Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management

Crisis and Emergency Management

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February 2004                                                              Volume 6 - Number 1

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Business Continuity Planning...

Report on Business Continuity Institute (BCI)

By Marc Bergman

The Business Continuity Institute (BCI) was established in 1994 to provide opportunities to obtain guidance and support for business continuity professionals. The BCI has over 1350 members in 40 countries with its headquarters based in the United Kingdom (URL: http://www.thebci.org/frametrial.html).

The BCI provides an internationally recognized status and its wider role is to promote the highest standards of professional competence and commercial ethics in the provision and maintenance of business continuity management services.

Amongst its services, the association provides an internationally recognized Certification scheme for Business Continuity Management (BCM) managers and practitioners. The BCI Professional Recognition Programme creates a benchmark for the assessment of best practice in the field.

The BCI also provides various membership benefits, including discounts for conferences, workshops and books, reduced magazine subscriptions, publications, as well as a comprehensive website. More recently through a link up with Eton Mai Consulting, which provides human resources recruitment services in the business continuity arena, it is offering career advancement opportunities. The website also provides a useful glossary of common terms used in the business continuity industry.

There are several levels of membership including Student, Affiliate, Associate, Member and Fellow with annual fees ranging from $40 for Students to $175 for Fellows. Various criteria also apply to each level. Levels past Student also requires specified experience, references and assessment tests. Some of the membership benefits that the BCI provides include details on conferences, training events and exhibitions that may be of interest to those involved in Business Continuity Management. Some of the event organizers offer discounts to BCI members such as 10% off the participation fee. Various seminars and courses are offered throughout the year mainly based in the UK, for example, a 2-day course on building and managing a crisis management team within ones corporation, a training course for testing business continuity plans and strategies, business continuity for police as well as industry specific courses like telecomms and call center continuity.

The BCI website has a section called BCI Planning Guides with hyperlinks to a range of training and procedural documentation provided by member firms, organizations and government agencies covering public and private sectors. These include general guides and best practices for business continuity professionals as well as government contingency plans. The BCI also works with the UK National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO), which is a police unit working for the Association of Chief Police Officers, and provides a coordinating role for the police service in regard to counter-terrorism and protective security. The BCI also works with the Civil Contingencies Secretariate of the UK government Cabinet Office.