BCM

The UK government has published its revised National Security Strategy entitled “a strong Britain in an age of uncertainty" and within its pages are a number of interesting details that point towards an evolving future for Business Continuity.

The new strategy delivers the coalition governments view on the emerging and current threats to the UK. Closely linked to the recently announced spending review affecting the Armed Forces the national strategy document and other dimensions that are highly relevant to us all and positions the thinking on both risks and importantly responsibilities for them.

Nearly 1 in 5 businesses suffer a major disruption every year. Yours could be next. With no recovery plan, you have less chance of survival.

How quickly – and painlessly – you manage to get back to ‘business as usual’ in the event of a terrorist attack, fire, flood or other natural disaster, or any other major interruption, depends on how effectively you can devise, and put into action, your own business continuity management.

Click on this link to download the associated Expecting the Unexpected booklet

For more details on the activities or related to the issues raised please contact us directly.

Business Continuity Forum, Support, Advice, events and guidance 

Argos and Homebase could have been crippled following the collapse of Bemrosebooth, a key supplier of Print Services to the Home Retail Group (HRG), when they fell into administration.

HRG though had the foresight to have a plan and invoked their contract with specialist Print Support company Business Continuity.  While HRG seek alternate providers of this specialised service Business Continuity will be maintaining the service to Argos and Homebase customers with all their paperwork covering statements, letters and mailings amounting to hundreds of thousands of documents each week continuing to sent uninterrupted. 

In this Business Continuity white paper IBM discusses how an event disrupting your business can be better managed. Utilising their extensive experience they have identified five critical success factors that will help your organisation weather the storm.

Business Continuity Forum

E.ON, the world’s largest investor-owned utility, recently celebrated the achievement of BS25999-2:2007 certification across all its UK business services locations. This follows nearly two years of preparation led by business continuity manager, Jag Gogna. This decision was preceded by a review in 2007 of business continuity and crisis management of over 50 locations and around 16,000 staff.

The challenge from the outset, he explains, was to secure support and buy-in from senior strategic and operational mangers from across all aspects of the company. Cultivating the required relationships and instilling the required confidence among staff is vital to a cooperative culture.

This Publicly Available Specification (PAS) was developed by the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) in collaboration with The British Standards Institution (BSI) in 2008. The original edition made use of preventative strategies within the World Health Organisation guidance on the Terrorist Threat to Food [1] which was revised in May 2008.

This new 2010 edition of PAS 96 has been reviewed by relevant stakeholders and amendments made to ensure its continued relevance and accuracy.

Swine Flu (H1N1) status change to Pandemic (Level 6)… amidst general business apathy.

11 June 2009

This Pandemic Alert, the first for 40 years, confirms that the H1N1 virus is now maintaining sustained human to human infection in at least two geographic areas. With outbreaks as far apart as Australia and Europe, the upgrade to alert level 6 Pandemic is no surprise as the formal announcement is linked to a confirmation of wide geographic spread rather than any specific increase in the severity of infections.

Dr Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organisation speaking yesterday was at pains to stress that confirming Pandemic Status for this novel H1N1 virus “does not mean that the severity of the situation has increased and that people are getting more seriously sick at higher numbers or higher rates than they are right now”

He added, “We also do not know how this virus is going to evolve. It could become more mild over time, or it could become more severe over time, or it could stay pretty much as it is now. These are uncertainties that we have to take into account but we really do not know how that is going to go forward.”

In speaking on the infections to date that are now approaching 30,000 cases with many more suspected of going unreported, Dr Fukada indicated that most were in those below 60, with many infections occurring in those from in their mid 20’s. He stated that at the moment it was unclear whether or not this was due to the travel patterns or if there were other clinical factors involved. Of the 141 deaths seen so far half were in people with underlying health issues and the infection is currently generally assessed as “Mild and Self Limiting”, although it should be said that this could change as the virus develops.

What is clear though is that many people are likely to fall ill over the coming months and that this will have an impact, as they will be unable to work for between 7-10 days.

The Continuity Forum has been compiling data on the planning in place to cope with possible disruption caused by a pandemic over the course of the past month. Over 800 responses have been received from organisations of all types and their content reveals a stark difference in attitude between the public and private sectors.

Against a backdrop of rapidly rising cases (roughly doubling each week) the majority of businesses have still failed to heed government advice to plan for the effects of staff losses and other disruption. Amongst our very largest companies and in the Public Sector planning has generally been untaken, though there are doubts about the depth and likely effectiveness of measures taken and there is little evidence of real commitment to the process across the country.

Taking the top tier of organisations, fewer than half (46%) have implemented Pandemic specific plans with 78% of these being described as incomplete. Organisations with a significant international dimension fare only slightly better with 59% stating they have plans, although 67% are said to be incomplete.

Public Sector Organisations are generally better prepared in terms of planning, but outside of these sectors preparations and planning in organisations rapidly declines. Across the whole of the UK research suggests that fewer than 10% have any kind planning in place to help manage the impact of the Pandemic, which can reasonably be expected to continue to grow over the coming months and particularly in the traditional Flu season later in the year.

Hopefully the WHO announcement will motivate and stimulate many more organisations to start planning now.

Forum Comment

Commenting on the WHO announcement, Russell Price of the Continuity Forum stated “ The World Health Organisation are really just validating what has been evident for the past few weeks with the confirmation of this novel H1N1 virus as Pandemic. The issue isn’t what we are seeing at the moment but rather how it will develop, spread and evolve. Whilst 30,000 may appear to be a large number of cases, over the coming months this will continue to rise especially after the summer when the Northern Hemisphere enters its Flu season”

He added, “Caution and prudence are key in reacting to this threat, we should be careful to be neither complacent and underestimate or ignore the threat, or panic and over estimate it’s potential impact. There is a lot still to learn about the virus and there are issues around how it will develop … will it get more or less severe? We just don’t know at this time, and it must seen as prudent or indeed the responsibility of organisations to carefully consider how they may be affected later in the year. Failing to act now is throwing away the window of opportunity available to act and prepare for what could be said to be an inevitable period of disruption in the Autumn.”

The Continuity Forum is holding a Pandemic Summit on the 26th June that will provide a detailed update on the threat and the planning that can be undertaken by organisations.

In addition, there will be two Pandemic Planning workshops in July to further assist and support organisations develop their planning and response.

For more details on any of these sessions please contact us directly.

Media criticise health organisations, but threat continues to develop 

Continuity Forum urges organisations not to be complacent

5th May 2009

Swine Flu, or A(H1N1) as the World Health Organisation would prefer it called continues to dominate the news media internationally, with nearly 1100 cases in 21 countries now reported with 27 fatalities.

Good reaction, planning and Tamiflu intervention appears to be working and the symptoms are being described as Mild. This appears to be good news and in the last few days accusations are being levelled of the whole Pandemic scenario being hyped out of all proportion.

Radio phone-in's and media commentators articles are suggesting an over reaction by WHO, governments and the media in the face of what they describe as a relatively 'minor' Health scare. Despite information from the World Health Organisation and health agencies urging against complacency, many people are starting to trivialise the threat posed despite the warnings being given.

Above is the predicted spread of an influenza Pandemic as developed by Professor Neil Ferguson and submitted to the House of Lords Science and Technology committee, which has responsibility for Pandemic Influenza.

As can be seen, the peak shows infections rising over time to over 1 million cases a day after about 7-8 weeks from the first UK infection. As with all modelling, it is an educated interpretation based on experience and analysis and Professor Ferguson's model may be incorrect or have errors that misrepresent the spread of infections (if it is, then so are many others that have been published), but look closely at the curve above.

We have had the A(H1N1) virus for just one week here in the UK; the government and HPA have done a sterling job, but one week in and the media are talking about the second phase potential. This is happening just four weeks BEFORE the research shows the rapid escalation of cases in the first phase model … we at the Continuity Forum think this is a little premature at least and potentially quite dangerous.

At the moment the instantaneous news media is giving immediate opinions on matters that need to be thoroughly understood. The epidemiology of A(H1N1) needs to be understood in much greater depth, and it is rash to dismiss this 'initial' stage of the current outbreak as over or under control just yet.

More needs to known about the source in Mexico and particularly the rate of fatalities that has not yet been seen elsewhere in the world. The death of 25 people from 590 cases suggest a Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 4.24% which is much higher than Seasonal Flu and towards the upper levels of the worst case planning scenarios, yet in the US some 286 cases resulted in the death of one infant, a CFR of 0.35%.

Why is there such a huge difference?

Was it the source numbers underestimating the total number of cases in Mexico or was it something else?

Perhaps it is the early intervention with Anti-Virals given at the optimum time, stalling progression of the virus?

What ever the reason now is not the time to be suggesting the worst is over, and indirectly creating a sense of complacency in the minds of the general public and business.

The UK government is delivering advice to all homes urging vigilance and good hygiene protocols, trying to keep folks informed and aware of the potential risk of infection - and the simple steps required to mitigate them. This though is against a real mix of opinion in the general populace; some alert, informed and not unduly alarmed, but others dismissing it as Hype and overreaction!

Mexico will be returning to work tomorrow with shops, businesses, schools and restaurants all reopening. Hopefully the worst is past for them, but over the next few weeks we'll see what happens both in Mexico and the other countries as the Virus continues to develop.

Yes, we did say develop, as this is exactly what a virus does. It'll continue its evolution, changing and mutating, trying to find new ways to propagate itself. We are still at the the very earliest stages of this situation and our knowledge of it, and we should exercise caution in rushing to judgement.

Careful consideration of the potential impact and sensible measures addressing them should be developed to help your organisation, and importantly be rehearsed and communicated. Of course, the naysayers could turn out to be right and the threat may fizzle out, but what incredible folly would it be to do nothing when the window of opportunity exists to really bolster resilience and create the potential for far better continuity.

The Continuity Forum can help and advise your organisation please mail us here Pandemic Support

Any organisation requiring advice or support should contact us immediately, we are also holding a Continuity Forum Special Pandemic Summit on June 26th for more details follow the front page link or contact us directly. More information on pandemic research

We are changing our registration systems and if have yet to complete the new registration process please click on the link above.

For more details on our events, workshops and industry development work, as well as the general activities of the Continuity Forum please contact us directly on +44 208 993 1599 or mail us HERE! Please do contact Sara McKenna or Russell Price .

If you would like to know more about how your organisation can get involved and benefit from working with the Continuity Forum, please email us HERE! or call on + 44 (0) 208 993 1599. 

Current level of influenza pandemic alert raised from phase 4 to 5