Benefits of Business Continuity Management
This page outlines the benefits of implementing a business continuity management system (BCMS) aligned to the international business continuity management standard, ISO 22301.
By implementing a BCMS compliant with ISO 22301 your organisation can:
Maintain continuity of business operations.
In the event of business disruption, a BCMS helps an organisation to maintain its service levels to its customers. The BCMS enables business leaders to assess the potential impacts of an operational disruption, make the right decisions quickly, deploy an effective response and minimise the overall impact to the organisation.
Protect assets, turnover and profits
Effective business continuity management means that the organisation is able to ensure continuity in the delivery of its products and services, and perform activities that are critical to successfully continuing its operations. These activities protect the business’s income stream, and reduce the risk of further losses due to an incident or disaster. Effective BCM also helps protect an organisation’s assets.
Meet legal and regulatory requirements
Compliance with ISO 22301 can provide evidence that the organisation has taken the necessary steps to comply with regulatory requirements that call for an effective business continuity management programme. Apart from a director’s duty under corporate governance requirements, regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), the GDPR, the NIS Directive and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the USA are all examples where effective business continuity and/ or incident response management are essential for compliance.
Monitor and test your BCP to ensure you are prepared
A business continuity plan (BCP) is not likely to work if it is not regularly tested and updated. Since it is not integrated with the organisation’s corporate governance and management system, the BCP often gets filed and forgotten, with just a few people being aware of it. A BCMS, on the other hand, is broadly accepted as the most comprehensive approach to organisational resilience. It enables organisations to update, control and deploy effective plans, taking into account organisational contingencies and capabilities as well as the business needs (product- and service- requirements). Unlike the BCP, the BCMS is embedded in the organisation’s culture.
Reduce the cost of business interruption insurance
By implementing a BCMS that conforms with ISO 22301, the organisation has better insights into the real impact of a potential disaster, which enables the business to better evaluate the type and value of insurance cover it requires.
Increase competitive advantage and enhance corporate reputation
Organisations with an ISO 22301-compliant BCMS can improve customer confidence in the organisation’s ability to respond to a series of incidents and events. With business continuity management recognised as a key element for business sustainability, more and more organisations require accredited certification to ISO 22301 for suppliers wishing to do business with them.
Reduce the need for frequent audits
By providing a globally accepted indication of business continuity effectiveness, ISO 22301 certification negates the need for repeated customer audits, reducing the number of external customer audit days. Clients find comfort in the fact that suppliers have put substantial effort into ensuring they can continue business under difficult circumstances.
Obtain an independent opinion about your security posture
Accredited certification to ISO 22301 involves regular reviews and internal audits of the BCMS to make sure it continually improves. In addition, an external auditor will review the BCMS at specific intervals to establish whether the controls are working as intended. This independent assessment provides an expert opinion of whether the BCMS is functioning properly and provides the level of security needed to protect the organisation’s products and services.
Improve processes and organisational focus
Implementing a BCMS involves assessing and evaluating organisational processes, which identifies potential inefficiencies that can be improved. A BCMS implementation project involves the entire business, and helps the organisation focus on its objectives and maintain direction.
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Business continuity management/ ISO 23301 resources
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