Business Continuity Management

ContinuitySA specialises in resolving the difficulties your organisation faces regarding business continuity planning by using highly experienced resources and working to the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) industry standards. The BCI is a London-based organisation that offers internationally recognised, professional qualifications in business continuity disciplines.

Today’s business environment demands that your organisation addresses the issue of business continuance in order to ensure survival after any disruptive event. However, this is a complex area that often cuts across all functional divisions and places strain on your organisation’s resources. ContinuitySA is able to assist you by providing the relevant specialist expertise to help you tackle the problem effectively.

The second report from the King Committee on Corporate Governance (King II) places the responsibility for drawing up business continuity plans directly on the Board of each company. The emphasis on risk management and business continuity is an issue for which your top management holds responsibility. This is not only about technology; it is about providing every piece of equipment and infrastructure your company needs to continue operating its critical business processes in the event of a disaster.

The dependency of your organisation on IT necessitates formal business continuity management. It is hardly possible or viable to replace IT systems with manual procedures. Formal business continuity management has the following advantages:

Minimises the effect of a disruption on your organisation
Reduces the risk of financial loss
Retains your company image and gives your clients and suppliers confidence in your organisation’s abilities and services
Enables the recovery of your critical systems within an agreed timeframe
Meets legal and statutory obligations
Measures the level of compliance to international business continuity standards from the BCI

We have developed a methodology for business continuity planning to suit the Southern African market whereby business continuity management is implemented in four stages:

During the initial stage, executive buy-in is obtained while the consultants participating in the project are familiarised with the project scope and milestones.
The second stage is concerned with the identification of those operational functions deemed to be critical to the survival of your organisation. This phase identifies the critical business processes; the timescales in which these processes must be recovered; any potential risk exposures; and the internal and external resources and services required by those processes to restore and then continue operating to an acceptable level. Existing strategies already in place are evaluated and re-evaluated against the priority needs identified. At the end of this phase a strategy is developed for business continuity management to address these risks.
In the third stage, the management, departmental, IT and support recovery plans are developed and implemented to support the strategy identified in phase two. Implementation of risk reduction measures to reduce the level of vulnerability forms part of this phase.
During the fourth phase the strategies and solutions identified are validated and the ability to implement the business continuity plan is measured through formal testing; education; reviews of the current plans; and awareness levels within the organisation.

Our services are focused on the provision of end-to-end, comprehensive business continuity planning; including risk management; business impact analysis; business continuity plans; crisis management plans; and the provision of IT and business recovery facilities including office, call centre and treasury dealing rooms.

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