We live in volatile times. Your organisation needs to be prepared for the worst, whether that’s floods, fires, cyber attacks or terrorism. The ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) gives you the tools to keep going when disaster strikes. It will also help you put in place best practice procedures for reducing the threat of disruption from activities inside your business.
ISO 22301 is an internationally recognised standard that is designed to allow businesses to implement, maintain and improve a business continuity management system (BCMS). The ISO 22301 standard helps you understand and prioritise threats to your organisation. Its BCMS specifies the steps you need to take to reduce the threat of disruption, protect your assets if something does go wrong, and recover quickly from any incidents.
The standard is of particular interest to businesses looking to ensure their products and services can continue to be delivered at an acceptable capacity during a disruption.
Here are the top benefits of using the ISO 22301 framework:
Minimising disruption: by following the international best practice strategy of ’Plan, Do, Check, Act’, ISO 22301 helps you minimise disruption and maintain your services
Flexibility and responsiveness: by improving your crisis management techniques, ISO helps you deal quickly with any disruption, local or international, and rapidly restore services
Accountability: by helping you define acceptable timescales for resuming business activities, the BCMS ensures your stakeholders know what level of service to expect following any disruption
Competitive advantage: by strengthening management across your organisation, internationally recognised BCMS will increase client confidence in your services
Continuous improvement: by submitting your Business Continuity Management System to regular audits and risk assessments, you’ll ensure it remains effective
Regulatory compliance: by demonstrating that you comply with risk management laws regulations, you’ll increase the confidence of employees, customers and other stakeholders
Save money: in some cases ISO 22301 can reduce internal and external BCMS audit costs, as well as insurance premiums, this could help your business improve its financial performance
Optimise customer services: by strengthening management controls, you will be able maintain agreed levels of critical services and products to customers even if you face disruption
Stronger management: by increasing management involvement and identifying internal external risks, the ISO 22301 framework ensures the effectiveness of your BCMS
Brand reputation: by demonstrating your commitment to maintaining excellent service even in times of disruption, ISO 22301 certification can enhance your reputation with customers.
The ISO 22301 standard uses a structure of ten clauses called Annex SL which, roughly grouped together, cover four key areas:
Continuity – the processes your business must follow to run a successful Business Continuity Management System and monitor, prevent, assess and recover from disruptions to your business
Management Responsibility – the areas where your management team need to focus on, be involved with and be accountable for
Resource Management – how resources such as people, infrastructure and facilities must be assigned to ensure the best possible performance
Measurement, Analysis and Improvement – how you can determine if your Management System is working as expected, facilitating the continual improvement of your system
The QMS process gets your business certified for success:
Our nationwide team of consultants and auditors has provided certifications to clients ranging from SMEs to blue chip organisations across a broad spectrum of verticals and industries.
Our processes add value at every stage, without taking up unwarranted management time. We commit to providing you with the best possible value for money – including a price promise from the outset, along with the ability to stagger payments at no extra cost.
We remove the red tape and paperwork for you, making the process as smooth and uncomplicated as possible, and ensuring you get the framework that works for you.
With the help of QMS, the certification process can take as little as 45 days to complete
A QMS Consultant will visit your Organisation to review and document your current processes and procedures, highlighting any areas that do not meet the requirements of the Standard.
Now its time to make sure any required process or procedural changes are made, as highlighted in the Review. QMS can provide templates to assist you in doing this.
An Auditor must now visit your Organisation to check that the documented processed are being followed and that the necessary changes have been made. Once they are satisfied, you will be rewarded with your certification.
Once you have achieved certification the certification cycle will commence. This
is made up of surveillance and re-certification audits, one of which must take place each year, around the anniversary of your certification. These visits confirm your continued compliance with the Standard and
verify the validity of your certification.
QMS Connect delivers all the tools you need to achieve and maintain ISO compliance.
With simple navigation, real-time reporting and the ability to modify and update content on the go, QMS Connect keeps you in control. Accessible online via your computer, tablet or smartphone 24 hours a day, QMS Connect helps you manage your ISO Management System in real-time.
QMS Connect helps engage your teams, so that you can capture data that will drive business decisions – increasing repeat business, reducing customer complaints and ultimately saving you both time and money.
Why you should choose QMS to assist your business with ISO certification
Overview of the ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management System Standard
Understanding the Basics of ISO 22301
Understand what ISO 22301:2012 requires from your business
Understand what ISO 22301 requires from your business
Understand the principles of ISO 22301 and how they impact your business
Understand the principles of ISO 22301 and what they require from your business
Find out about QMS, our achievements and some of our clients
At QMS we are constantly updating our approach and process to meet the latest changes in how ISO 22301 works.
What did businesses do when the pandemic spread in 2020? How well did they cope, and how did staff deal with the changes? To find out, we went and asked them.
Copart UK wanted to enhance their services and provide reassurance to clients in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read on to find out how QMS’ Business Continuity Solution helped them to develop a robust plan and set them on the course for ISO 22301.
When the first national lockdown was announced, businesses across the country had to adapt quickly. But were those with business continuity plans better able to deal with the challenge? We went to find out.
