ISO 22301 Certification - Attestation of Quality

In these days, there are increasing business risks and at the same time, organizations are expected to compete with faster and reliable services. Any operational disruption that affects services to customers can result in losing business and also damage to reputation. That is why business continuity has become important for B2B buyers who now include business continuity management ("BCM") system as one of their vendor approval system.

The International Standard ISO 22301-2012 provides the requirements of the BCM system. Unless one is expert on BCM, interpreting and implementing the requirements as a practice in the organization can be a challenge. We often see that the implemented system is only an academic representation of the ISO 22301 requirement. When audited by the customer or when there is a real incident, the academic BCM system will fail.

It is thus highly recommended for the implemented system to be audited by a recognized BCM auditor against the requirements of ISO 22301. With the certification issued, one is better assured that the BCM system that has been put in place is up to standard.

Jacob Business Armour, in Singapore helps clients to obtain the ISO 22301 certification.

Some have enquired about Enterprise Risk Management ("ERM") certification against the ISO 31000. ISO 31000 was not intended as a certifiable standard, because the ISO considers that risk management can be different for companies and industries. On the other hand, it is possible to get a "Certificate of Compliance" letter from an audit company if one so wishes.

Role of ERM Consultant and Crisis Management Consultant

Organisations are always exposed to risks of various kinds that can potentially affect business operations. These risks have to be identified and managed as early as possible to avoid incurring damage of unpleasant situations. The proper way for organisations to deal efficiently with business risks is implementing an ERM ("Enterprise Risk Management"). 

Enterprise Risk Management is a proven management system that is managed by internal risk personnel or by engaging professional ERM Consultants. The role of an ERM consultant is to identify potential risks in all facets of the enterprise's operations and provide solutions to manage them with measures befitting the organisation's preferences. ERM consultant should be capable to provide practical risk management solutions to business management that not only mitigate inherent risks but also to growing the business .

Crisis Management Consultant helps the management team to fight an emerging crisis situation should one come. Jacob Business Armour's proprietry "Crisis Management System 4A" provides the platform that tactically gels crisis management responses into a formidable fighting stance. The Crisis Management Consultant has to help the organisation to prepare the management team, strategies and tacics and building planning capabilities that the organisation requires during a time of crisis.

Reduce Risk with BCM Consultant and ERM Consultant

Business continuity management (BCM) is an agenda that recognizes exposure to internal and external threats facing an organization. The aim of BCM is to insulate the organization from such threats and equip them a palpable capability to respond to these threats. BCM consultants help clients to design a business continuity framework and processes for handling major operational disruptions. The BCM consultant evaluates the organization business mission, functions and activities, and gives advice on vulnerabilities and high risk areas that could potentially cause business disruptions or loss of corporate equities. On the basis of these findings, the BCM Consultant designs and builds a customized BCM system befitting the client's business continuity needs including those of its key stakeholders.

When the performance of an organization to be below expectation, top management would seek to carry out a risk management exercise to identify functional areas that are often failing or under-performing. The symptom of under-performing functions is the frequent fire-fighting that employees do to 'patch' up failed operations.  Failing functions are risks when they repeatedly fail. This is one purpose of implementing Enterprise Risk Management - to improve business performance. Such risks are analysed and treated to be made more robust in performance. The result is fewer failures and a tremendous boost to employee morale and bottom-line results.  That is the work ERM Consultant do to help top managements to gear up performance results.  

Advantages of Creating a Business Continuity Plan!

Whenever the operations of a business enterprise are disrupted, it can cost a lot of money. Any loss in the revenue means extra expenses have to be incurred and profits will be reduced. Insurance is incapable of covering all the expenses and threat of competition. Thus, a Business Continuity Plan becomes essential for a business organization. Every business continuity plan must include the following four steps:

 1. A business impact analysis should be conducted to understand about the critical and time sensitive process, functions and resources required to carry out the smooth flow of operations.

2. Identify and implement steps to recover the critical business processes and functions.

3. Organize a team for business continuity processes and look out to solve any kind of business disruption.

4. Conduct a complete training session or work shop for the business continuity planning team and devise new strategies and plans for evaluating the recovery strategies.

Information technology systems help to a great extent in creating and implementing business continuity plans. IT can increase the productivity of a business enterprise and evaluate recovery strategies so that business can be restored with the help of the technology.

Take Advantage of Business Continuity Plan (BCP)

A company may face with an unexpected disaster at anytime which may affect the business operation. For this reason, it is imperative for companies to be prepared in advance to deal with an emergency or crises in the business.

A well planned Business Continuity Plan (BCP) will help companies to cope with such emergency and/or crisis effectively to minimize business disruptions to the business and customers as well.

Today there are many organizations that provide companies with customised BCP plans according to the threats that confront the company. With BC Plans available and well exercised by the crisis management team, companies will be protected against their exposures to internal and external risks and crises. This makes companies robust and able to withstand shocks.

Smart companies engage professional consultants to implement Business Continuity Management (BCM) system meeting their own survival needs including those of their key stakeholders. These companies understand that it is important to be prepared with an effective BCM system in place before troubles come.  Besides being resilient, companies with BCM in place benefit with efficient operations that enhance their bottom-line results.