HML renews BS 25999

 
Financial outsourcer HML has had its BS25999 Business Continuity Planning Certificate renewed for the second year in succession.
 
KPMG visited HML’s Skipton and Derry sites to assess the company’s Business Continuity Management System and related planning, preparation and governance.
 
Dave Edlin, HML’s Business Continuity Specialist explained why external accreditation is so important for organisations: “Gaining the BS25999 Certificate gives HML’s stakeholders peace of mind that should the unexpected occur, business will continue as close to normality as possible.
 
He added “No business is immune from disaster and as a third party administrator it is particularly important for HML to have robust business continuity plans.
 
Our clients rely on our consistent high quality of service being available during our contracted hours to give their customers the type of experience they expect to receive.
 
Being unavailable for a day is completely out of the question, which is why we have auxiliary premises near all four of our sites and system backup plans in place.
 
In the financial services industry external ratings agencies consider business continuity planning to be sufficiently important to investors that it forms part of their assessment alongside financial information and service capabilities.
 
Edlin said that insufficient planning could dissuade potential clients from engaging with businesses, so HML regularly runs different disaster scenarios internally designed to stress test the organisation’s ability to recover from setbacks.
 
A business’s ability to respond appropriately to disasters, whether that is site or system based, can be the difference between survival and extinction and relies on everyone knowing their role inside out.
 
Visualising the worst case scenario is a vital part of business continuity planning but it’s not scaremongering; it’s common sense.
 
Recent London Chamber of Commerce research has indicated that 43 per cent of companies that experience disasters never recover so why take a chance?