BUSINESS CONTINUITY Organisations need to develop and exercise effective business continuity plans to ensure they are able to continue to trade and maintain their reputation during and immediately following any major disruption from demonstrations, terrorist attack or natural hazard. Research has shown that an increasing number of both large, small and medium enterprises cease trading following a major disruption when they have no effective business continuity plan in place.


Even if your organisation is not affected directly by the consequences of domestic extremism, the supply chain on which you depend may well be. According to a 2011 survey carried out by the Business Continuity Institute and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply, 85% of organisations experienced at least one supply chain incident that caused disruption over a 12 month period, while nearly a third experienced more than six.


The British Standard on Business Continuity (BS 25999) was developed by business continuity practitioners and published in December 2006 as a system based on good practice for ensuring business continuity management. It is now the single reference point for identifying the range of controls needed for most situations and is used by large, medium and small organisations in the industrial, commercial, public and voluntary sectors.


Having a business continuity plan will not only aid your company in riding out the emergency, it will also send out a strong, positive signal to your customers. Being seen to be a resilient organisation will give your company a competitive advantage.


For information and advice regarding business continuity issues, visit the Business Continuity Institute web site at www.thebci.org


The City of London’s Security and Contingency Planning Group assists businesses in the City with the development and exercising of their business continuity plans.


For more information, email: contingency.planning@cityoflondon.gov.uk


14


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20