business continuity management (BCM)

Every business in whatever sector can experience a serious incident that can prevent it from continuing normal operations, and this can happen at any time and from a variety of causes. Incidents can range from fire, flood and explosion to product recall and from supply chain interruption to denial of access to a key operational facility.

Whatever the cause the Board of Directors and senior management have a responsibility to recover from the incident in the most time and cost-effective manner. Experience has shown that this is best achieved through careful preparation and planning and the most proven process for this is Business Continuity Management (BCM).

The recent publication of the first part of the long awaited British Standard for Business Continuity Management (BS 25999) provides a benchmark standard that can be used as both a framework and audit standard. It further establishes the process, principles and terminology of BCM, providing a basis for understanding, developing and implementing business continuity within an organisation and to provide confidence in business-to-business and business-to-customer dealings.

elciem has long been involved with business continuity management (BCM) and planning (BCP) through detailed corporate business analysis exercises coupled with detailed risk engineering surveys to identify and quantify exposures to organizations and to produce tailored solutions to reduce and minimize them. We have experience in reviewing product supply chains and analyzing the unique risks that result from the continuing move towards third party outsourced activities.

Our team of consultants has real experience of working with businesses to embed a business continuity philosophy and to prepare a business to be compliant with the British Standard.