ISO 22301, the international business continuity standard

Speak to an expert

Whatever the nature or size of your problem, we are here to help. Get in touch today using one of the contact methods below.

Are you best prepared to respond to and recover from a disruptive incident?

Managing risks such as cyber attacks and natural disasters means organisations need effective business continuity management (BCM) plans to help them quickly recover from any event.

The international standard ISO 22301:2012 provides a best-practice framework for implementing an optimised business continuity management system (BCMS), enabling you to minimise business disruption and continue operating in the event of an incident.

An ISO 22301-aligned BCMS will include disaster recovery and business continuity plans to help your organisation recover critical operations as quickly as possible.

Purchase your copy of the standard

What is a BCMS?

A BCMS is a framework for organisations to update, control and deploy an effective BCM programme that helps them prepare for, respond to and recover from disruptive incidents. Implementing a BCMS includes the development of business continuity plans, taking into account organisational contingencies and capabilities, as well as the organisation’s individual business needs. ISO 22301 provides the specification for a best-practice BCMS.

A BCMS helps organisations cope with incidents affecting all business-critical processes and activities, from the failure of a single server to the complete loss of a major facility.

Disaster recovery and BCMS

Disaster recovery plans are often formed within the context of a BCMS. They are relatively technical and will focus on the recovery of specific operations, functions, sites, services or applications.

Disaster recovery plans are focused on returning an organisation back to ‘business as usual’ after a disruptive incident and achieving total recovery, where business continuity management is about making sure the organisation can continue to function during a disruption.

Assess your BCM arrangements against ISO 22301

Get an accurate picture of how effective your organisation’s BCM arrangements are with our ISO 22301 Gap Analysis. Receive an expert assessment of how your business continuity plans and procedures align with the best practice outlined in ISO 22301, and ensure your organisation is fully prepared to recover from a disruptive incident.

Free paper: Business Continuity and ISO 22301 – Preparing for disruption

Download this paper to learn about the fundamental components of best-practice business continuity management, including risk assessment, BIA (business impact analysis) and BCPs (business continuity plans), and discover our nine-step approach to implementing an effective BCMS aligned to ISO 22301:2019.

Download now

How IT Governance can help you

We have helped more than 800 clients with management system implementation and certification projects around the world.
We offer a wide range of BCM products and services, including books, training courses and documentation toolkits, to support your implementation journey.
We take an integrated approach to compliance so we can align your BCMS with your needs for information security, quality management, etc.
Our advice is always pragmatic, and we work according to your budget, time frame and organisational needs. No organisation or project is ever too big or small.