ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management System (BCMS)

All you need to know about Business Continuity Management

The Relationship between Business Continuity Management and Risk

In today's uncertain world, businesses must prepare for unforeseen events that could damage their operations. Business Continuity Management (BCM) is vital for achieving this goal. BCM is based on the principle that well-designed response systems can minimise the impact of unexpected events. It is a widely used model for identifying an organisation's exposure to threats, such as cyber-attacks, natural disasters, and data breaches and building a response mechanism for such events. 

By identifying potential threats and building response mechanisms, BCM helps businesses maintain essential functions and day-to-day operations, even during times of crisis. BCM certification and training should be mandatory for all employees to ensure safety and sustainability. By adopting BCM, businesses can become more competitive, agile, and prepared for anything that may come their way. In short, companies must build an action plan to mitigate the damage from unforeseeable events, and BCM is the best defense mechanism they can adopt.

Business Continuity Management is crucial for the survival of organisations, especially in a world where they face various risks. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the impact of unforeseen events on businesses. A BCM plan is essential to mitigate such risks and ensure the continuity of operations. This gives organisations the confidence that the impact can be minimised even if something unexpected happens.

What makes Business Continuity Management crucial?

Here are four critical indications of why BCM is crucial:

1. Business Continuity in Disruption: Organisations with a BCM plan can better respond to natural disasters, human error, cyber-attacks, and more. This enables them to remain operational during disruptions and avoid financial loss.
2. Protects Reputation: Effective BCM strategies can prevent reputational damage by responding quickly and effectively to incidents that might negatively affect the organisation.
3. Risk Mitigation: A well-designed BCM plan prepares businesses for unlikely events with minimal impact on their operations and reduces risks.
4. Regulatory Compliance: BCM plans help organisations meet growing regulatory requirements by enabling leaders to exercise due diligence in mitigating risks.

Relationship between Risk Management and BCM

Risk management and business continuity are closely interconnected as they aim to mitigate the impact of potential risks an organisation faces. They are essential for the successful operations of any organisation. 

Risk management involves identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks that may threaten the organisation's operations, reputation, or financial stability. Business continuity is creating and implementing strategies to ensure the organisation can continue operating during and after a disruptive event.

A comprehensive risk management plan must include a business continuity plan as it provides a blueprint for responding and recovering from unexpected events. Without a BCM plan, any risk management process is incomplete. Investing in risk management with a strong focus on business continuity ensures that an organisation is prepared for any eventuality. Therefore, business continuity and risk management are complementary components of a broader risk management framework.

Steps in Developing a Business Continuity Management Plan

A business continuity management plan is a shield that protects the business from internal and external threats like natural disasters, cyber-attacks, sabotage, etc. A comprehensive BCM plan minimises downtime, reduces financial losses, protects reputation, and ensures business continuity. An efficient BCM plan can be designed by following the below-mentioned steps:

• Lay Down Objectives of the Plan: Business Continuity Management (BCM) encompasses an organisation’s IT department and systems and its critical functions. Its primary aim is to ensure the continuous operation of essential functions during disruptions. However, every organisation must prioritise specific areas while developing its plan. Therefore, it is crucial to establish objectives and goals before commencing the plan-building process.
• Conduct Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis (BIA): The first and most critical step in creating a BCM plan is to conduct a Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis (BIA). Risk assessment aids in identifying the most significant potential threats to the organisation and conducting a comprehensive analysis of them. Meanwhile, BIA is a structured process that helps identify essential business functions, particularly those with higher-risk exposure. It is crucial to prioritise critical tasks for business operations during the BIA process while addressing those with little or no impact later.
• Develop a Plan for Each Essential Function: Examining every critical function and developing an appropriate recovery strategy as a response mechanism for any disruption is imperative. While devising these strategies, creating a communication plan to inform people and stakeholders of the organisation about the response and recovery process is crucial.
• Implement the BCM Plan: After considering the recovery strategies and response mechanism, it is crucial to draft a customised BCM plan that caters to the organisation’s needs. Equally vital is the communication of the plan to employees and stakeholders on an ongoing basis.
• Test, Monitor, Revise, and Update BCM Plan: Once implemented, the BCM plan should undergo testing within the organisation, involving trial runs and, where possible, simulations, particularly for security-related risks. Since risks can arise in various forms and are not static, keeping the organisation’s BCM plans up-to-date is crucial to prepare for potential disruptions continuously. Regular revisions and updates to the plan are necessary to ensure its effectiveness and efficiency in addressing evolving risks.

Applicable Business Continuity Management standards

International bodies prescribe standards organisations must follow to align their operations with global norms and meet country-specific regulations. These standards establish a uniform procedure and process to maintain global uniformity in business, helping organisations prepare for potential disruptions.

ISO 22301 is the international framework for Business Continuity Management Systems, published by the International Organization of Standardization (ISO). ISO 22301 aims at reducing the potential threats that a business faces and aims at mitigating risks that an organisation is exposed to by laying down guidelines for building an effective Business Continuity Management plan. 

• ISO 22301 specifies the requirements to plan, establish, implement, monitor, test and update the BCM plan to improve business continuity systems. 
• It focuses on overall societal security by continually assisting in improving business continuity management systems.

TÜV SÜD’s business continuity management certification services make it easy for an organisation to implement a plan according to the ISO 22301 standards, guidelines, and certifications, making organisations well-equipped and ready to face any unprecedented event. 

Best Practices for BCM

There are several ways to monitor the effectiveness of systems and processes to maintain business continuity management's (BCM) efficacy. However, the most viable approach is to ensure the BCM plan covers all the organisation's critical functions. It is also essential that employees and stakeholders are aware of the plan so they are prepared to respond to unlikely events. Additionally, organisations can adopt specific best practices to sustain the effectiveness of business continuity management.

• Conducting regular risk assessments: Regular risk assessments enable the organisation to monitor any potential risks that may have emerged recently and threaten its operations. Additionally, conducting regular business impact analyses helps identify new critical business processes that may present higher potential risks.
• Maintaining up-to-date plans and procedures: As businesses continue to grow and operate in a dynamic environment, various changes occur within the organization concerning employees, operations, supply chains, and functions. To ensure that the organisation is prepared to face any challenges in this rapidly changing environment, it is crucial to keep the BCM plans and procedures up-to-date in alignment with the changes within the organisation.
• Involving all departments and stakeholders: The stakeholders of an organisation are vital contributors to the business, and any event occurring in or around the organisation directly affects them. Therefore, involving all departments and stakeholders in business continuity management is critical. They should be informed and possess knowledge about the plans and recovery strategies encompassing the BCM process, ensuring they feel included and prepared to act whenever necessary.
• Regularly testing and exercising BCM plans: Regular trial runs and testing of BCM plans to ensure that the plans are best suited for any potential disruption. Moreover, it helps businesses comply with and meet the regulatory requirements by keeping every component of the BCM plan active and up-to-date per the current scenario.
• Communicating with stakeholders during a crisis: Responsible organisations ensure effective and honest communication with their stakeholders and the public during unlikely crisis events. They convey their response and restoration strategies to manage situations, strengthening the bond with stakeholders and reflecting the organisation's credibility.

Importance of BCM Certification and Training

A BCM plan is critical for any organisation, regardless of whether they have faced uncertainties. It mitigates the risks of unforeseen events. To develop a robust plan, it is recommended to involve experienced professionals. BCM certification and training play a vital role in this regard as it helps employees and professionals gain knowledge of ISO 22301 BCM standard and develop measures to be taken while drafting a BCM plan. This knowledge and experience can save the organisation from potential risks and disasters and ensure the authenticity and viability of the plan.

BCM training provides several benefits, including contributing to improving organisational operations and enhancing career prospects for the individuals involved. Continuous updates and revisions of plans provide varied exposure to the planning and risk-response mechanism, making the person involved more effective in risk management and response strategy. Businesses invest heavily in training employees on business processes, and it is crucial to train specific individuals in risk management and response mechanisms for business continuity. By investing in BCM training and certification, organisations can ensure the continuity of their business and the effectiveness of their responses to crises.

TÜV SÜD’s Business Continuity Management certification services comprehensively equip the employees and professionals to understand the BCM process and ensure they are well-trained to contribute towards the planning and implementation process.

Conclusion

Given the various uncertainties that businesses face internally and externally, all companies must develop a Business Continuity Management (BCM) plan proactively. Risks can manifest in many forms and at any time, making it necessary to have an efficient BCM plan that prepares businesses to effectively respond to and recover from risks without adverse effects on operations. Developing and implementing a BCM enhances their resilience against various risks and uncertainties.

TÜV SÜD can support organisations in their journey to achieve the ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management (BCM) System certification with our services:

• ISO 22301 BCMS Certification
• ISO/IEC 27001 & ISO 22301 Internal Auditor
• ISO 22301 Training: Awareness, Internal Auditor, Implementer, Lead Auditor