It is important to them that their clients continue to view Farrans Construction as a ‘safe pair of hands’ for their projects. Their projects, although delivered at sites, are coordinated and supported from their HQ and three other regional offices in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Given the diversity of the operations, their geographical spread and the dependence on central services Farrans Construction has always taken resilience seriously. In time, driven in part by the importance increasingly being placed on BCM by clients, they felt it appropriate to formalise that capability and enhance on what we had already achieved. They decided that it would be best to develop a Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) that would allow them to gain certification against ISO 22301 BCM and they engaged Risk and Resilience to support them as they felt it important that they accessed experienced advisors to assist, guide, mentor and coach them through the implementation project.

Our team supported the project by firstly agreeing a workable project plan for the company. We appointed a project lead and a supporting team to deliver this plan and ensured regular feedback and reporting to the client lead from Farrans Construction. In this way we met all the requirements on time and certification to the ISO was achieved within 8 months of project commencement. Our team assisted in the design of the tools and techniques for the conduct of all analysis and assessment activity, used to drive continuity and crisis planning, and the development of suitable strategies. We facilitated the conduct of impact and risk analysis at the Strategic, Tactical and Operational levels and drafted all continuity and crisis plans and procedures for the client to review and adjust as required prior to adoption. We provide training and mentoring workshops to teams and individuals and supported the roll out of a Supply Chain resilience strategy. We were then engaged to support the inclusion of BCM within the Integrated Management System so as to embed BCM through training, awareness raising and auditing activities as well as support preparation for future certification audits.

As a result of our engagement the BCMS takes account of Farrans’ business priorities and goals, is focused on what is critical to Farrans Construction, removing the risk of planning for nugatory issues. It has enabled them satisfy PQQ requirements, meet client expectations and to identify and address risks to their business. Just as importantly they now have strategies, structures, teams and processes that enable them to respond to disruptive events and in so doing maintain healthy client relationships.