Jermyn Consulting and Moody International partner in business continuity certification

IT disaster recovery firm Jermyn Consulting and certification group Moody International have partnered to develop a service to help organisations get certification on the first British standard for business continuity.

Jermyn will assess readiness for the risk-based BS 25999 standard and draw up a gap analysis and certification plan. Moody will initiate the certification process.

"The service will guide organisations through the implementation process, while building business continuity capability and resilience," said Gary Donlon, director of Jermyn Consulting.

The standard specification to be published by the British Standards Institute (BSI) this month, will set out the requirements for setting up a system to manage business continuity.

The first part of the standard setting out the code of practice was published a year ago and followed an earlier specification (PAS 56) published in 2003.

The BSI said certification on the standard will help organisations improve operations management, lower insurance premiums, increase confidence in the business, and help safeguard the reputation of the company.

"It is already evident that many organisations understand the importance of the standard by the fact that the code of practice is the most downloaded for any standard the BSI has ever had," said Ron Miller, one of co-authors of the standard.

Miller, who is also the managing consultant of professional services within Sungard Availability Services, said there is a clear need for the standard as the first clear benchmark in business continuity.

"Certification on this standard will mark organisations as being well managed and reliable, which could enable them to gain competitive advantage," he said.