In our previous post, we talked about Business Continuity and international standards, but what are these?

International standards are documents that have been developed through the consensus of experts from many countries and are approved and published by a globally recognized body. The standards comprise rules, guidelines, processes, or characteristics that allow users to achieve the same outcome time and time again.

In line with this, the International Organization for Standardization established a standard regarding Business Continuity, which its current version is the ISO 22301:2019 Security and resilience – Business Continuity Management Systems – Requirements. The standard is aimed at organizations of all types and sizes, while combining and complementing, different standards in related areas.

ISO 22301:2019 has one specific goal:

[specify] the structure and requirements for implementing and maintaining a business continuity management system (BCMS) that develops business continuity appropriate to the amount and type of impact that the organization may or may not accept following a disruption

The main benefits of adopting ISO 22301 are:

• Reduction of incidents that cause business interruptions
• Dealing with and recovering the business functions and the ability of doing business, in an orderly manner, in case of a negative event
• Ensuring through standardization, that the result of the effort has no gaps, omissions, or incorrect approaches
• Harmonization and “prioritization” of investments in Business Continuity in respect with the business goals, strategies and priorities of the organization
• Highlighting the ability of the organization to operate in a modern and demanding environment
• Assurance (for management and shareholders) that the preparations in place and the allocated resources, are really covering the needs of Business Continuity, through audited by a global certification body
• Creating of a substantial & unquestionable competitive advantage in terms of availability and reliability of their products and services
• Global recognition of their ability to manage and support the continuation of their business under adverse conditions
• Showcasing the maturity and leadership of shareholders, management and personnel

This article was written by the SIGMA BUSINESS NETWORK team.