FACT: every year, thousands of organizations experience disruption to their operations lasting longer than five working days.
FACT: disruption takes many forms, from the unexpected departure of key members of staff to a large-scale terrorist attack.
FACT: evidence has shown that the share price of businesses with audited business continuity management systems (BCMS) in place recovers faster after disruption than those without.
Bombs. Floods. Flu. Power cuts. Fire. The only thing you can predict about business continuity management is … you will need it
Many organizations consider themselves prepared for disruption to business continuity. “Oh yes, we have a BCMS. We’re ready.” But are they? And are you?
Are you ready for whatever lies around the next corner?
- Are you ready if key people leave, are poached by a rival, fall ill or die?
- If freak weather means you must find new premises for three weeks?
- If you suffer a catastrophic power failure during the working day?
You can put your faith in gut feelings or instincts. In your untested plans. Or you can place your trust in the BSI Business Continuity Self-assessment online toolkit, based on the internationally renowned British Standards, BS 25999-2.
The confidence that you’re prepared
BSI BS 25999-2 Business Continuity Self-assessment online toolkit has been designed specifically to make it easy to work across multiple sites and with multiple users, though you can just as easily use it as a standalone application.
BSI BS 25999-2 Business Continuity Self-assessment online toolkit gives you all the tools you need to plan, implement, operate, review, record and report on your business continuity management system (BCMS).
Now, systematically, you can work through your business continuity management system (BCMS), testing its strengths, probing for weak spots. Complete the process and you have the confidence that you are ready to undertake an external audit. And, more importantly, that your organization may be able to deal with incidents… come what may.
Business continuity required by law
For organizations in – or working with – the public sector, there is an additional need for effective business continuity management (BCM) in the shape of the Civil Contingencies Act.
Soon to be updated, the Act requires all local authorities to be centres of knowledge about business continuity.
What to do next
What does BSI BS 25999-2 Business Continuity Self-assessment online toolkit contain?
The BSI BS 25999-2 Business Continuity Self-assessment toolkit is a self-contained online resource that you access with a user name and password.
Once you’re through security you can …
- Access the full set of business continuity management self-assessment questions with answer and comment fields
- Get contextual help for each question written by business continuity (BCM) experts at BSI British Standards
- Start new self-assessments when needed, or amend existing self-assessments at any time
- Create summary reports, detailed reports or custom reports on your self-assessments
- Select from a library of PDF and HTML reference documents including BS 25999-1, the code of practice, and BS 25999-2, the
specification as well as helpful books and guidance
- Allocate self-assessment work to other users in your organization, and manage user access to senstive information
- Compare self-assessments to show progress/change/differences
How do I use the BSI BS 25999-2 Business Continuity Self-assessment online toolkit?
You use the BSI Business Continuity Self-assessment toolkit to work logically through the requirements of BS 25999-2, literally ensuring you’ve ticked all the boxes.
For each central clause of the British Standard, BS 25999-2, you get a set of relevant questions. You answer each question, adding notes, evidence for your answer and dates for further action. This evidence trail is essential when it’s time for your external audit.
Hyperlinks take you straight to the relevant clauses of BS 25999-1 and BS 25999-2, so you can see at a glance what’s required in Part 2 (the Specification) and the guidance given in the Code of Practice (Part 1).
You’ll also find extra help on specific requirements:
- Contextual help and guidance for each question
- Downloads of reference materials (BS 25999-1 & BS 25999-2, and a range of books)
Once you’ve answered the questions, you can use the BSI Business Continuity Self-assessment toolkit to generate automatic reports:
- Summary report – including graphs showing progress towards completion.
- Detailed report – showing the list of questions plus answers and comments.
- Customized reports - design your own reports to show only what you need, e.g. outstanding actions or unanswered questions.
What to do next