BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT FOR ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING FIRMS

Abstract

Business Continuity Management (BCM) is a process that involves critical business function analysis, identification of potential threats that may affect the organization and developing possible mitigating measures to ensure that companies would recover from any given crisis with minimum negative impacts. The BCM framework is the backbone of any disaster recovery system adopted by a given company. However, researches have shown that Architectural and/or Engineering (A/E) firms in Singapore currently lack the know-how of such an implementation. Although the Singapore Standard 504 (SS540: 2008) was introduced in 2008, the number of A/E firms adopting the SS540: 2008 philosophy remains far and few. Recent surveys have shown that more large than small A/E firms have a BCM model in its organization, hence there would be a need to evaluate whether these firms are more ready in the application of SS540: 2008 compared to small A/E firms. The main objective of this study is to determine and explore whether large A/E companies are more ready to adopt the SS540: 2008 compared to small A/E firms through surveys and interviews. Survey results would be analysed through descriptive statistics and t-tests. To further analyse the survey findings, interviews are conducted with two companies; one adopting BCM and the other without. It is discovered that small A/E companies may not necessarily be less ready in the implementation of BCM. However, the lack of SS540: 2008 applications may be a result of several factors. For example, small A/E firms often overlook the long-term benefits of BCM, as they genuinely believe that the occurrences of disasters, both man-made and natural, are unlikely to hit Singapore. This suggests that the relevant authorities may need to propose creative solutions to increase the take-up rate of the BCM philosophy. One solution may be to introduce SS540: 2008 in a way similar to the Green Mark scheme to increase A/E firms’ resilience towards potential crisis and threats.