Singapore, Friday, 29 May 2009 - The Singapore Business Federation (SBF) organized a briefing today to reiterate to Singapore companies the importance business preparedness in the event of a crisis like a flu pandemic, terrorist attack or natural disaster.
As the Business Continuity management (BCM) focal point for businesses, SBF, working in concert with trade associations, business chambers, as well as SPRING Singapore and other industry partners, aims to help more Singapore-based companies and SMEs to be better informed about BCM, leading to BCM readiness and SS540 certification. SBF will strongly support enterprises' efforts to become BCM certified, advise them on BCM adoption and help SMEs in particular, in the processing of their incentive applications.
One hundred and twenty-five participants, who are mainly from the service, manufacturing, trading and financial sectors, were apprised of the Influenza A H1N1, the importance of BCM, how to become BCM certified and how they can benefit from the National BCM programme by BCM experts Mr. Ron Chua, Senior Consultant (BCM), Risk Consulting Practice, Marsh; and SBF's Deputy Director of Capacity Building Division, Mr. Roland Teo.
Actions recommended for Pandemic Heightened Alert by Mr. Ron Chua
1. Initiate
a. Mandate declaration of staff travel to affected zone.
b. Monitor staff travel to infected zone.
c. For official travel - reconsider, reschedule and reduce.
d. For personal travel - recommend to reschedule and when you return from your trip, monitor your personal health for two days at home prior to return to work.
2. Conduct daily:
a. Monitor government's Alert Response Level
b. Monitor and disseminate news and development on Influenza A situation globally.
3. Implement
a. Compile and complete call tree (include office, mobile and home telephone)
i. Crisis Management Committee
ii. Emergency Response Teams
b. Review organization of Crisis Management Team.
c. Accelerate IT remote access project.
d. Review stockpile for protective equipment.
i. Store supplies of protective equipment (disposable masks, N95, PPE, thermometers).
e. Draft and send advisory note to staff i.e.
i. Recommend against travel to infected countries.
ii. Revive clean hands and mask practice.
iii. After staff has travelled to the affected countries, companies should encourage staff to impose two-day home leave prior to their return to the office.
f. Action if human-to-human transmission is confirmed:
i. Convene Incident Management Team.
ii. Activate Emergency Response Plan.
iii. Review and initiate actions for split work.
iv. Detailed review and develop plans to implement Access Control.
1. Identify and confirm critical store to fall back and regroup.
2. Prepare and complete plans for access control at all firms premises.
v. Initiate close monitoring of staff
1. Mandate and report temperature monitoring of all staff.
Information on the National BCM Programme by Mr. Roland Teo
The National BCM programme was launched by SPRING Singapore in December 2008 to encourage early adoption of BCM by SMEs and to help businesses build resilience and capability for an effective response to disruptions. This five-year programme was implemented from 1 December 2008 onwards, where companies can tap on the S$30 million government funding. Both SBF and SPRING Singapore will jointly drive this programme.
The National BCM programme follows the launch of the SS 540 - a new national standard on Business Continuity Management (BCM) by SPRING Singapore in October 2008, it aims to provide a framework and guidelines for companies to prepare themselves so as to minimise the impact of any disruptions and ensure business resilience.
SBF has been appointed as the key organization, and together with SPRING Singapore, SBF is driving this national initiative in the business community through working with industry partners to help members be more informed about BCM, leading to BCM readiness and certification.
In this capacity, SBF seeks to:
a) Raise the awareness of the importance of BCM to businesses
b) Increase the supply of BCM specialists that can support our enterprises to become BCM ready
c) Make BCM more accessible to the business community
d) Support enterprises' efforts to become BCM certified through an incentive programme (funded by SPRING)
Both large corporations and SMEs can apply for financial support to defray part of the initial cost - which involves them obtaining the BCM certification.
Up to 70%.Coverage includes:
Salary/training of staff involved in the BCM certification project
Cost of engaging 3rd party consultancy to support SS 540 or equivalent certification
BCM certification cost
IT hardware/ software needed to implement BCM
Companies can apply for the funding support through 2 approaches depending on their category:
a) Small and medium enterprises (SMEs*) can get up to 50% subsidy (increased to 70% for 2009, thereafter will depend on a case by case basis) to be certified in the Singapore Standard (SS540) in Business Continuity Management.
*(SPRING Singapore's definition of local SMEs: at least 30% shareholding is local, Fixed Assets worth less than 15 millions & staff less than 200 for non manufacturing companies)
b) Larger businesses forming consortiums with SMEs critical to their businesses can get up to 70% subsidy to be certified.
**(Forming consortium with at least 2 local SME suppliers. For bigger consortium, the general guideline will be to have half the group comprises of SMEs.)
Documents required for the application of the BCM certification - Company profile (ACRA), three years of financial audited accounts and a BCM project proposal.
For more information on how your company can apply for support, please contact SBF at 6827 6867 or email us at bcm@sbf.org.sg. For more information on SS 540:2008, visit www.singaporestandeshop.sg
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