HeiTech and BCI UK collaborate to drive BCM implementation

Partnership will create an environment of sustainable growth for the BCM practice in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, 16 November 2011 – Malaysia’s leading ICT Solutions Provider HeiTech Padu Berhad (HeiTech) has partnered with world renowned Business Continuity Institute (BCI) UK to help drive the Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) awareness and implementation in Malaysia. The partnership will also create an environment for the increased adoption and development of the BCM practice thereby ensuring its sustainable growth in Malaysia.

In today’s world where data and information are critical to the survival of a business, it is vital that organisations implement a comprehensive BCM framework that ensures their businesses continue to operate even in the event of a crisis or a disaster. This is especially so since a business’ survival has a direct impact on the country’s economics, people and environment. As such both the public and private sectors must be prepared for eventualities and emergencies of every shape and form. Although 100% recovery may not be a firm guarantee, the framework will nonetheless help to minimise damages in the aftermath of the disaster.
Encik Abdul Halim Md Lassim, Chief Executive Officer of HeiTech Managed Services (HMS) said, “BCM is changing and has already matured from its pure disaster recovery roots. It is fundamentally important that we sustain the discipline and continue to improve both the BCM theory and practice. Business Continuity Planning is something that almost every organisation has been forced to deal with in the light of recent events.”

A case in point is the Subang Empire Galley explosion due to a gas pipe leak that resulted in a great loss in terms of business, reputation and physical damages to people and the environment. The unfortunate event however has served as a wakeup call to the business community to develop appropriate and resilient business continuity strategies.

“As an innovative organisation, HeiTech took the lead in helping move this process forward rather than to be followers. It is time that the industry charts its own evolution and capitalises of the opportunities ahead. Together with BCI UK, HeiTech will undertake various BCM campaigns to raise awareness and promote better understanding of the importance of BCM. As the subject matter expert, HeiTech can now be one of the first point of reference pertaining to BCM and business recovery issues for media, policy makers and the BCM industry,” added Halim.

“It is a timely collaboration between HeiTech and BCI UK as there’s been a great demand for BCM in Malaysia and this partnership would greatly increase the BCM awareness and introduction of best practices to both the public and private sectors”, said Dr Edgar Frank, BCI Fellow member representative of the BCI Malaysia Chapter.

In promoting BCM, a series of BCM activities will be rolled out. These include the commissioning of industry research to support investments in BCM, the implementation on interactive workshops and conferences, the publishing of industry papers and the planning of a high profile global BCM awareness campaign.

As part of the BCM campaign, a full-day Business Continuity Supply Chain workshop was held to provide insights into the value of establishing strong working relationships with suppliers and partners to ensure resilience and continuity of service. Four distinguished speakers including Colin Ive from BCI UK, Dr Edgar Frank, Anwar Yusoff from Cyber Security Malaysia and Kavitha Muthy from HeiTech shared their experience and presented case studies from around the world that illustrated how BCM affected a business’ supply chain.

Supported by CyberSecurity Malaysia, this workshop was held on 16 November 2011 at Impiana Hotel, Kuala Lumpur and was attended by HeiTech’s customers, suppliers and partners. The workshop also serves as a platform to gather BCM professionals from different industries, academicians and international subject matter experts to share their experience and knowledge to improve the BCM practice in Malaysia.