Business continuity is new mantra for corporates

Of the 900-odd firms that operated out of the World Trade Centre in New York when it was destroyed, 533 of them closed down or failed within 18 months. This was attributed to absence of a business continuity management (BCM) plan.

"Companies woke up to the need for a business continuity management after 9/11," said Robin Pilcher, global marketing director, BSI Management Systems, at a seminar organised by CII in Bangalore on Thursday.

Till then, the concept of disaster management related to IT alone, he added. But, for business continuity every other infrastructure too have to be in place. Now, a certification standard on business continuity has emerged.

BS 25999, the world's first British standard for business continuity management, has been developed to help firms minimise the risk of such disruptions. The certification is done in two stages, and could take six months.

Business Continuity Management is being seen as fundamental not only to growth but to survival of firms themselves. An IT major is said to have held a drill where the top brass operated out of Singapore after closing down an office in Bangalore to simulate a disruption.

"Firms need to have a plan B in place if something goes wrong," said N Srinivasan, member, CII IQ advisory council and special adviser to CII. With Internet connectivity being key to businesses today, firms are having to prepare for the worst.

Hence, many firms today have redundancies of upto three times especially in critical areas, he added. But, this pays back in due course much quicker.

Till today two firms in India have been certified "" Accenture and Citigroup. Accenture has secured the BS 25999 certification for 12 of its locations and it covers 37,000 employees. About 300 firms in the country are said to be looking at securing the certification.

Japan today has the highest number of BCM-certified firms today.