2013-01-30 10:18:51 - Crisis crop in every organization. The need for business continuity management is very important. Business Continuity & Emergency Response Forum is a platform to discuss best practices formulating plans for crisis management.

January 30, 2013 – Shamoon virus was one of the biggest newsmakers in the industry. The attack of the virus left ARAMCO, Saudi's leading state oil company, crippled as more than 30,000 computers were made redundant. The impact of the crisis left stakeholders on the edge. Another emergency that made breaking news was the impact of hurricane Sandy. Emergency services were set in place to deal with what the category 2 storm would bring in its wake.

In both events, the need for a business continuity plan played a key for normalcy and public communication. In an exclusive pre-event interview when asked what is the major scope of drafting a business continuity plan? Wasim Malik, Head Business Continuity at the Bank

of Bahrain and Kuwait, said, "We need to draw a clear line between all the plans, which also includes crisis management." He further stated, "We need to focus on each plan purely based on its scope and objective."

Liaqat Satti of Rasgas on his suggestion for implementing a better crisis management plan says, "Crisis management plan allows you to provide continued assessment of actual and potential consequences of the crisis & continuity of business operations during and immediately after". Satti who is the head of crisis management & business continuity also warns, "Before hastily implementing continuity plans, we must implement more than just a "catch all" response to disasters."

On the role of social media plays during an emergency, Abdulrahman Y. Al Naser, Senior Specialist Telecom Emergency of TRA opinionates, "Social media is one of the most important source of information, therefore, smart organizations should invest on such media." Satti resonates his thoughts and adds, "It is said you never have a second chance to make a first impression therefore social media plays a very important role; the organization should proactively engage the social media and use them for the organization instead of against the organization."

Satti is to present a case-study of how you integrate crisis management & business continuity in the oil & gas sector whilst Al Naser will talk about a rapid deployment solution in business continuity at the upcoming 3rd Annual Business Continuity Forum organised by Fleming Gulf. Taking place on 11-12 February in Abu Dhabi, the forum will see the keynote delivered by NCEMA's director of Information and communications technology, Dr. Hosani and other session by leading experts from oil & gas, finance, aviation and telecom sectors.

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Media Contact:
Manohar Bharwani
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