BUSINESS STANDARDS
is the quarterly magazine of BSI Group, highlighting the vital role that standards play in today's business environment. Regular features include interviews with leading business figures, as well as news on the latest developments in management systems and standards.
Fujitsu gains Japanese first in Business Continuity Management
05 Sep 2008
Topics: Business continuity, BS 25999, Japan
Fujitsu Limited and Fujitsu FSAS Inc have been awarded certification to the Business Continuity Management (BCM) standard BS 25999, becoming the first organizations in Japan to do so.
The certification relates to Fujitsu's maintenance services business for customer IT infrastructures and other services. They ensure customers' IT infrastructures, including information systems and networks, operate safely and with stability.
The certification demonstrates that the Fujitsu Group is committed to providing high-quality, highly reliable maintenance and operations services to prevent the interruption of business in the event of a disaster. Moreover, by leveraging Fujitsu's know-how and track record in BCM, Fujitsu will contribute to improving customers' own business continuity management and raising their corporate value.
Track record
While this is a notable achievement, no one should be surprised by the certification, since Fujitsu has considerable experience in the arena of BCM. As IT systems have become critical infrastructure in developed economies, businesses need to be prepared for and able to recover quickly from every kind of emergent situation that could impact their business, including earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters as well as widespread blackouts, influenza pandemics, and terrorist attacks.
In response the Fujitsu Group has long offered its customers maintenance services to help their IT systems recover quickly from all kinds of disasters, contributing to the secure and stable operation of customers' IT systems. In order to respond quickly and appropriately to real-world disasters, every year since 1995 the company has been holding training workshops on September 1, Japan's national Disaster Prevention Day, to prepare for dealing with a variety of emergencies.
Furthermore in 2006, and working with the Fujitsu Research Institute, which has a long track record in business continuity consulting, Fujitsu formulated a business continuity management plan and implemented a business continuity management system designed to maintain and improve that plan. This covers the central functions of the technical support department that assists Fujitsu call centres and customer support engineers located primarily in the Tokyo area. Fujitsu acknowledges that the BS 25999 certification comes to a large extent from the consulting support which was received from the Fujitsu Research Institute.
History of certification
Moreover, the Fujitsu Group has a track-record of achieving standards which demonstrate its commitment to best practice across a number of important areas.
Within data security, Fujitsu's maintenance services business received BS 7799 (the British Standard for information security management systems (ISMS) certification in April 2005, and ISO/IEC 27001, the international standard for ISMS, in May 2006. In addition, in December 2006, Fujitsu's operational services business received ISO/IEC 20000 certification, the international standard for IT services management systems.
BS 25999
Meanwhile business continuity management is a topic that continues to climb the agenda within a wide range of organizations globally. The drivers for this increase in interest and engagement are around the greater risks and reduced resilience inherent in globalization and interdependence; increased regulation; growing supply chain requirements and a growing recognition that there are attendant benefits in managing risk and continuity proactively, not least in brand and reputation terms.
As a result, the BCM standard, BS 25999, has found rapid international market acceptance since its publication in November 2007, with certifications already delivered by BSI Management Systems in the UK, USA, Brazil, India and Korea, in addition to Fujitsu's, the first in Japan.
For more on BS 25999 see:www.bsigroup.com/en/Assessment-and-certification-services/management-systems/Standards-and-Schemes/BS-25999
For more on BSI Japan see: www.bsigroup.jp
Business Standards © 2009. Editorial produced by Caspian Publishing in association with the British Standards Institution. Editorial opinions expressed on are not necessarily those of BSI Group or Caspian Publishing. Neither Caspian Publishing nor BSI Group accept responsibility for advertising or editorial content, nor for that appearing on linked third-party websites. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden without written permission from BSI Group or Caspian Publishing.
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