What is the Business Continuity Management System (BCMS)?
The Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) is an organizational management system that allows companies to maintain the continuity of activities and "vital" operating processes of their business following the occurrence of catastrophic events, without the strategic customer "noticing" it .
What are the phases of which it is composed?
- Business Impact Analysis (B.I.A.)
-
Breakdown of company processes into sub-processes (assets: machinery, components, equipment) and indication of Direct and Indirect Damage in the event that asset is missing.
I can thus identify which are the bottleneck sub-processes , i.e. those assets which, if they stop, cause the partial or total shutdown of the Company.
-
- Risk Assessment
-
Identification of scenarios and catastrophic events that could occur (for example: Earthquake, Flood, Fire in a specific department, Black-out, Plant Seizure, Pandemic, etc. ).
For each identified scenario, the Company knows in advance the potential Direct Damage and the potential Indirect Damage that it will have to incur if that particular scenario occurs.For each identified scenario , incident response, business continuity and disaster recovery procedures are created that the identified corporate subjects will have to implement.
-
- Incident Response
-
Set of procedures for the first 72 hours to try to reduce the impact of the claim and to lay the foundations for the next two phases.
-
- Disaster Recovery
-
Set of procedures relating to the recovery of assets , therefore the restoration of what has been damaged due to the accident. The recovery procedures mainly depend on the scenario that occurred, for example the procedures for post-fire recovery are completely different from those after the flood or after the earthquake.
-
- Business Continuity
-
Set of procedures to continue producing only what is strictly necessary in order not to lose customers considered strategic .
-
- Crisis Communication Plan
-
In this phase it is necessary to manage external communication to demonstrate that you have everything under control.
-
-
What are the advantages of companies that implement a BCMS system?
Company survival
The definition of a BCMS program makes it possible to deal with disastrous events by minimizing the impact on the company business and guaranteeing the recovery of activities.
Understanding of inefficiencies and critical issues
The assessment of the business impacts deriving from a possible process interruption makes it possible to identify the "vital" processes and the inefficiencies and critical issues to be remedied.
Protection of tangible and intangible assets
The value of tangible assets (plants, machinery, goods) and intangible assets (reputation, relationships with customers, lenders, etc.) is protected from catastrophic events.
Competitive advantage
The development of a BCMS program to protect the corporate business instills a sense of security and trust in stakeholders and is perceived as a valuable investment.
Regulatory and customer compliance
The company is able to meet the increasingly growing and stringent regulatory needs or customer requests that require the application of ISO 22301 relating to the BCMS.
Negotiation tool with banks and insurance companies
The development of concrete actions to mitigate the risks of business interruption translates into negotiation tools with banks and insurance companies.
Increased company resilience
A BCMS program increases your ability to avoid business disruption risks or, if they occur, to be able to recover with the least possible impact.
Increased readiness in the event of a catastrophic scenario
Each corporate figure designated in the BCMS plan knows exactly what to do and what are the procedures to activate in order to manage the Crisis in the best way.
How is the activity of Risk Management linked with that of Business Continuity?
A Company that has a Risk Management system actually implemented and integrated into its processes has a greater awareness of the most critical Risks of its business and, consequently, already knows what are the scenarios to foresee within the Business Continuity plan with a reduction in the timing associated with the implementation of the plan .