Chamber leaders not keen on continuity certification

Securing ISO accreditation costs up to P350K yearly

Cebu businesses may not be keen on conforming to international standards on business continuity because of the costs involved.

Securing accreditation with the International Standards Organization (ISO) for business continuity management, or ISO 22301:2012, will take P250,000 to P350,000 annually.

Donato Busa, president of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), said the standards may not be applicable to all businesses.

“Having the international standards is very good if the company is big. But if the company is small, it can be very expensive,” he told Cebu Daily News.

Ma. Teresa Chan, president of Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said she expects some businesses to get an ISO certification, but not all will follow right away due to the costs involved.

“As businessmen, we always weigh the cost or investment versus benefits or returns,” she said.

The ISO standards on business continuity aims to help both public and private organizations “to be better prepared and more confident to handle disruption of any type,” the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said in a statement.

The ISO standards will help organizations design a business continuity management system tailor-fit to the stakeholders’ requirements as well as the organization’s products, services, size, structure and needs.

The United Nations earlier called on businesses to prepare a business continuity program to ensure that operations will continue right after a disaster.

Big businesses across the globe, including those in Singapore and the United Kingdom, already have such a system in place.

Busa said businesses with international partners would do well to secure a certification.

“ISO-accredited companies typically also look to partner with similarly accredited companies,” he said.