subject: Enhancing Business Competitiveness With Bcm Standard [print this page] The BS 25999 standard offers tools for enhancing business competitiveness through assurance of continuity in the face of uncertain disruptions.
Why the BCM standard?
The Business Continuity Management (BCM) standard is important for all organizations. Every organization appreciates the ability to continue operations in the face of unexpected disruptions. Disruptions to business can arise from varying sources. It can come from natural disasters such as earthquakes or floods or from fires and other disasters. Disruptions can also arise from internal factors such as computer crashes. Therefore, all organizations, whether big or small, stand to greatly benefit from the recommendations of the standard. The BCM standard is the first of its kind from Britain and its chiefly aimed at helping business reduce risk due to disruptions. Perhaps no one can understand this need better than companies struck by Japans tsunami, earthquake and nuclear disaster. The need for continued operations in such an environment calls for robust preparedness. The BCM standard is an industry best practice that can facilitate such disaster preparedness for organizations.
Overcoming Unexpected disruptive situations
Every business wants the ability to overcome disruptive situations that can affect operations. However, many businesses still rely heavily on in-built disaster preparedness measures. But this may not be as effective, for they most often simply involve getting over a disaster. The BCM standard on the other hand involves getting over disasters and moving on with operations. The standard ensures your business is running despite unexpected circumstances. To keep your business going, the standard protects business fundamentals such as staff and critical systems. The ability for continued operations and trade is quite crucial. The standard is developed by a broad selection of industry experts from various sectors. The standard sets out the process, principles and terminology for Business continuity management. From the principles, organizations can better understand, develop and implement recommendations of the standard. Staying in business despite disruptions can be reassuring in business to business, as well as business to customer relationships.
Who needs the standard?
The BCM standard is necessary for all organizations or companies, whether micro or major. Big business needs continuity measures just like small business do. After all they all seek profits, and interruptions interfere with the ability to generate profits. Therefore, the standard is suitable for all business or organizations in all sectors. Specifically though, the standard is more crucial for businesses in high risk sectors. Organizations in high risk sectors include finance, telecommunications, transport and the public sector. For these organizations, continued operations in the face of disruption are critical for customers and stakeholders. Public sector services such as emergency and transport cannot afford to grind to a halt in a crisis. On the same vein, crucial operations in the financial sector, for instance banks and insurance firms, cannot stop with crisis. The standard ensures operations are never interfered with, no matter the magnitude. The BCM standard is made up of two parts, namely the BS 25999-1:2006, the Code of Practice and the BS 25999-2:2007, the Specification. The first part is for best practice recommendations and serves as a guidance document. The second part contains the necessary requirements for implementing the Business Continuity Management System with regard to BCM best practice.
