How the ISO 22301 Standard Can Benefit Your Business — Things to Know

Summary:

This article helps you understand the purpose of the ISO 22301 standard and its key benefits which an organisation can avail by complying to the same.

A business is always seeking for opportunities for growth and development. However, it is critical regardless of numerous scenarios that an organisation seeking to ensure top-notch operations that it stays prepared for challenges or disruptions it might face along the way. Organisations can encounter with several unforeseen accidents such as natural disasters, and significant losses. Considering these severe circumstances, a business must have their very own structured plan so they can remain stable and ensure business continuity. To put this into perspective the ISO 22301 standard was introduced as an ideal solution for businesses dealing with such challenges and assist in helping to develop a Business Continuity Management System (BCMS).

Here in this article, we outline what the ISO 22301 is and how a business can be benefit by adhering to the requirements or guidelines as outlined in the standard.

ISO 22301 — A brief

The ISO 22301 is typically a globally recognised standard for implementing a BCMS which offers a logical framework for businesses across multiple industries. It helps you eliminate the damages associated with such situations and run your regular business tasks by following the implemented practices. A strong BCMS will allow an organisation to reduce the number contingency plans required in order to become prepared for the various types of disruptive events, albeit it any minor or major ones.

With a proven and comprehensive framework, your business will begin to develop, update, monitor, and implement an effective contingency plan which will help to synchronize with your overall business requirements and operations.

Some of these challenging events outline you will be able to work through with the help of an ISO 22301 compliant BCMS:

• Technology failure(s)
• Utility disruptions(s)
• Natural disaster(s)
• Manmade disaster(s)
• Cybersecurity attack
• Intentional sabotage, and more.

How the ISO 22301 can help you

There are a number of enhanced benefits that business can obtain by complying with the ISO standard and the following the items as outlined.

Attaining marketing advantage

Getting your business, the ISO 22301 certification allows you have a competitive edge over your competitors, while at the time same gain increase trust with your consumers who are usually sceptical and or sensitive regarding continuity of the business operations when it relates to the delivery of goods and services. This certification will also help you improve your market reputation, your brand, acquire newer prospects, increase profits, and increase your overall market share.

Adhering to the legal requirements

Many countries have different types of laws and regulations in terms of business continuity compliance. Apart from government interests, private organisations have also started preferred partners and suppliers who have also implemented business continuity solutions. With the help of the ISO 22301 which offers an ideal methodology and framework for supporting compliance with all such requirements to minimise the operational and administrative efforts as well as number of penalties which, organisations might need to pay.

Preventing large-scale damage

Protecting your business from all kinds of damage is always important and you must ensure that any disruptive incident does not experience significant losses or damage. By adhering to the various business continuity practices as mentioned in the ISO 22301, you will be able to stay prepared when you must deal with such unfortunate situations and on the flip side you will be able recover must faster. In this way, it will help you minimise your losses and save a significant amount of money.

Making your company self-reliant

Often businesses get dependent on certain employees who perform some major duties and responsibilities because they become irreplaceable. The worst situation arises when such employees leave the company which in turn often hindering the continuation of business practices as well. When your business is being certified with the ISO standard, all the employees become aware of how to follow or work following the same business continuity practices. This then in turns helps the organisation to become less dependent on any one individual. Also, this will make it easier for you to be prepared and adapt without any slowdown of your business even if a significant employee leaves the organisation.

The bottom line

Now that you’re aware of what the ISO 22301 standard its requirement you can gain a clear understanding of how such standard can benefit your organisation. Therefore, you must try to prepare an integrated strategy of achieving this certification. To achieve the certification, you should always seek professional of an ISO consultant. One that has the right qualifications, experience, and skillset to guide you through the various steps of certification and in turn help you increase your qualifications, expertise, and skills. Also, you will be able to ensure business continuity of your organisation and stay resilient against any kind of unforeseen circumstances.

Author bio:

The author is working as a senior ISO consultant in a reputed consulting firm that specialises in offering guidance to businesses seeking to achieve different ISO certifications including the ISO 9001, the ISO 14001, the ISO 13481, the ISO 22301 standard, and others. In his leisure time, he also likes to write blogs and articles on different relevant topics as well.

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