National furniture retailer DFS has enlisted the help of Yorkshire-based Onyx Group for its IT and workplace continuity. DFS employ 250 people in Doncaster to manage the company’s accounts, HR, IT, payroll and marketing departments. The support will enable the retailer to maintain office operations in the event of an emergency at its existing facilities.

Business continuity solutions provider Vocal has been accepted as an accredited supplier on the G-Cloud Government Procurement portal. G-Cloud is an initiative targeted at easing the procurement of cloud based IT by public sector bodies with the aim of promoting cloud computing and making savings on technology government-wide.

Global supply chain sustainability specialist Ecodesk has launched a free online tool to help businesses and organisations understand their current levels of sustainability performance in the face of increased reporting regulation and supply chain standards, including the forthcoming ISO 14001 revision.

AIG has launched a new line of multinational commercial property products and services, including expanded coverage, loss prevention engineering, and risk management solutions for mid-sized businesses confronting global risk exposures.

The nations most resilient to supply chain disruption, one of the leading causes of business volatility, have been revealed by an index developed by FM Global. More than a year in development, the data-driven tool and repository ranks the business resilience of 130 countries via an online, interactive tool that displays data on country-by-country susceptibility to supply chain disruption.

With the start of the World Cup less than a week away, employers are being urged to update business continuity plans ahead of football fever – particularly where they relate to staff absences. Staff absences are more prone to rise during large sporting events, which has are more significant impact on employers whose staff are working shifts.

Global supply chain sustainability specialist Ecodesk has teamed up with carbon footprinting and lifecycle analysts at Carbon River to deliver a total sustainability solution to businesses seeking to reduce supply chain risk and improve business continuity. Using carbon, energy, water and waste as key metrics, E-Chain can quickly build a comprehensive picture of supply chain sustainability through supplier profiling and benchmarking, identifying hotspots and risks.

This year’s Business Continuity Awards winners were announced last night at a glittering gala dinner held at the Hilton on Park Lane in London. Hosted by comedian Jo Caulfield, the annual awards are the definitive mark of achievement in business continuity and resilience.

Everbridge Software has acquired UK-based Business Continuity and Communication solutions provider Vocal. The combined entity will serve more than 2,500 clients globally with over 50 million unique end users a year, delivered through 12 distributed datacentres, and supported by employees in seven offices in North America, Europe, and Asia.

The winners of the 16th annual Business Continuity Awards will be exclusively announced next week at a glittering Awards Ceremony and Gala Dinner at the Hilton on Park Lane. As always, this black tie event promises an evening of networking with hundreds of the biggest names in the business continuity field, combined with a night of celebration and entertainment.

PwC has appointed Will Brown as a director of its Enterprise Resilience practice. With extensive experience in the sector, Brown takes responsibility for building on and developing PwC's overseas resilience business.

Asia is more at risk from disruption of Middle East oil supplies than is either Europe or the US, yet as a whole it is less prepared to deal with such an upheaval, according to UK think-tank Chatham House. The Middle East now supplies nearly 50% of Asian oil consumption, compared with 12% and 16% of the US and Europe respectively. To mitigate the effects on Asian economies and global oil markets from disruptions in oil supply, Chatham House advocates a “pragmatic programme” of preparations.

Phoenix is to open a new Technology Innovation Centre, at its site in Birmingham. The centre is designed to provide a flexible environment to explore new technologies and solutions, helping customers to understand the impact of change to their IT infrastructure.

Crisis, issues and reputation management consultancy, Regester Larkin is to acquire crisis management and business continuity specialist Steelhenge Consulting. The two firms, which have have already collaborated on a number of client projects are both long established industry consultants.

Congratulations to all the finalists in this year's Business Continuity Awards. The awards provide an evening networking with hundreds of the biggest names in the business continuity field, combined with a night of entertainment. This year the Awards Gala Dinner and Ceremony will be held on 29 May 2014 at the Hilton on Park Lane, London. This year’s host is stand-up comedian Jo Caulfield. Read on for this year's shortlist.