this population, the researchers have estimated a total respondent population of 355 employees and a corresponding respondent sample size of 130 employees, computed using Slovin’s sample formula with an error rate of seven (7) percent.Consequently, with the aid of the studies and literature gathered from various sources, the researchers were able to establish a survey questionnaire, which will be the primary data gathering procedure of this research study. This procedure was able to reach the objectives of this study and solve the problems stated.