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Verizon Business joins BSI's Associate Consultant Programme (ACP) for BS 25999

09 July 2008

Verizon Business has become the first North American-based global communications provider to be accepted into British Standards Institution's (BSI) Associate Consultant Programme (ACP) for BS 25999 Business continuity management.

ACP is a list of consultancies that are known to BSI. It is not intended as an endorsement of any one consultant's services, but all ACP members have demonstrated their experience with respect to certified management systems.

Verizon Business' BSI-ACP designation follows a comprehensive review of the company's business continuity portfolio and supporting processes and procedures.

Keep on moving

Experts estimate that four in 10 businesses don't have a business continuity plan. Yet, according to Forrester's February 2008 report (The State of Enterprise IT Security Adoption: 2007), 78 per cent of North American and European-based enterprise decision-makers surveyed reported that development of business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities are either "important" or "very important" to their IT security organisation in the next 12 months.

Verizon Business offers professional consulting services, designed to assess and address critical recovery challenges, including business impact and risk analyses, network assessments, gap analyses and recovery strategies, as well as plan development, implementation and life-cycle management services.

The company also offers Verizon Notification Services, a fully automated service that enables communication of time-sensitive information to customers, partners, employees and other key stakeholders via a broad range of wireline and wireless devices.

Additionally, Verizon Business offers advanced conferencing, collaboration and contact centre capabilities for deployment as part of a comprehensive business continuity plan. These tools allow organisations to communicate from virtually anywhere at anytime, helping to reduce downtime from business-impacting events such as floods, hurricanes, power outages and tornadoes, and increase productivity.

For example, the company used satellites to allow relief agencies and flood victims to connect to Verizon Business' global network in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Emergency communications were also provided for portable trailers dispatched by the United States Postal Service (USPS) to affected areas, enabling voice and data services in hurricane-impacted locations along the Gulf Coast.

Verizon Business also offers continuity planning software, virtual file-sharing, storage replication and restoration services, and a full complement of managed IT services to help enhance enterprise resilience.

"Recognition by BSI underscores our holistic approach to delivering business continuity solutions and professional-service capabilities in this highly crucial area," said Kerry Bailey, vice-president of security solutions, Verizon Business. "Chief information officers consistently rank business continuity as a critical business objective, and BSI-ACP recognition provides important third-party validation of our world-class capabilities and advanced skill sets."

For more on BSI in the US see: www.bsiamerica.com

© British Standards Institution 2008. This article was first published on BusinessStandards.com, BSI Group's online corporate magazine, in July 2008. It has been reproduced here with permission.