Business continuity ensures organisations operate when faced with disruption. David Balleste, award winning CEO of B Continuity Solutions, describes this crucial task, and how his innovative company help the wheels of industry to keep turning.
Business continuity is an important factor, often overlooked in the day to day management of organisations across many industries. Having a business continuity plan in place results in organisations being able to not only continue their operations in the face of disruptions or disasters, but also remain competitive in the market. This is especially relevant in the current market environment where competition is fierce and businesses need to be agile and respond quickly to change. Downtime, irrespective of its source, is unacceptable as extended outages risk financial and reputational loss.
In today’s fast paced world, business continuity management is an integrated discipline which requires a multi-faceted approach to identifying and implementing bespoke scalable solutions. David Balleste, CEO of B Continuity Solutions, tells us how his Tarragona, Spain, based organisation supports clients in maintaining installations, minimising disruption, and ensuring business continues to be ‘as usual.’
Uninterrupted Supply and Non-Stop Production
All too often business shutdowns result in an interruption of service and a need to carry out remedial work until operations can return to normality. B Continuity Solutions replace unscheduled technical shutdowns with small controlled interventions which allow maintenance – or projects – to be carried out in specific areas while the rest are able to continue. “Business must go on” is the key ethic at the very heart of ethos at the very heart of all we do, David proudly states.
However, business continuity and successful contingency plans will always mean different things according to the situation and industry in which clients operate in. Our work is varied, David is keen to point out, and after a period of extensive technical study, the role of his organisation is to implement individual solutions which although being industry specific, always react to the premise that our client will never have to terminate business processes at any time.
Innovative Solutions
Providing business solutions to clients across multiple sectors is a challenging and evolving task. Asked about the secrets of success, David describes the process as triple pronged.
- Understanding the market, client, site and needs – Listening and understanding the needs of the client and his industry, the process in operation, its critical points and the value we at B Continuity Solutions can bring in providing a solution. We then have to create a value proposition, find the right team, test the solution in a controllable environment and present it to the client.
- Research and Development – Providing a brand new service isn’t always easy. We may have to collaborate with a university in order to create a new product, or we may have to start from scratch in acquiring skilled personal to respond to specific needs.
- Thinking outside of the box – This is probably one of our most differential parts. We can adapt solutions used in one industry for use in another (from oil and gas to office buildings, for example). This means understanding the new industry, adapting products, offers, prices, resources, tools, procedures etc, and a significant investment in time in demonstrating to new markets that this product / services exists and is beneficial to them.
Products, Services and Multi-faceted Approaches
The team at B Continuity Solutions have in depth expertise and experience gained by working in maintenance, asset management or facility management. We draw on this specialist knowledge in being able to adapt our techniques across multiple sectors. For example, the repair of leaks in industry across gas, steam or acids without any interruption to processes.
We’re able to stop the flow of pipes by plugging them using different methodologies, such as pipe freezing, pneumatic sealing or valve insertion to replace elements which are in a poor condition, or we can modify installations without the need for a total shutdown. In other systems we make new connections in pipes, tanks or deposits without having to stop or drain the installation; thereby modifying the installation but not affecting the main activity.
Additionally, we can apply composite materials to extend the life cycle of a piece of equipment, or recover its mechanical properties in order to reduce maintenance interventions.
These techniques can be applied to almost all industries, and our team at B Continuity Solutions are accomplished in transferring skills and knowledge across multiple sectors. We group these into the following distinctive categories:
- Process continuous – to include, chemical, petrochemical, nuclear, energy, etc
- Water cycle – to include dams, safe water distribution, waste water treatments, etc
- Manufacturing – to include food processing, pharmaceutical, automotive, etc
- Healthcare – to include hospitals, care homes, etc
- Construction and leisure – to include shopping malls, hotels and general builds.
Ongoing Creativity, Values and Strategies for Success
B Continuity Solutions are a proactive organisation, David explains. We are creative by nature and continually seek solutions which will be efficient and cost effective for our clients. Core to our ways of working is an established code of practice focused around our priorities – respect, safety, and a comprehensive understanding of the barriers, restrictions and potential solutions open to us.
From protecting equipment against corrosion, connecting pipes or tanks to keep services operative, through to increasing the efficiency in reducing a turbines shutdown time, we acknowledge the importance of our role and ensure the highest calibre of standards across all functions.
B Continuity Solutions play an incremental role in being a part of the contingency plans of many of our clients. This means an increase in the reliability and safety of our facilities, and a far higher capacity to react to emergencies – in the case of healthcare, this ability is obviously crucial. To this end, our team possess a determined willingness to learn new skills, search for promising innovations, adapt to trends, and apply new ways of working to business continuity strategies. I’d also highlight the importance of efficient team playing, says David. Time management and technical expertise are essential traits, as are strong interpersonal and motivational skills.
Through our ability to be both flexible yet creative, our clients know that projects will not only be completed on time but a smooth flow of operations will always be maintained.
Taragona based B Continuity Solutions collaborates with asset management and facilities management companies across a wide range of sectors – including petrochemical, water cycle, food, pharmaceutical, etc, to mitigate service interruptions and ensure business continuity. The organisation is currently working on projects across southern Europe (Spain, Portugal, Italy and Andorra) but aims to expand its services to other countries.
For further information on the products and services provided, please visit the company website: http://www.bcsolutions.es/en
