BS 25999

What is BS25999?
Continued operations in the event of a disruption, whether due to a major disaster or a minor incident, are a fundamental requirement for any organization. BS 25999, the world's first British standard for business continuity management (BCM), has been developed to help you minimize the risk of such disruptions.
By helping to put the fundamentals of a BCM system in place, the standard is designed to keep your business going during the most challenging and unexpected circumstances – protecting your staff, preserving your reputation and providing the ability to continue to operate and trade.
BS 25999 has been developed by a broad based group of world class experts representing a cross-section of industry sectors and the government to establish the process, principles and terminology of Business Continuity Management.
It provides a basis for understanding, developing and implementing business continuity within your organization and gives you confidence in business-to-business and business-to customer dealings. It also contains a comprehensive set of requirements based on BCM best practice and covers the whole BCM lifecycle.


Plan-Do-Check-Act Model
The Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle is a cycle common to most British or International standards and is the basis of all sound management initiatives.

The concept is simple to operate and run.

PLAN – All aspects of a business should operate to a plan, and I mean a real plan, not the one commonly given to the bank manager that states what he wants to see, but with little bearing on reality. I mean an operational plan. A plan of action. Within the "overall" plan should be departmental or divisional plan – i.e. one for sales, one for purchasing, one for all areas of your product or service. Also there should be a plan for resources – both human and material.

You are planning for establish do I have enough, too much, is it suitable, is there better out there? You may be planning for growth, expansion, acquisition, disposal, survival or to stay the same. It doesn't matter unless it matters to you. After all – it is your plan.

DO – Once the plan is in place. Do it. Execute the plan. Follow it. Better it. This part of the cycle more than any must be within a defined timescale, which should have been set within the planning phase. At the end of the timescale it is time to review.

CHECK – Checking the results of the DO in relation to the PLAN. How did we do – did we exceed the expectations of the plan, or did we not? During the cycle did anything change, such as a change or economics, robbery, developments by competitors etc? Have any other factors changed, such as the loss of a member of key personnel, illness or worse? But the vital thing is to check the results against the plan and mitigate (up and down) in light of changes.

ACT – Finally, within this cycle decisions have to be made to ACT on the results. A natural conclusion is that this will lead to fresh inputs to the new PLAN.

The chosen cycle is up to you. Often they will be annual, 6 monthly or quarterly. Sometimes they are project or campaign dependant.


What are the benefits of having BS25999
The benefits of BS 25999 are widespread:

• Framework
  Provides a common consistent framework, based on international best practice, to manage business continuity.
• Resilience
  Proactively improves your resilience when faced with the disruption of your ability to achieve key objectives
• Reputation
  Helps protect and enhance your reputation and brand.
• Competitive advantage
  Opens new markets and helps you win new business.
• Win more contracts more cost effectively
  Provides a marketing edge and using certification can help reduce the cost of expensive tenders.
• Business improvement
  Certification requires a clear understanding of your entire organization which can identify opportunities for improvement.
• Continuous improvement
  The certification process involves regular audits which ensure that your management system is up to date.
• Compliance
  Demonstrates that applicable laws and regulations are being observed.
• Cost Savings
  Creates opportunities to reduce the cost of BCM audits and may reduce insurance premiums.
• Delivery
  Provides a rehearsed method of restoring your ability to supply critical products and services to an agreed level and timeframe following a disruption
• Management
  Delivers a proven capability for managing a disruption.

How do I get BS25999
We understand that very few organisation want BS25999. You are doing it for one of the benefits above – normally because you are losing out on work because you don't have it or that a potential / current customer has told you to get it. So we make the process of getting it as easy and as simple as possible.

Getting BS25999 and keeping it is a three stage process.

The first stage in getting the company compliant and to achieve this we have several options for you all of which we offer GUARANTEED certification – we know we are the first organisation (1st July 2007) that contractually guarantee you will pass your certification. Ask us for details of this guarantee.}

Our options are tailored to allow you to balance the right levels of time and financial investment. That is some options we do more of the work and levy a larger fee, meaning your time is kept to a minimum and other options are more time intensive and cost effective. The choice is yours as follows:


Consultancy
At Eaglet we firmly believe that all management systems should be a case of the "dog wagging its tail" not the "tail wagging the dog". Out first offering is for us to do all the work for you, but write a system that is YOURS. Whilst we start with basic templates (and who doesn't) that cover all the mandatory requirements of the standard and our interpretation of best practice following first-hand practical implementation experience since July 1997. Adding to the basics we then conduct an in-depth consultancy exercise to identify, assess help reduce and business continuity in operating your business. This usually involves us interviewing all the departmental heads to get a firm and clear understanding of what you do, how you do it, and on what bits of paper / software packages you do it on.

From there we write up YOUR system and only add to it where it is essential that we do so. i.e. We add to the system where an omission would lead to a problem in gaining certification.

Once the system is in place, we leave you for a small period of time to allow you to operate it and then conduct some internal audits, conduct a full review and prepare you for assessment.

Time investment is kept to a minimum as we do the vast majority of the work to allow you to keep doing what you do best – operating the business.

Call 08707 511007 or email wayne@eagletuk.co.uk NOW to ask for a quote. Fees will depend on the complexity of your business, the number of sites you operate from and their geographical location(s), but typically will start from £4950.00 + VAT


Coaching
Coaching is a similar process to consultancy in that we start with the basic templates but this time teach and coach you to write your own system. This is our favoured approach because it ensures your understanding in the process. Pure consultancy often leads on to us managing the system for you, which is great for both of us, as long as it is right for you, but with our coaching option you learn the nuances of BS25999 along the way, which allows you to run your system post certification more effectively.

Time investment is increased as you are learning BS25999 as we help you implement the system(s), however your Financial investment is less.

Call 08707 511007 or email wayne@eagletuk.co.uk NOW to ask for a quote. Fees will depend on the complexity of your business, the number of sites you operate from and their geographical location(s), but typically will start from £2950.00 + VAT


Workshops
Our workshop options are basically group coaching sessions. You get all the input of a coaching contract, but this time at a central location and share our expertise with other delegates. This often leads to highly valuable input from other organisation as ideas, experiences and learning are shared.

The workshops are scheduled one a month for 7 months. The first 6 sessions are classroom based with the 7th session an non UKAS assessment on your site.

The financial investment is the lowest here, and results are still the same as we offer 1 to 1 support during and between sessions to ensure that you will still gain your GUARANTEED certification at the end of the process.

Fees for workshops are £1400.00 + VAT including the non-UKAS assessment costs.


For in depth details of our workshops please click here


Assessment
Once you have a system in place, phase two is to get it assessed, and Eaglet can support you in this. Indeed it is at this stage that our Guarantee is applicable. At assessment you have two choices, and that is to go down the UKAS or non-UKAS route.


Why use a UKAS Approved Certification Body?
UKAS are the United Kingdom Accreditation Service, and are the body behind "official" certifications.

Usually the reason for getting something independently evaluated is to confirm it meets specific requirements in order to reduce risks. Obvious examples are product failure, health risks, company reputation or to meet legal or customer requirements. Anything or anyone can be evaluated - products, equipment, people, management systems or organisations.

Accreditation by UKAS means that evaluators i.e. testing and calibration laboratories, certification and inspection bodies have been assessed against internationally recognised standards to demonstrate their competence, impartiality and performance capability.

It is the ability to distinguish between a proven, competent evaluator that ensures that the selection of a laboratory, certification or inspection body is an informed choice and not a gamble. UKAS accreditation means the evaluator can show to its customer that it has been successful at meeting the requirements of international accreditation standards.

This means that the customer reduces the risk of selecting an incompetent evaluator and paying for, or more seriously, acting upon invalid results.

Fees for UKAS assessments vary depending on the organisation you choose. We can guide you in this choice.


Why use BSI for certification?
BSI Group are a group of companies, one of which is BSI Management systems. Other divisions in the group are BSI British Standards, the national Standards Body of the UK, BSI Product Services, who test a huge variety of industrial and consumer products such as construction, fire safety, electrical, electronic & engineering products and medical devices.

BSI Management Systems are one of the leading brands for ISO certification and are recognised as the oldest and biggest in the UK. BSI currently boasts over 6000 certifications.


Why use other certification Bodies?
When a company gets certified, they are certified to an "ISO" (International Organisations for Standards – the acronym is French), "EN" (European Number) or "BS" (British Standard) standard, not to the criteria of the independent certification body.

No certification body writes or "owns" the standards, they all subscribe to the same ones so there is no hierarchy of certification bodies, just personal choice. All UKAS certification bodies (there are over 150 in the UK) can all offer the same level of certification.

Globally there are over 770,000 certifications, which means that BSI only certificate less than 1% of the global market.


Why use a non-UKAS Approved Certification Body?
A non-UKAS registered body are, in essence, self certificated. There is no guarantee of the level of service, the review process, an appeal service or any redress in case of false, erroneous or negligent assessment decisions. Bad non-UKAS bodies are regarded as the "cowboy" element in ISO certification.

For discerning buyers, certification by a non-UKAS certification body is regarded as "not worth the paper it is written on" and has no credibility.

However the advantage of using a non-UKAS certification body is that the fees for certification are usually lower and if your customer is not genuinely aware of what UKAS means, they are none the wiser.

A reputable non UKAS certification body will give a robust assessment of a company and will work to the standards demanded in ISO17021 - (Conformity assessment - Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems). A reputable non UKAS certification body are as good as a UKAS one, cheaper and often less "officious"


Why use ECAS?
ECAS (Eaglet Certification and Assessment Service) are the sister company of Eaglet UK. They are one of the reputable non-UKAS certification bodies in that all our auditors are IRCA (International Register of Certified Auditors) registered and are qualified & certificated lead auditors in the standard of your choice.

We work to the explicit requirements of ISO17021 - (Conformity assessment - Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems).


How do I keep BS18001
Phase three of BS18001 implementation is retaining certification once you have achieved it. You can either do this internally, and we will train you whether we are consulting, coaching or running workshops. Alternatively you may choose to give it back to us for us to conduct on your behalf. Either way what we need to do is:


Systems Management

1. Conduct a full suite of internal audits "at regular intervals"
2. Conduct a management review at least once per annum
3. Manage all errors
4. Manage fixes to all errors
5. Manage preventive fixes to potential errors
6. Update the system in line with organisational changes
7. Set, measure, analyse and update key performance indicators.
8. Prove compliance to all legislation
9. Manage all significant business continuity considerations aiming to reduce the risks
10. Manage and test any potential emergency situations

Call 08707 511007 or email wayne@eagletuk.co.uk NOW to ask how we can help you gain this essential accolade for your business.