Marsh, the world’s leading insurance broker and risk adviser, has published a free checklist for the UK’s small and medium sized firms to help them assess their business continuity management (BCM) processes, thus enabling them to build BCM into their organisational structure and be more resilient to the pressures caused by the current economic downturn.

Martin Caddick, Leader of Marsh’s Business Continuity Management team, explained: “The arrival of Business Continuity Awareness Week is very timely. Two-thirds of Britain’s small and medium sized firms do not have business continuity management plans in place, yet this sector represents more than half of the UK’s turnover.

“The financial challenges and the threat to the survival of suppliers and clients alike created by the global recession have brought the need for robust business continuity planning into sharp focus for all businesses, whether large or small.

“In order to maintain their competitive edge, small and medium sized firms need to develop BCM plans that are appropriate to their business, easy to build and to maintain, and are integrated with other risk management activities and insurance programmes.”

To obtain a copy of the checklist, please visit: http://www.marsh.co.uk/events/09/businesscontinuity/index.php

Marsh is supporting The Business Continuity Institute’s ‘Business Continuity Awareness Week’, which runs from 23-27 March 2009. The Week is designed to raise awareness and show the importance of business continuity management as an integral management tool.