PRESS RELEASE

BCI launches 2nd Annual Supply Chain Resilience Survey

CAVERSHAM, UK 30th June 2010 – The Business Continuity Institute has launched its second annual Supply Chain Resilience Survey following widespread acclaim for the survey carried out in 2009. The last survey revealed significant levels of supply chain disruption and a strong desire among business continuity and supply chain professionals to share experiences and good practice.

The second survey will naturally track changes in reported levels and type of disruption experienced but will also draw on feedback and lessons learned over the past 12 months, which have resulted from extensive engagement with supply chain, risk and business continuity management professionals from around the world. For the second successive year, we are pleased to announce Zurich as the prime research sponsor.

The survey can be accessed through the following link: Survey 2010

All respondents to the survey will automatically receive a full copy of the survey findings report when it is published. A copy of last year’s survey report is available from here: Supply Chain Resilience 2009

Lyndon Bird FBCI, International & Technical Director at the BCI, commented:

“Last year’s report served as a wake-up call for many organisations to take supply chain resilience seriously. It also underscored the value Business Continuity Management could bring through identifying and understanding key supply chain dependencies and providing a framework to collaborate with supply chain partners to increase overall business resilience. The study highlighted the need for the business continuity and supply chain professionals to work more closely together and share good practice, which has indeed started over the past year, and we therefore hope this year’s research will contribute further to understanding this critical area.”

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Notes for the Editor

About the Business Continuity Institute
Based in Caversham, United Kingdom, the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) was established in 1994 to promote the art and science of business continuity management and to assist organizations in preparing for and surviving minor and large-scale man-made and natural disasters. The Institute enables members to obtain guidance and support from their fellow practitioners, as well as offers professional training and certification programmes to disseminate and validate the highest standards of competence and ethics. It has over 5,000 members in 90 countries active in an estimated 2,500 organizations in private, public and third sectors. For more information go to: www.thebci.org

The BCI Partnership, established in 2007, offers corporate membership of the BCI with over 70 member organizations including BAE Systems, BP, BSI Group, BT, ContinuitySA, Continuity Shop, DNV, EADS, eBRP, G4S, Garrison Continuity, HP, Link Associates, Lloyds Banking Group, Lockheed Martin, Marsh, Milton Keynes Council, Prudential, PwC, Royal Mail, Savant, Steelhenge, SunGard, Vocalink, and Zurich. To join as a corporate member, go to: www.bcipartnership.com

PRESS RELEASE

New BCI Report: Business Continuity Plans can be good for your insurance

CAVERSHAM, UK, May 18th 2010 – The Business Continuity Institute (BCI) has published its report into the link between good Business Continuity Plans and Business Interruption (BI) insurance. Publication follows a recent roundtable discussion that featured representation from AXA, Zurich, the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters, AIRMIC (Association of Insurance & Risk Managers), Marsh and the BSI (British Standards Institute).

The meeting concluded that Business Continuity Management(BCM) could bring benefits in five key areas:

1. BCM was seen by insurers as a means to improve the quality of the business they are underwriting and confirmed that BCM helps organisations mitigate impact, recover faster and minimise losses.
2. BCM can be used to protect against losses incurred through traditionally non-insurable perils such as supplier insolvency or pandemic influenza.
3. BCM can be used to better understand the requirements for BI cover (and potentially lower the amount of cover needed).
4. BCM can help obtain BI cover where otherwise it would not be available.
5. BCM can help to secure optimal terms for cover.

The BCI initiated this meeting to establish a common understanding between business continuity practitioners and insurers writing cover for BI insurance on the benefits of a good BCM programme. The BCI was keen to establish clarity on five points:

1. What is the BCM link to Business Interruption insurance?
2. What do insurers look for?
3. What difference will a BCM programme make to the insurance terms provided?
4. How should a BCM manager connect and communicate with insurance buyers in their organisation?
5. What does the BCM manager need to do? (or, why is their plan not being recognised?)

Lyndon Bird FBCI, the BCI’s Technical Director, commented:
“The link between insurance and business continuity has been discussed for many years, but for the first time we have been able to establish a clear baseline understanding with sector leaders. Now that BCM is an established global discipline and the BCI’s certification scheme has been embraced by practitioners around the world, there is a new opportunity to recognise the benefits that such quality-assured programmes can bring to insurers when considering the terms and price of business interruption insurance.

“We are looking forward to broadening involvement in the discussion as well as addressing specific action areas such as the education of risk managers and underwriters on the positive impact of BCM and what ‘good BCM’ looks like.”

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Notes for the Editor

A full copy of the report can be downloaded from here.

About the Business Continuity Institute

Based in Caversham, United Kingdom, the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) was established in 1994 to promote the art and science of business continuity management and to assist organizations in preparing for and surviving minor and large-scale man-made and natural disasters. The Institute enables members to obtain guidance and support from their fellow practitioners, as well as offers professional training and certification programmes to disseminate and validate the highest standards of competence and ethics. It has over 5,000 members in 90 countries active in an estimated 2,500 organizations in private, public and third sectors. For more information go to: www.thebci.org

The BCI Partnership, established in 2007, offers corporate membership of the BCI with over 70 member organizations including BAE Systems, BP, BSi Group, BT, ContinuitySA, DNV, Continuity Shop, EADS, Garrison Continuity, HP, Link Associates, Lloyds Banking Group, Lockheed Martin, Marsh, Milton Keynes Council, Prudential, PwC, Royal Mail, Steelhenge, SunGard, Vocalink, and Zurich. To join as a corporate member, go to: www.bcipartnership.com

PRESS RELEASE

Business Continuity Awareness Week 2010 is a Global Success

CAVERSHAM, UK, April 6th 2010 - Business Continuity Awareness Week (BCAW) 2010, the global free educational event in the BCM industry calendar facilitated by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI), took place from 22nd to 26th March. The purpose of the Week was to provide business leaders with an unparalleled opportunity to learn about Business Continuity Management and how it could help their organisation.

BCAW 2010 focused on providing virtual events and digital resources, with Monday’s kick-off taking the form of a global video conference, bringing together Business Continuity Management (BCM) experts from nine countries – Australia, Canada, Denmark, India, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland UK and USA and featuring case studies from Statoil and Lockheed Martin. In addition, there were 23 webcasts delivered throughout the week, including contributions from eBay, Gartner, Norwich University and BT, among others.

Wednesday saw the gathering of key BCM and insurance industry experts in London, to discuss the nature and magnitude of the link between good BCM programmes and terms offered for business interruption (BI) insurance: a key issue for CFOs and risk managers. A full report will be published later in April.

A number of reports were published in the week, including “The Business Case for BCM” which follows a survey of 221 worldwide organisations, offering significant evidence that BCM improves day-to-day resilience and quantifiable gains when faced by disruption. In addition, a collection of nine case studies were submitted by BCI members from the UK, Switzerland, Japan, Pakistan and Saudi-Arabia, articulating their experiences of BCM and its value. Also published was a paper on the future of risk management, “Risk Management is Dead..., Long Live Risk Management”, explaining how the management of risk as set out in corporate governance guidelines can benefit from BCM practices in light of short‐comings exposed in the financial crisis.

Following BCAW 2010, Lyndon Bird, International & Technical Director at the BCI comments – “BCAW 2010 was once again hugely successful with thousands of people visiting the website, taking part in the webinars, and downloading the guides and reports. BCM is a management methodology that delivers tangible value to organisations: it can be applied across the whole enterprise; across different industries and sectors; and, above all, BCM is being adopted on a worldwide basis.”

PRESS RELEASE

Research shows that good Business Continuity Management (BCM) improves day-to-day resilience within organisations

The latest Business Continuity Institute worldwide survey, entitled ‘The Business Case for BCM’, shows that less than 50% of respondents have to deviate from business-as-usual when faced with disruption, as a result of efficient BCM

CAVERSHAM, UK, March 19, 2010: On the eve of Business Continuity Awareness Week 2010, the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) announces its recent worldwide survey results, in a report entitled “The Business Case for BCM”, which demonstrate that Business Continuity Management (BCM) can deliver increased business resilience and drive higher organisational performance.

Out of 221 organisations that have implemented Business Continuity Plans (BCP), 77% were able to recover faster as a result, with a quarter recovering in half the time compared to without the plan. In addition, 55% said their plans have led to substantial cost savings or protected critical revenue streams in the last 12 months.  

The majority of organisations are using BCM to deal with as many as five disruptive events per year, some significantly more.  This contrasts with the long held view that BCM is just about infrequent, catastrophic events.   A number of these disruptions are business or market related such as financial failure of a supplier or even employee kidnapping; these new disruptions join the more ‘traditional’ ones such as IT, flooding and fire. BCM therefore offers the benefit of a single approach to deal with the consequences of a very wide range of disruptions, eliminating much of the need to predict and plan for individual threats.

According to these survey results, the highest levels of disruption were caused by: severe weather, IT and telecom disruption, swine flu, lack of energy supply, and fire.  The high levels of IT, telecom and computer virus disruptions underline the vulnerability inherent in our digital economy.

Lyndon Bird FBCI, Technical Director at the BCI, says – “This survey confirms BCM as a broadly applicable business method that delivers on its promise: it can deliver tangible top and bottom line benefits to businesses.  It is also very encouraging that senior management are recognising BCM’s contribution to underlying organisational resilience and overall business performance”.  

Martin Caddick MBCI, Risk and Business Continuity Service Leader at PwC, says – "Against a backdrop of growing exposure to risk in the global economy, this encouraging survey shows how Business Continuity management is maturing and becoming increasingly embedded in business. We are now starting to see a range of quantified benefits emerging from the continuing investment made in BCM, alongside a greater understanding of the widening spectrum of risks that BCM can help mitigate. The progress shown by the survey's findings will help to build the case for work yet to be done across UK businesses."

Keith Tilley, Managing Director UK and Executive Vice President Europe for SunGard Availability Services, says - "This survey underlines the importance of business continuity management in ensuring the resilience of all organisations. Although there is obviously pressure on organisations to reduce expenditure in the current economic climate, it is vitally important that they continue to review, test and update their business continuity plans, as well as those of their supply chain. If organisations are unable to cope effectively in the event of an outage, strike or major incident, then relationships with customers could be put at risk, which could ultimately damage a business’ bottom line”.

Business Continuity Awareness Week (BCAW, 22nd to 26th March 2010) provides business leaders with an unparalleled opportunity to learn about Business Continuity Management and how it can help their organisation.  Free webinars from leading organisations such as eBay, Zurich, BT, World Economic Forum and BSI can be accessed through a single gateway found at www.businesscontinuityawarenessweek.org.  The week kicks off with a global video conference, register here:  http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=65758&pw=BCI

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About Business Continuity Management
Business Continuity Management (BCM) identifies potential threats to an organization and the impacts to business operations that those threats, if realized, might cause. It provides a framework for building organizational resilience with the capability for an effective response that safeguards the interests of key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value-creating activities.

About the Business Continuity Institute
Based in Caversham, United Kingdom, the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) was founded in 1994 and leads on the development of best practice in Business Continuity Management. The BCI also contributes to relevant legislation and standards. It has over 5,000 members in 90 countries countries active in an estimated 2,500 organizations in private, public and third sectors. For more go to www.thebci.org   The BCI Partnership, established in 2007, is the corporate body within the BCI with over 70 member organizations. For more go to www.bcipartnership.com

PRESS RELEASE

Business Continuity Awareness Week 2010: Solving the business resilience puzzle

The BCI announces this year’s worldwide, virtual event will run March 22-26 and feature experts from eBay, Gartner, Zurich Insurance, BT and BSI.

CAVERSHAM, UK, March 11, 2010 – The Business Continuity Institute (BCI), a leader in setting and validating standards of professional competence and ethics in business continuity management (BCM), today announced plans for the annual global Business Continuity Awareness Week, which will run March 22 through March 26, 2010.

The week includes many virtual events that are open to all and are free-of-charge. A standard Internet connection is all that is required to listen and take part in live webcasts as well as access online collateral, resources and tools.   The full program can be viewed here: www.businesscontinuityawarenessweek.org

“It’s fashionable to talk about business resilience these days, but how do you achieve it?” asked Lyndon Bird, FBCI, International & Technical Director of the BCI. “BCM is a proven methodology that helps organizations understand what is important to them and their stakeholders, and how to protect that value in the uncertain times that we all live in.

“This extraordinary week of knowledge-sharing has proven to be instrumental in strengthening the awareness of this critical business discipline as well as providing business continuity professionals with additional information all from the convenience of their computer.”

Business continuity management leaders from firms such as eBAY, Gartner, British Standards Institution (BSI), Lockheed Martin and Zurich Insurance will be participating in the week-long event.  Highlights of the week include:

• One step ahead – the BCM advantage:  a global, interactive video conference featuring experts from Australia, Canada, Denmark, India, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland , UK and the USA discussing subjects from the role of government to the benefits of business continuity for small businesses;
• Business Case for BCM:  the latest international research from the BCI on what tangible benefits organizations are getting from BCM in terms of protecting value within their organizations;
• Educational Webcast program – discussion and advice from top business continuity executives from eBAY, Zurich Insurance, the World Economic Forum, British Telecom, ContinuitySA and many more tackling subjects such as systemic global risks, mergers and acquisitions, Soccer World Cup 2010, supply chain resilience, and information security.
• Online forum for newcomers: if you are new to business continuity then the BCM Forum is the place to ask any question you like about the discipline (the forum will continue after the week to build a BCM knowledge base for business continuity professionals);
• Insurance and BCM:  a summit meeting with key insurance industry players looking for a win-win solution for clients and underwriters in recognizing the value of BCM programs.

“Every day across the globe, business continuity-related events are taking place,” said Margaret J. Millett, MBCP, MBCI, Director, eBay Inc.  “As you read the headlines think how these could apply to your community or organization.

“An effective business continuity management program is vital and fundamental to increasing business performance.  It is important for people in organizations to know of the great strides business continuity management has made in recent years, and Business Continuity Awareness Week is a key part of disseminating that knowledge.”

During the week, The BCI will also launch many new resources such as the much-anticipated Good Practice Guidelines 2010 which serve as the cornerstone for its professional certification; research on supply chain resilience, corporate governance and risk management; plus a number of new case studies.

For complete information, and to register for live events, please visit: www.businesscontinuityawarenessweek.org

About the Business Continuity Institute: Based in Caversham, United Kingdom, the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) was established in 1994 to “promote the art and science of business continuity management” to assist organisations in preparing for and surviving minor and large-scale man-made and natural disasters.  The Institute enables members to obtain guidance and support from their fellow practitioners, as well as offers professional training and certification programmes to disseminate and validate the highest standards of competence and ethics.  It has 5,000 members in 90 countries active in an estimated 2,500 organizations in private, public and third sectors.  Please visit: www.thebci.org, or for education: www.thebcicertificate.org

About the BCI Partnership: The BCI Partnership, established in 2007, is the corporate body within the BCI with over 70 member organizations including BAE Systems, BP, BSi Group, BT, Community Resilience, ContinuitySA, DNV, Continuity Shop, EADS, Garrison Continuity, HP, Lloyds Banking Group, Lockheed Martin, Marsh, Milton Keynes Council, Prudential, PwC, Royal Mail, SunGard, Vocalink, and Zurich.  For more information go to www.bcipartnership.com

PRESS RELEASE

75% of firms faced supply chain problems in 2009, says BCI report

Supply chain failure hit nearly three quarters of firms in 2009 with over a third reporting increased levels of disruption compared with the previous year. These startling figures are revealed in a Business Continuity Institute report entitled “Supply Chain Resilience”.

The Business Continuity Institute has therefore organised a workshop to identify and tackle the issues around supply chain resilience as part of a coherent risk and business continuity management strategy.

The workshop will be held in Birmingham on March 10th. The workshop will feature presentations from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, the former Business Continuity Manager at Nokia, and case studies from three sectors: Financial Services, Retail and local government. Participants will benefit from a highly interactive environment focused on sharing ideas and experiences, as well as developing some practical steps to apply within their own organizations when they return back to the office.

Lyndon Bird FBCI, Technical Director at the BCI, commented:
Supply chain failure is a serious issue which reduces productivity, increases costs and reduces service levels. Business continuity management can add value to procurement practices by helping to understand where your organisation features in the priority plans of your suppliers should they be affected by disruption, and for developing mitigating strategies in the event of such disruption.

For a copy of the report and more information on the workshop please contact lucy.burns@thebci.org or go online to: http://www.thebci.org/supplychainworkshop.html

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PRESS RELEASE

Dealing with adverse weather conditions: another reminder to take business continuity seriously

Caversham, UK, January 6th 2010: The UK among many countries is again facing further widespread disruption to economic activity through adverse weather.  While many organizations have business continuity plans the majority do not. 

While the duration of the current disruption may be short, the point is that organizations face many such disruptions throughout the year:  each one cumulatively holding the business back from achieving its objectives.  2009 was a year marked by adverse weather conditions, industrial action, the continuing fall-out from the economic recession and swine flu, and of course, individual organizations would have faced specific additional threats such as IT and telecommunication failure, fires and cyber attacks.
The investment of time and resources in developing a resilient organization through a Business Continuity Management programme will pay itself back many times over.  It will give confidence to customers and investors that the business can keep trading even in difficult times or will at least recover faster than those without such plans.

Lyndon Bird FBCI, International & Technical Director at the BCI commented: “Business Continuity Management (BCM) is a straight-forward way to understand the vulnerabilities and dependencies in your business and their sensitivity to internal and external disruption– BCM is widely proven to help organizations recover faster from disruption.”

Ends.

Notes for the editor:

Lyndon Bird FBCI is available for interviews:  please contact Lee Glendon +44 7800 552240 in the first instance or email lee.glendon@thebci.org

About Business Continuity Management
Business Continuity Management (BCM) identifies potential threats to an organization and the impacts to business operations that those threats, if realized, might cause. It provides a framework for building organizational resilience with the capability for an effective response that safeguards the interests of key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value-creating activities.

About the Business Continuity Institute
Based in Caversham, United Kingdom, the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) was founded in 1994 and leads on the development of best practice in Business Continuity Management. The BCI also contributes to relevant legislation and standards. It has some 4,800 members in over 80 countries active in an estimated 2,500 organizations in private, public and third sectors. The BCI Partnership, established in 2007, is the corporate body within the BCI with over 60 member organizations. For more go to www.thebci.org

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