April 2012 – Workshops and Training in Malaysia
Merrycon delivers two Business Continuity workshops (BIA and Developing BCPs) and the Business Continuity Institute’s GPG training course in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on behalf of EJF Consulting Services.

March 2012 – Lead Role in GPG Re-write
Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principle Business Continuity consultant, is asked by the Business Continuity Institute to take the lead role in writing section 4 (Determining Business Continuity Strategy) of the latest version of its Good Practice Guideline

February 2012 – Review Against BS 25999
Merrycon successfully completes a review of the Business Continuity arrangements of the subsidiary of a large international company against the British Standard for Business Continuity, BS 25999.

January 2012 – Merits For Most
Of the 8 people that attended the Business Continuity Institute’s Good Practice Guidelines 5 Day training course in the Cotswolds given by Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principle Business Continuity consultant, on behalf of Continuity Shop, 6 achieved a pass with Merit in the Business Continuity Institute’s exam.

January 2012 – Merrycon Invokes BCP
Following a failure of its NAS drive, Merrycon successfully invoked its Business Continuity Plan. Merrycon’s systems were immediately recovered to a sustainable level, and within 3 days a new NAS drive had been installed brining operations back to a normal level. No data was lost.

December 2011 – 300 Trained in BCI’s Good Practice Guidelines
Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principle Business Continuity consultant, who delivers Business Continuity training on behalf of Continuity Shop, has now trained more than 300 people in the Business Continuity Institute’s Good Practice Guidelines.

November 2011 – BCM in Malaysia
In combination with Continuity Shop and EJF Consulting Services of Malaysia, Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principle Business Continuity consultant, will be delivering the short 3 day version of the Business Continuity Institute’s Good Practice Guidelines training course in Kuala Lumpur.

November 2011 – Business Continuity Clinic
In combination with Intellect (The Technology Trade Association), Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principle Business Continuity consultant, will be holding a Business Continuity Clinic in London for its members. Intellect represents more than 800 companies ranging from SMEs to multinationals.

October 2011 – Mataco Videos
Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principle Business Continuity consultant, works with Najeda Online Marketing to produce a series of 5 videos for Savant explaining the benefits of using the Mataco system to manage a Business Continuity programme.

June 2011 – Article in Continuity
Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principle Business Continuity consultant, has an article published in Continuity magazine on the need for organisations to ensure that they hold a debrief following an incident.

April 2011 – Updated Training Courses
Merrycon has updated its portfolio of Business Continuity training courses for 2011with the latest ideas and thinking on the subject. These courses are run in-house for clients, and can be customised to meet individual requirements.

February 2011 – Good Practice Guidelines E-Learning
Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principal Business Continuity consultant, has been commissioned by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) to work with Richard Middleton of e-learna to develop the new version of its Good Practice Guidelines E- Learning product. Richard is designing and developing the new E-learning product, with Mel providing the subject matter expertise.

January 2011 – Definition of MTPD
An article by Mel Gosling (Merrycon’s principal Business Continuity consultant) arguing that the current definition of the term Maximum Tolerable Period of Disruption (MTPD) not only causes confusion, but is actually wrong, and needs to be replaced by a definition that will ensure that the concept is both readily understood and used as originally intended the definition of the term MTPD, is published by Continuity Central. One of the comments on the article stated “Mel has totally understood the problem with MTPD and has articulated it far better than I ever could. Excellent article.”

December 2010 – BCI’s GPG Course
Merrycon is commissioned by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) to update the its 5 day Good Practice Guidelines (GPG) training course, which is based on the 2010 version of the GPG, to version 3.1.

November 2010 – The Next Step for BCM
Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principle business continuity consultant, who was invited to provide his expert opinion as a “leading market practitioner” on the next evolutionary leap forward for BCM by Continuity magazine, has his ideas published in its September/October issue.

October 2010 – BCI’s Membership Committee
Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principle business continuity consultant, steps down from the BCI’s Membership Committee after serving for 4 years. During that time Mel played a significant role in developing the BCI’s Certification Exam and E-Learning Programme, as well as acting as both a Chief Reviewer and Practice Group Leader for the 2010 version of the BCI’s Good Practice Guidelines, and was the developer of the BCI’s new 5 day GPG training course.

September 2010 – The Business Continuity Consultants’ Blog
Merrycon launches its Business Continuity Consultants’ Blog, written by Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principle business continuity consultant.

August 2010 – Merits All Round in the BCI Certification Exam
Every delegate that attended the new 5 day Good Practice Guidelines (GPG) training course in May delivered by Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principle business continuity consultant, that have taken the BCI’s certification exam have achieved a Pass with Merit. This course was delivered in conjunction with Continuity Shop.

July 2010 – Mataco Case Study
Merrycon starts work on producing a complete end to end BCM implementation case study using Mataco, the new web based Business Continuity system developed by Savant in partnership with Merrycon. The end result will provide a comprehensive example of the documents that are produced when implementing BCM.

June 2010 – 90% Pass the ISEB Exam in Athens
In conjunction with Continuity Shop, Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principle business continuity consultant, successfully delivers the ISEB 5 day BCM training course in Athens, and over 90% of the delegates subsequently pass the ISEB Practitioner Certificate in BCM exam.

May 2010 – Mataco Implementation BCI’s GPG Course
In conjunction with Continuity Shop, Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principle business continuity consultant, successfully delivers the BCI’s new 5 day Good Practice Guidelines (GPG) training course, which is based on the 2010 version of the GPG.

April 2010 – Mataco Implementation
Version 2 of Mataco, the new web based Business Continuity system developed by Savant in partnership with Merrycon, is released.

March 2010 – Kent County Council Seminar
Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principle business continuity consultant, presents a case study on ensuring supplier continuity at the Kent County Council Emergency Planning Group seminar.

March 2010 – Training in China
In conjunction with Continuity Shop, Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principle business continuity consultant, delivers the BCI’s 5 day training course to employees of SGS in Shenzhen, China.

March 2010 – Mataco Implementation
Kent County Council, the first user of the new web based Business Continuity system, Mataco, which has been developed by Savant in partnership with Merrycon, successfully completes its implementation. Mataco is now being used by Kent County Council to maintain and develop its Business Continuity Management (BCM) programme.

February 2010 – BCI’s GPG Course
Merrycon is commissioned by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) to produce the new version of its 5 day Good Practice Guidelines (GPG) training course, which is based on the 2010 version of the GPG.

January 2010 – Record Year
Merrycon is pleased to announce that 2009 was its best year to date for Business Continuity consulting.

December 2009 – Sale of Mataco
The new web based Business Continuity system, Mataco, which is being developed by Savant in partnership with Merrycon, has been selected for use by an NHS trust to support their implementation of Business Continuity Management (BCM).

November 2009 – Standards: A Curse or a Blessing?
Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principal consultant in Business Continuity, makes a controversial and thought provoking presentation at the BCM World Conference and Exhibition in London.

October 2009 – Supplier Continuity
Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principal consultant in Business Continuity, has an article on the importance of ensuring continuity in the supply chain published in Continuity Magazine.

October 2009 – County Council selects Mataco
Mataco, the new system to support the BCM process, has been selected by one of the UK’s largest county councils. The web based solution will help the council collate critical function data and integrate it with associated response guidance. It will link to other sources of information in order to safeguard the interests of its key stakeholders. The solution will support the county council’s accreditation to BS25999-1:2006.

September 2009 – Merrycon Partners with Savant to build new BC System
Specialist software firm Savant Limited is partnering with Merrycon in building a new system to support the BCM process. Savant, a Lake District based company, will build the new system as a flexible web based solution. Merrycon will be providing specialist knowledge of Business Continuity issues and requirements, with Savant developing the system and providing support. The new system will be known as Mataco.

August 2009 - Business Continuity Analysis Course
Merrycon announces the availability of its new 2 day in-house workshop to provide
training in how to undertake the key elements of business continuity analysis that
underpin the development of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) : Business Impact
Analysis (BIA) and Continuity Requirements Analysis (CRA).

August 2009 - Community Resilience
Community Resilience, the non-profit organisation working with local, regional and
national government, the police, fire brigade, ambulance service, NHS, and voluntary
organisations, selects Mel Gosling, Merrycon's Managing Director, as one of its
business continuity consultants following strong recommendations from a local
authority.

July 2009 – System Upgrade
Merrycon announces the upgrade of its Microsoft Access based business continuity
system to Office 2007. Users that do not have Office 2007 can continue to use the
existing version, or can elect to use a runtime version of Access 2007, supplied free of
charge, by Microsoft.

June 2009 – ISEB Exam Success
Merrycon's principal business continuity consultant, Mel Gosling, has tested his
knowledge of Business Continuity Management by sitting the British Computer
Society's Business Continuity Management Practitioner exam. Merrycon is relieved
to report that he passed the exam with a score of 86%.

April 2009 – Merrycon Bucks the Trend
Merrycon is pleased to announce that the first quarter of 2009 was its busiest on record for providing business continuity services, bucking the downward trend of the UK economy.

March 2009 – BCM in the Middle East
An article by Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principal consultant in Business Continuity, providing a practical guide to implementing Business Continuity Management (BCM), is published in the Middle East's Business and Finance magazine, Capital.

February 2009 – Merrycon Provides BC Services to JMG
Merrycon has been appointed by the insurance broking company JM Glendinning to
provide business continuity services to its clients.

February 2009 – SMEs: Stop the preaching
Continuity Magazine publishes an article by Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principal
consultant in Business Continuity, and Andrew Hiles, Managing Director of
Kingswell International, which puts forward the view that the time has come to stop
preaching to an audience that doesn't want to listen and using scare tactics that cannot
be substantiated, and to start taking action to improve the resilience of small
organisations on which most people depend for their livelihood.

January 2009 – BCM case Study
Merrycon provides a complete Business Continuity Management (BCM) case study
for use by Continuity Shop in its public Business Continuity Institute Good Practice
Guidelines Training Programme. This case study contains a comprehensive and in
depth example of the implementation of the BCM life cycle by a commercial
organisation, and will be used by the students in the training programme to provide a
practical reinforcement of the theory presented.

December 2008 – Too Much Jargon
Following the debate held at the Business Continuity Institute's 2008 Symposium on
whether or not there is too much jargon in Business Continuity Management (BCM),
Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principal consultant in Business Continuity, has his views
published published in the Soap Box feature in Continuity Magazine.

November 2008 – Bad Practice Guidelines
Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principal consultant in Business Continuity, has his
summary Bad Practice Guidelines published in Continuity Magazine. The idea for a
Bad Practice Guidelines came about during a meeting of the BCI’s GPG Quality
Review working group. What started off as just an amusing idea has a serious
purpose. Just because a practice isn’t in the Good Practice Guidelines it doesn’t mean
that it’s Bad Practice. By using this Guide, practitioners should be able to identify
some of the more common Bad Practices that are still to be found in the world of
business continuity.

October 2008 – Use Consultants
The Business Continuity seminar held in the north of England for local Health care
organisations, presented by Mel Gosling of Merrycon and Emily Thompson of Living
Continuity, proves to be a much needed and popular event. Comments from delegates
include “I do believe that it is important to bring Consultants in to do the job as it
focuses the organisation to the job in hand. If left to an employee there is not the
same buy in from management”

September 2008 – Merrycon Hits 50
Merrycon’s Business Continuity system has now been implemented in more than 50 organisations, providing an easy to use and flexible tool that enables its clients to keep their Business Continuity and Incident Management plans up to date.

September 2008 – Clients Come Back for More
Two clients, for whom Merrycon developed Business Continuity Plans back in 2004, have come back to Merrycon to re-start their now dormant Business Continuity Management programmes.

August 2008 – Health Service Seminar
Border Continuity announces that it is holding a seminar on Business Continuity in Penrith on 14th October for Primary Care organisations in the Health Service. This seminar is free of charge and is presented by Mel Gosling of Merrycon and Emily Thompson of Living Continuity. It will enable those tasked with implementing Business Continuity in their organisation to learn about how other Primary Care organisations in the Health Service have tackled the complex issues of Business Continuity Management in the NHS.

August 2008 – Border Continuity
Merrycon establishes a marketing partnership with Living Continuity Ltd, called Border Continuity, to provide business continuity services to organisations in the north of England and the south of Scotland.

July 2008 – BCI’s Test & Exercise Planning Workshop
Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s principal Business Continuity consultant, presents on “Participation & Preparation” at the BCI’s Test & Exercise Planning Workshop held in Leeds in the UK.

July 2008 – In-house BCM Workshops
Merrycon announces the availability of its new set of in-house Business Continuity Management (BCM) workshops, based on the 2008 Good Practice Guidelines produced by the Business Continuity Institute, aimed at organisations that have a need to train staff in the theory and practice of BCM.

June 2008 – Paper for BCI Symposium
Merrycon’s paper, “Ensuring Continuity of Outsourced Services”, is accepted for presentation at the 2008 BCI Symposium for senior practitioners – Taking BCM to the Next Level

May 2008 – Exercise Scenarios
Merrycon releases a software tool for use by Business Continuity professionals to generate and specify scenarios and scripts for use in exercising Business Continuity and Incident management Plans.

April 2008 - Business Continuity Conference
Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s Managing Director, and Principal Business Continuity Consultant, speaks at the Business Continuity Conference at ExCeL London on the evidence that BCM really works.

February 2008 - Investing in Business Continuity
Capital, the Business & Finance magazine for the Middle East, publishes an article by Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s Managing Director, and Principal Business Continuity Consultant, on why organisations should invest in Business Continuity.

January 2008 - Recovery of Critical Systems
An article by Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s Managing Director, and Principal Business Continuity Consultant, on the need to test the recovery of critical computer systems is published in the technology issue of the Disaster Resource Guide.

December 2007 - Merrycon’s BCM Approach
Merrycon updates its introductory document on Business Continuity Management .(BCM) to explain how Merrycon’s approach enables an organisation’s to start implementing the BCM process quickly, easily, and at an affordable price.

October 2007 - SME Case Study
Mel Gosling, Merrycon’s Managing Director, and Principal Business Continuity Consultant, presents a case study at a seminar for SME’s organised by Leeds City Council on how one of Merrycon’s clients used its Business Continuity Plan in response to a flood.

July 2007 - Service Continuity Plan Pilots
Merrycon pilots its new Service Continuity Plan packages for Primary Care Providers with a Dentist in Cumbria and a GP in Leicestershire.