Forum on Business Continuity and Emergency Response kicks off in Muscat

The world today is an interconnected, global economy, where virtually every aspect of an organization's operation is vulnerable to disruption, and the risk and cost of disruption may extend well beyond mere financial. Business Continuity Management and Emergency Response have become increasingly critical areas of competence for organizations in private as well as public sectors. Recent history has shown that no organization is immune to the threat of the external terrorist or the internal saboteur or the mismanagement or inappropriate stewardship of an organization's resources and reputation.

Supported by the Information Technology Authority, the 7th Business Continuity and Emergency Response Middle East Forum kicked off today at the Sheraton Oman Hotel in Muscat. The two-day event aims to identify, examine and integrate the diverse emergency management, crisis management, contingency planning and business continuity issues facing a private sector organization in its internal operations and interface with the government agencies and emergency management communities.

The forum brings together top business continuity and emergency response management leaders who will shed light on skills, knowledge elements and concepts applied in the context of the protecting and continuing the organizational life cycle in the face of unforeseen disruptions. The event will feature several panel discussions, group tasks, round table discussions and insightful case studies on cyber security, emergency response and recovery, enterprise risk management and integration of health, safety and environment with business continuity.

“BCM will play an important role for keeping the business in the market and being more competitive”. Said Qais Al Aamri, Business Continuity Technical Leader at Oman’s Information Technology Authority. “Organizations need to think about the (MOR) minimum operation requirement and try to use their services through social media and keep running the tests to make sure that they are ready for any event or incident”. Al Aamri added.

The approach of typical business organizations to emergency management and business continuity planning has been too narrowly focused and fragmented. Most business leaders do not fully comprehend and appreciate the inter dependence and need for collaboration between government agencies and emergency management organizations. It has now become imperative for organizations to develop an analyzed and balanced approach to emergency and business continuity management.

Captain Waheed Khalfan Al Subhi, Sr. Manager Safety & ERP at Oman Air, comments:” Decision makers play the pivotal role in mitigating the impact of disasters. They are required to be in close loop not only during disasters response but right from the planning stage. Without full hearted involvement in risk assessment and provisioning of required resources an effective disaster management is merely a day dream. Responsible organisations and executives understand the sensitivity and are always available to support the team below”.

From his side, John Davison Managing Director at F-24 UK Limited, added:” Business Continuity is changing drastically with organisations typically now accepting that business disruptive events are a potential regular occurrence and therefore focus will shift to operational resilience rather than just continuity planning. On a technology front the IoT will also change how organisations can capture information that will greatly assist with BIA’s and BC plans, data that may have previously been non-accessible will be in the future much more prevalent”.

The 7th Business Continuity and Emergency Middle East is organized by Fleming, and supported by the Information Technology Authority. with Ernst & Young, as Gold Partner, Marjason Consulting as the Knowledge Partner and F-24 UK as the Networking Partner. The event is held at the Sheraton Oman Hotel in Muscat from 16 to 17 May, 2017.