A new management system to help companies deal with a crisis will be launched in the UAE next week.

BSI is introducing its Business Continuity Management (BCM) system, BS 25999-2, in the UAE to help companies prepare for the worst rather than hope for the best.  Official launch events are taking place in Abu Dhabi and Dubai on the March 26 and 27, respectively.

BCM is a process of managing the risks related to a company’s resilience to unexpected incidents; planning how to respond to events and how to recover afterwards. The BSI model has been well received since its launch in London, New York and Tokyo and has been eagerly anticipated by businesses in the Gulf region, said a statement.

All organisations – from major international corporations to SMEs, from government departments to hospitals – face a wide range of risks which change from year to year, season to season, and day to day and in all dimensions.  For some companies, these risks are more obvious if operations are run in volatile markets, but for others, it is the unforeseen circumstances which can bring the business to a standstill, never to start again, it said.

The current upward trend in the price of crude oil is good news for some but also increases the risk profile of a lot of companies across the world.  Companies should start modelling the oil price in their business risk models at $200 per barrel to understand the risk it poses for their survival in 2008 and beyond, it said.  

According to a September 2007 BSI survey of one hundred FTSE 250 companies, 58 per cent of companies said their business would be seriously affected in under a day in the event of disaster or disruption.  In a 2006 UK Cabinet Office survey, almost half of the companies (44 per cent) reported they had no business continuity plan while only 2 per cent had a very robust plan.

“While the official term for dealing with unexpected events in the workplace is ‘business continuity’, in actuality, we are helping companies deal with business survival,” said Frank Post, group communications director for BSI Group.  “Figures have proven that companies which fail to resume normal trading after 30 days will most likely go out of business. 

“The Business Continuity Management system will help companies in the UAE to cope with disasters, such as the recent extreme flooding we experienced in Dubai and the number of earthquakes in Sharjah.  In today’s climate, businesses which want to survive must adopt robust continuity plans for their critical risks.”

Companies interested in learning more about BS 25999-2 can attend the official launch in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.  More information is available at www.bsi-emea.com/bcmlaunch - TradeArabia News Service