Business Continuity

Services | Consultants | Accreditation | Responders
Management | Work Place Recovery | The Benefits

Business Continuity Management (BCM) is a vital element in a healthy organisation. It ensures an organisation can continue to function during emergency situations and reduces the risk of suffering avoidable losses.

The Business Continuity team within JBA provides a specialist consultancy service to both the public and private sector. Key skills areas are:

• Business continuity plan development
• Testing and exercising business continuity plans and arrangements
• Promotion and education of business continuity to staff and the public

Services

Our Business Continuity team offer a number of services to help organisations, businesses and local authorities achieve their Business Continuity goals and duties:

• Project Initiation & Management
• Risk Evaluation & Control
• Business Impact Analysis
• Developing Business Continuity Strategies
• Emergency Response & Operations
• Developing and Implementing Business Continuity Plans
• Awareness & Training Programmes
• Maintaining & Exercising Business Continuity Plans
• Public Relations and Crisis Co-ordination
• Co-ordination with Public Authorities

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Consultants

Our consultants are members of the BCI and work to BS 25999 guidelines. They have over 20 years experience in Business Continuity Management working with local government, blue chip companies including banks, building societies, and the insurance industry.

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BS 25999 Accreditation

For those organisations seeking accreditation with BS 25999, the British Standard for business continuity management, we can help you design and implement a BS 25999-compliant programme that suits the nature, scale and complexity of your organisation.

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Business Continuity Management and Category 1 Responders

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 places a statutory duty on Category 1 responders (e.g. police, fire and rescue, ambulance and local authorities) to put in place plans to ensure that they can continue to exercise critical functions in the event of an emergency so far as is reasonably practicable. For Category 1 responders to help others in the event of an emergency, they first need to be able to keep their own crisis response capabilities going. However, Category 1 responders also need to be able to deliver critical aspects of their day-to-day functions to acceptable levels if the impact of an emergency on the community is to be kept to a minimum. It is important that BCM is embedded into the culture of the organisation.

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Business Continuity Management and Businesses

Few businesses have robust business continuity plans in place and this leaves them unprepared for emergency situations and exposed to avoidable risks. Having a successful BCM programme in place could mean the difference between business survival and business failure during periods of disruption.

Power cuts, IT failures, fire or floods are just a few of the scenarios that would cause disruption to a business. The results can be substantial, including the temporary, or even permanent, closure of a business and consequent loss of income. Loss of equipment is common and not always covered by insurance policies. A good reputation is even harder to recover.

A business continuity plan allows you to identify resources that are at risk and take precautions. It allows you to recognise potential loss of earnings and take appropriate insurance. It enables you to identify areas of the business that would suffer and draw up contingency plans.

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Work Place Recovery

We have established partnerships with DSM Ltd, who offer tailored services and a wide range of solutions including Workplace Recovery, Hosting and Managed Services all backed by ‘in-house’ highly skilled technicians and consultants.

Business Continuity Management - The Benefits

The harsh but simple fact is that there are many things that can disrupt a business. A well thought out, practical plan can mean the difference between coping with a disaster and going bust. For many businesses the result of the business failure may result in the directors losing everything, including their home if this has been put up for security as a business loan.

As with all major undertakings within an organisation, it is essential to gain the backing and sponsorship of senior or executive management. By far the best way to achieve this is to illustrate the positive gains of having an effective Business Continuity Management process in place.

The adoption of an effective BCM process within an organisation will have benefits in a number of areas, examples of which include:

• Compliance. For Category 1 responders (e.g. police, fire and rescue, ambulance and local authorities) they have a statutory duty under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 to have business continuity plans in place by 14th November 2005.
• For local authorities in England it is part of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) and the Comprehensive Area Assessment.
• For businesses it gives protection of shareholder value.
• Improved understanding of the business is gained through risk analysis and implementing risk reduction measures.
• Downtime is reduced when alternative processes and workarounds are identified.
• Compliance issues can be identified and managed for alternative processes.
• Vital records can be maintained and protected.
• Better organisational resilience by designating alternative people to support key processes and by defining and documenting recovery processes.
• Protection of both the physical and knowledge assets of the business.
• Improved security.
• Avoidance of liability actions.
• Competitive edge. Businesses should ensure that they have supply chain continuity and that their suppliers have adequate BCM plans in place to ensure continuance of the business or service provided. Local authorities in particular will give preference to using suppliers who have robust BCM plans in place.

Today, good Business Continuity Management is not about being forced into taking action to address external pressures. It is about recognising the positive value of business continuity good practice embedded throughout your organisation.

For more information please contact our Business Continuity team
jba-bcm@jbaconsulting.co.uk

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