qSkills™: Off to new BCM shores

IT-Training company and partner of BSI™ offers BS 25999 awareness courses in Germany for the first time with certified trainers / Expanded ISMS program with Lead Auditor training in German language.

Nuremberg, October 29, 2007. The Nuremberg IT training provider qSkills™ is expanding its workshop series in the areas of Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) in time for the release of new standards from the British Standards Institution (BSI™) at the end of the year.

The topic of Business Continuity Management (BCM) is one of the top issues in the IT environment and is increasingly at the top of companies' priority lists. The reason for this is legal framework conditions, such as Basel II or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which compel companies to take increased action and comply with these regulations. Therefore, the goal of management must be to adapt company-relevant processes and thus secure business continuity. A key factor here is the establishment of a long-term BCM strategy. It helps to prepare for the constantly growing threats and rapidly changing requirements, to act in crisis situations, and above all to facilitate communication in management and between decision-makers from different companies. The goals of BCM are to prevent financial risks and image damage, to prevent legal consequences, and thus to avoid a negative domino effect for business-critical processes.


Up-to-date BCM training
Workshops with cutting-edge content

Since the topic of BCM is fundamentally relevant for every company, qSkills™ has early on focused on training according to officially recognized guidelines that companies can certify themselves against. "We offer our ISO 27001 and BS 25999 training based on the internationally recognized certification guidelines of BSI™ Management Systems," explains Managing Director Kurt-Jürgen Jacobs. "We have now expanded our program, where all content from the newly issued, internationally recognized guidelines is prepared and conveyed by our experienced trainers in a way that participants can implement them in practice. We provide lively training content. This creates real added value for our training participants and ultimately for the respective company."

New to the training program at qSkills™ is the expanded Lead Auditor course (IRCA™) on the topic of Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) according to ISO 27001:2005, which is conducted in German for the first time and includes a German-language test. Participants can obtain certification from BSI™ UK as Lead Auditor according to ISO 27001:2005.

For the first time in Germany, qSkills™ is offering the BS 25999 BCM Awareness workshop. The following implementation and Lead Auditor training sessions will start in the first half of 2008. The awareness seminar is conducted by BSI™ certified trainers and provides cutting-edge BCM best practice knowledge. This puts qSkills™ on trend: According to Stephanie Balaouras, analyst at Forrester Research and author of the report "Market Overview: Business Continuity Planning Software," the engagement of many companies in the BC environment is insufficient. Large companies in the USA are now planning to implement the long-awaited BS 25999-2 as a best practice solution to strengthen their BC strategies.


Esperanto for better communication in IT?
Standards bring companies and stakeholders together

The main reason for embedding international standards in companies is the long-term potential: BCM is not a tool to quickly achieve short-term goals. Rather, it is a self-contained cycle. Understanding critical factors, defining a strategy, implementing measures, establishing a BCM culture, and maintaining and auditing are interconnected and mutually reinforcing. The BCM program drives this ongoing process and initiates continuous improvement across companies. "Ultimately, you can almost compare it to a common language or culture," explains Jacobs the underlying principle. "You access a common and internationally recognized set of rules. This simplifies communication with external entities, fosters trust, and ensures more transparency. However, to anchor a consistent BCM culture in the respective company, insight and support from top management are required."

Conclusion and vision for the future: Agreeing on universally valid BCM structures simplifies many processes and leads to added value for companies. This is precisely why experts are increasingly urging business leaders to engage with the topic and recognize the potential of BCM.

For more information on the BCM training program, interested parties can visit: qSkills™ Workshops


Short profile qSkills™
The qSkills™ GmbH & Co. KG is an independent training center specializing in high-quality training in the IT and IT management sectors. The main training focuses include storage, operating systems, databases, and tools. Furthermore, the company's service portfolio focuses on IT Service Management (according to ITIL), Security according to ISO 27001, Business Continuity (BS 25999), and Business Intelligence. As the only company in Germany, qSkills™ offers its ISO 27001 and BS 25999 training based on the internationally recognized certification guidelines of BSI™ Management Systems.

qSkills™ special features: The company not only offers the common and classic basic IT training but also special workshops – the so-called integrative "bridge or combination workshops." These workshops focus primarily on knowledge of networking and integration of multiple systems into an existing heterogeneous IT environment. When designing the IT training, qSkills™ relies on its own training materials, supplemented by proven manufacturer information to ensure maximum benefit for training participants. The headquarters and innovative training center with 200 modern PC workstations and an in-house data center (with a hard disk capacity of over 80 terabytes) are located in Nuremberg.

Nationwide, the training specialist collaborates with around 170 experienced trainers. In the past fiscal year 2006, qSkills™ revenue was around 3.7 million euros. qSkills™ customer base includes medium-sized and large companies from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in the energy supply, financial services, trade, information and communication technology sectors.