The National Archives Organizes a Workshop

In Business Continuity Management System 

The National Archives of the United Arab Emirates organized a workshop to introduce Business Continuity Management System (BCM), the application of which was launched by H.E Dr. Abdulla El Reyes, Director General of the National Archives, and was attended by 40 participants from the National Archives’ staff.

This system is part of the Integrated Management System concerned with the development, application, operation, monitoring, reviewing and improving the capability of the National Archives to provide services with efficiency and effectiveness in times of crisis, disasters and emergencies.

Regarding the Business Continuity Management System workshop, H.E. Dr. Abdulla El Reyes, National Archives’ Director General said that this workshop is part of the strategy of the National Archives and its plans to face future challenges, and to ensure its readiness to provide its services during emergencies, crises and disasters, and that we place the lives of our staff, workers and visitors at the forefront of our priorities. We largely count on the National Archives business continuity to provide its basic and essential services and functions to decision-makers, researchers, students, in addition to ensuring the validity of the technical systems and the readiness of human resources, alternative procedures, and workplace management. His Excellency added that the BCM system emphasizes our response to our wise leadership directives of protecting human life. It also ensures the stakeholders’ work continuity that integrates with readiness and preparation. H.E. Dr. El Reyes pointed out that Business Continuity Management System is part of the Integrated Management System and that the National Archives looks forward to establish this system because of its importance, as it seeks to get the ISO 22301.

The workshop program about the Business Continuity Management System was characterized by vivid discussions and interactions. It addressed several vital points such as BCM Structure. It seeks to develop a BCM system, update and review plans, and apply the system requirements. Moreover, the workshop discussed recovery time and the impact on businesses and evaluating them. The workshop focused on the important documents in case of an accident, such as Business Continuity Teams, the necessary Business Continuity plans and the escalation mechanisms as per risk and crisis level, and the methods of returning to normal life after recovery, evacuation plans, and communication during a crisis, priority activities, and response to incidents.  The BCM workshop urged on paying attention to policies, necessary forms and procedures, as well as mobile numbers of senior management members, departments’ directors, employees and their families.

The program involved identifying the crisis management teams, Incident Response team, the Contact group, and the Damage Assessment team, in addition to informing the original and substitute team members of their duties and responsibilities.

The workshop presented scenarios of expected crises and dangers, and introduced to the staff practical methods to deal with them. Tests were conducted to assess work procedures, documents, tools, and their suitability to handle different situations. The workshop was concluded with an electronic competition that involved the audience, then the most prominent lessons learned from the workshop were identified, and suggestions for improvement and development were listed.