| Advance Security’s commitment to industry certification has been further cemented by being the first security company to receive the BS 25999 British Standard for Business Continuity Management (BCM). Having already achieved ISO 14001 Environmental Management and OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety accreditation, Advance is currently the only professional security organisation to have secured all three standards. The manned guarding, key holding and technologies service provider was independently recommended by the NSI to receive BS 25999 following a rigorous, two-part auditing process.
“The security
industry has been pontificating on the importance of business continuity
management for some months now. But we’ve shown we’re prepared to pay more than
just lip service to the issue by proactively investing the time and resource to
make sure we’re fully prepared for every eventuality,” said Advance Security’s
Managing Director, Richard Bailey.
While the
certification is testament to the importance Advance has long placed on
establishing solid business continuity plans, the team had already drawn-up
comprehensive procedures for coping with a potential crisis – even before the
high profile threat of a flu pandemic. Now Advance has further strengthened its
position by putting the additional knowledge it’s acquired through the
accreditation process into practice. Working with its clients to fine-tune
existing business management systems, Advance is absolutely confident in its
ability to supply customers with complete cover should an incident occur.
“Due to the
nature of our business we simply can’t underestimate any potential disruption to
the service we supply our clients – especially during a crisis,” said Bailey.
“Watertight security is a ‘must’ when organisations are at their most
vulnerable, whatever may be the cause.”
High
profile threats such as terrorism, flu pandemics and data loss tend to be front
of mind with most, but BS 25999 adopts a more pragmatic approach towards
business continuity management. Rather than focusing on disaster management, the
accreditation encourages continuity managers to alter their mindset and instead
look to identify all processes
which, if interrupted, would impact on a business’ day-to-day activities.
As part of the
BS 25999 assessment process, the team – led by Advance Security’s Group Health &
Safety and Compliance Manager, John Berry - had to demonstrate an awareness of
all business critical activities as well its level of dependency on critical
suppliers and all suppliers’ critical dependencies too.
“Out of all the
accreditation applications I have been involved with, BS 25999 has been by far
the most challenging,” said John Berry. “The stringent criteria certainly
ensures you’re 100% committed to BCM as a business and the last 18 months have
required a great deal of teamwork to get where we are today. To be the first
security company to be nominated for the standard is especially gratifying.
“We place a lot
of emphasis on obtaining the relevant third party accreditations because beyond
being a solid testimony to our professionalism, our clients value our concerted
focus on continually improving our operations because, ultimately, we pass on
the benefits in the service we provide.”
Advance has
achieved all three accreditations (IS 14001, OHSAS 18001 and BS 25999) in the
last two years alone, alongside implementing a raft of Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) and diversity policies across the company.
Advance Security Website
Posted by Tracy
Loans
17 May 2010
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