Business continuity planning key for private sector in event of disasters

The ICT Leadership Management (ILM) Academy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Telekom Brunei Berhad (TelBru), recently conducted a seminar on business continuity planning to increase awareness of the crucial nature of these services in Brunei.

Business Continuity Planning is working out how to stay in business in the event of disaster. Incidents could include local incidents like building fires, floods or national incidents like pandemic illnesses, explained general manager of ILM Academy Hjh Hasnah Hj Azri during the 'Back to Basics:Getting Started with Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Planning and its Best Practice' seminar.

Conducted in partnership between Business Continuity Management (BCM) Institute from Singapore and ILM Academy, the seminar addressed issues of how to maintain business continuity in the event of disasters. President of BCM Institute, Dr Goh Moh Heng noted that while many businesses are under the impression that it is not necessary to consider with Brunei's environment, the recent floods in the nation should be a wake up call to the need for these practices to be implemented as part of a business operation.

Asked whether there were any challenges he could in implementing BCM into businesses in Brunei, Goh said there were a few things that needed to be addressed. Changing people's perception "is the major challenge, unless people felt that there is the possibility of being affected by a flood (or a natural disaster), then they'll wake up and do something", adding that people often don't see the long-term effects of it.

There are two types of responses that could have been put in place during the recent floods, he said. To prevent any serious damage done during the recent floods, the Natural Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) under the Ministry of Home Affairs will respond to the natural disaster "but what (BCM) is doing, is complementing. Think of (government) as public, think of us as private. We emphasize on getting commercial entities to develop plans, so that for example, if there's a flood, of course the public area (and) the utilities all go down, but commercial entities like the banks or private organizations need to go on. We focus on this area of continuing business".

Hjh Hasnah Hj Azri also mentioned that their collaboration with Business Continuity Institute is a strategic step towards introducing and sharing knowledge in good risk management practices in an organization through Business Continuity Planning, and as a partner to BCM Institute, ILM Academy will be able to train professionals who could ensure that their organizations are fully prepeared for such disasters.

A release from the ILM Academy stated that the purpose of educating people that Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery professionals serve an important function in organizations, working tirelessly to ensure that their organizations are fully prepared for disruptions arising from disasters by subjecting their business continuity and disaster recovery plans to rigorous tests in which the authenticity of their test findings rely solidly on a fundamental and universal understanding of BCM.

The Brunei Times