Oddly enough, I think this certification grew out of the US Patriot Act.  The US Government figured out that private infrastructure was actually pretty important to the country, and decided this was a good way to help make sure that private businesses could safeguard their own goods and services.  The standard that has been decided on for BCM, as far as I know, was just an adoption of British Standard 25999-2:2007.  You can google it and download it.  Not for free though; unless you decide to "stick it to the man", you have to pay to find out what they heck the standard is.  (Note to NSA, I don't advocate sticking it to The Man.) 

So after you've found a way to download it for free, if you are a small business, and in government speak a "small business" can actually be a fairly good sized business by real person standards, the certification process is duck soup.  You self-certify.  Yep, you get to give yourself a gold star when you've met the standards, although in the reply to that memo asking you to look into it, I might phrase it more along the lines of "first-party declaration of conformity".  

In all seriousness, I think BCM certification is a good thing all in all.  Many business are under-prepared for the unexpected, and this will give you an opportunity to update your planning in a systematic manner.