From a small IT disaster recovery consultancy to the largest Business Continuity service provider on the African continent, ContinuitySA has surpassed all expectations and has been a driver for the adoption of the Business Continuity Management discipline in South and southern Africa.

“More than simply assisting in establishing Business Continuity awareness, ContinuitySA has initiated many firsts in the industry,” says Allen Smith FBCI, CEO of ContinuitySA.

ContinuitySA, when it was formed in 1989, was the second company offering Disaster Recovery services in South Africa, with the first competitor being Safcover, later to be acquired by IBM and now the second largest operator in South Africa. ContinuitySA was, however, the first company to expand beyond proprietary IT Disaster Recovery and offer multi vendor solutions when it partnered with Digital to offer Disaster Recovery on DEC equipment. In 1998, the company also started offering Work Area Recovery (WAR) office services.

ContinuitySA was the first to establish a company dedicated to world-class BCM consultancy service following the BCI’s principles. The company has supported the principles of the British Business Continuity Institute (BCI), the world leader in Business Continuity standards, and has encouraged its employees to become BCI certified. It currently employs more BCI Members and Fellows than any other company in Africa. Moreover, one of its employees, Louise Theunissen has been elected to the board of the BCI.

One of the latest innovations to come out of ContinuitySA is the CM^2, Continuity Maturity Model. CM² is a Business Continuity Management Capability and Maturity Assessment service, designed and offered by ContinuitySA. The assessment measures an organisation’s business continuity capability and maturity in numerous areas and charts the path it can follow to improve business resilience against operational disruptions. Senior executives of large organisations can now measure each division or subsidiary’s true BCM capability against an international standard as opposed to relying on different and confusing views of what constitutes an effective BCM program.

“The company was also the only business offering continuity advice and services to organisations during the World Cup,” adds Smith. “We created the BCM Forum in which large corporates got together to assess the potential risks caused to business by the Soccer World Cup. Fifa and Government were particularly supportive of this initiative and the forum proved to be of great value. We hope to keep it going to provide a venue for corporates and indeed Government to interact on BCM and other Risk Management issues.