BUSINESS STANDARDS
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Better safe
than sorry
14 Nov 2007
Topics: Business continuity, BS 25999, Japan
Fujitsu Group is the world's third largest IT services provider, and counts among its customers half the Fortune Global 500. The Group first became seriously engaged in BCM in 2005 when the Japanese Government started to mandate it. Against a backdrop of apparently increasing natural disasters like earthquakes, infectious diseases (like a threatened flu pandemic) and terrorism, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) published its Guide to establishing business continuity plans. At the same time, the Japanese Cabinet Office issued a Guide to Business Continuity which prompted Japanese companies to be ready for natural disasters. Both Guides indicated that companies should prepare appropriate business continuity planning (BCP) which takes their supply chains into account.
Coincidentally, says Toru Nishioka, Fujitsu's head of BCM Office: "One of our customers requested us to take action on business continuity as a condition of working with us." For Fujitsu, BCM was now firmly on its business agenda.
Added to that, Fujitsu is listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the FTSE4Good Index and is a recognized IT industry leader in sustainability and corporate responsibility. As such, Fujitsu realized that its BCM responsibility extended not only across its own operations, but that it also carried a considerable responsibility on behalf of its customers - many of whom provide information systems that form part of the social infrastructure or provide goods and services for manufacturers in the global supply chain.
Finally, Fujitsu also aimed to enhance its corporate value though strengthening its business continuity capability. A Business Continuity business unit was formed which now carries so much BCM experience and skills that Fujitsu is capable of delivering a high quality consulting services on business continuity and to provide comprehensive BCM solutions.
Identifying the issues
What are the BCM issues which Fujitsu faces? A key factor is that the company, with 160,000 global employees, has a breadth of different business units, each facing a different business environment and equipped with different resources. The challenge was to develop a fully integrated business continuity plan to cover the differing demands of all these business units.
To resolve this challenge, Fujitsu categorized all its business units into five groups in terms of business similarity, with each group giving priority to customers whose information systems were identified as having the biggest societal impact, such as utility companies, banks and hospitals.
These systems were then targeted with their own BCM programmes, as well as the maintenance support and outsourcing services which clients would need to return to normal service quickly in the event of a major disaster. The core team of business continuity experts worked to help each group establish and develop a BCP, while recognizing the important need to balance planning requirements between the five groups.
Links in the chain
Fujitsu also understood that developing robust BCP for itself alone was not enough to guarantee continuity of supply, since suppliers to Fujitsu were also in a position to cause considerable business disruption to Fujitsu's service and production processes. Says Nishioka: "Companies need to consider the whole supply chain as within the scope of their business continuity planning and implementation management."
Fujitsu has therefore taken action to strengthen the BCM capability of businesses all along its supply chain - aiming to enhance business continuity capability by supporting suppliers' business continuity activity. For example, it will do an assessment of a supplier's ability to continue to provide crucial components if disaster strikes, and assess the time it would take to resume its production process. Fujitsu will then help its suppliers to implement BCM in the light of the assessment results.
Moreover, in late 2007, Fujitsu plans to start offering formalised business continuity assessment services for supply chains, developed from the assessment work that it offers its suppliers, and in response to a need which Fujitsu's purchasing division has identified for a higher standard of BCM planning within suppliers' businesses.
Setting the standard
What role does BS 25999 play in Fujitsu's thinking? Says Nishioka: "Certification to BS 25999 is evidence of commitment to BCM. Also I would expect the BCM framework and processes clearly described in BS 25999 to promote understanding of business continuity both for customers and Fujitsu, which will result in time-saving and enhanced satisfaction on both sides."
He adds: "Of course, certification is not the final goal of Business Continuity Management. Fujitsu recognizes that business continuity is a customer requirement nowadays, as well as a mechanism which adds value to the products and services we provide to our customers."
Find out more about business continuity in our story Untangling the continuity web.
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