What is ISO 22301?
How to Conform to the International Standard for Business Continuity

Our independent consultants here at URM can identify and evaluate any gaps between your organisation's existing policies, processes and practices, and the Standard’s requirements. URM can recognise areas of improvement and enhancements needed in order for your organisation to meet the requirements of ISO 22301.
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An ISO 22301 gap analysis is conducted by reviewing your BCMS  documentation and conducting interviews with those individuals responsible for your organisation’s business continuity approach.  When the gap analysis is complete, URM can assist you with any remediation work that has been identified as necessary.

URM can carry out a business impact analysis, identifying any potential disruptions and the consequences of these. These disruptions include natural disasters, technology failures and human-made errors. We can determine your  critical business activities which underpin your key services and products, helping you understand where you should prioritise your business continuity strategies and plans.

Once we have identified these possible disruptions through our business impact analysis, URM can work collaboratively with you to develop comprehensive and detailed strategies. These strategies will prioritise the continuation of critical operations should a disruption occur. We will also construct emergency response protocols, communication plans, and roles and responsibilities of personnel within your team.

Once these strategies or ‘business continuity plans’ have been developed and implemented, they will enable you respond to and recover from disruption. This includes an understanding of the personnel and resources essential for recovery, the procedures which will ensure the continuity of operations, a plan for communicating internally and externally, and the development of strategies to restore operations.

It is of vital importance that you understand how effective your BCPs and IMPs are before a disruptive incident actually occurs.  The best way to achieve this and identify how your BCPs and IMPs can be improved is by conducting regular exercises with the key individuals who would be involved in executing them.  URM can devise realistic and challenging scenarios which are applicable to your organisation, and facilitate exercises to help you understand which aspects of your BCPs and IMPs work well and any areas which need refining.  URM’s business continuity specialists can provide detailed feedback on both how your team performed, and how to action any necessary improvements.