ConneCT 2017 by 3S Media

Fourth-floor canteen

mitigate risk, but also to build overall resilience to cope with risks that may materialise unexpectedly. As the global business and sociopolitical environment has become riskier and more difficult to predict, the discipline of business continuity has become more sophisticated. A formal set of methodologies and best practices has been developed globally, the most important of which are the ISO 22301 standard and the Business Continuity Institute’s Good Practice Guidelines. Many leading companies and government organisations have seen the benefit of partnering with a specialist business continuity provider who can not only provide them with the technology and infrastructure they need, but also the skilled personnel to provide advice. Mature business continuity service providers also offer business continuity as an outsourced service. Increasingly, organisations are electing the cost-effective outsourced route because business continuity falls squarely into the category of missioncritical but non-core activities. This approach also means that organisations purchase peace of mind as a monthly expense, rather than assuming the capital and management costs of setting up their own business continuity capability, which would include an alternative data centre and fully equipped and connected office and/or call centre space.

Opportunity, the flipside of risk ContinuitySA has recently commissioned a 5 200 m2 facility in the upmarket Willowbridge office park, just off the N1 in Tyger Valley. Several leading network providers terminate there, ensuring true latency, and it is fully equipped with the latest ICT and office equipment. “Our flagship facility is a good example of how risk can create opportunity,” says Bruckner de Villiers, general manager: Western Cape, ContinuitySA. “Because our site is situated just outside the Cape Town CBD on a good route, some clients are starting to use their emergency capabilities to provide alternative office space. Some use the facilities to avoid rush-hour traffic, and commute to their real offices when the traffic has subsided. Others are seeing the

Why Continuit ySA? Comprehensive portfolio of end-to-end services The company

provides a range of hosted, availability, network and standby solutions, backed up by strong enterprise resilience advisory services.

Experience For close on three decades, the company has provided organisations

in many sectors with tailored business continuity solutions. ContinuitySA has also built seven customised recovery sites, performed hundreds of risk assessments and business impact analyses, developed many viable recovery strategies and solutions, and written the supporting business, incident and IT continuity plans.

The right resources and facilities The company is proud to have some of the country’s leading business continuity practitioners on its staff. Its people are backed up by a network of world-class facilities, offering a total of 15 000 m2 of space, with disaster recovery centres in Gauteng (Midrand and Randburg), Cape Town, Botswana, Mozambique, Mauritius and Kenya. Methodologies and frameworks in a process context ContinuitySA has distilled its years of experience into reusable frameworks, methodologies and toolsets to reduce risk and ensure standard, consistent engagements in line with best practice. Most importantly, the company understands that business continuity is a process rather than an event, and invests the requisite time to build an ongoing relationship with clients.

Professional affiliations and standing The company subscribes to the highest international standards and is a Gold Partner of the Business Continuity Institute. More than 40% of the members and associates of the Business Continuity Institute working in South Africa are employed by ContinuitySA. The company was inducted into the Business Continuity Institute’s Hall of Fame in 2016 for winning the Business Continuity Provider of the Year award for three years running. Training The company ensures that its people have the right skills and offer a

one-day IT Continuity® Programme and five-day Complete Continuity® Practitioner Programme. It also offers ISO 22301 Lead Implementer courses.

Corporate social responsibility ContinuitySA is a Level 4 BBBEE contributor. The company’s current corporate social investment is focused on education. benefit of locating at least some staff permanently there, acquiring highly resilient office space. When the CBD is shut down by traffic or protest action, they are unaffected.” ContinuitySA has developed an integrated, client-centric approach to building corporate resilience through business continuity based on global standards. The company’s proven approach is technology- and vendor-agnostic, and has been leading the way for more than two decades.

ContinuitySA is the market leader in business continuity management in Africa, making it the partner of choice for corporate and public sector organisations serious about not letting risk put them out of business.