A Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) is a strategic and systematic framework that helps organisations identify risks and set up procedures to ensure business continuity. With a BCMS, organisations can be prepared for unexpected events such as disruptions, natural disasters or cyber-attacks, minimising the impact on business operations.
The system includes mapping business processes, conducting risk analyses and developing recovery plans. Through regular exercises and evaluations, a BCMS ensures that employees know what is expected of them in crisis situations and that the necessary resources and procedures are always on standby. This contributes to greater resilience and a faster response to incidents.
BCMS and the PDCA cycle
This integrated system is closely aligned with the PDCA cycle. During the planning phase (Plan), risks and regulations are identified and strategies developed. During the implementation phase (Do), the identified measures and the compliance software are put into practice. The control phase (Check) includes regular evaluations and audits, with the software helping to identify deviations in time. Finally, the act phase (Act) ensures that feedback is used to improve processes and adjust the system. This cyclical approach ensures that both continuity and compliance of the organisation are continuously optimised.
More on the PDCA cycle
Example BCMS application with compliance software
Imagine an IT company specialising in cloud solutions and hosting services. This company implements a BCMS to ensure that its critical IT services – such as server management, data storage and network connectivity – remain continuously available, even in the event of incidents such as cyber attacks, hardware failures or natural disasters.
Within this BCMS, compliance software is integrated to ensure that all IT processes are clearly mapped and functioning. Using the compliance software, processes and deviations are monitored and internal and external compliance requirements are checked. As soon as a risk or non-conformity is detected, the BCMS immediately initiates the appropriate actions in accordance with established procedures, ensuring uninterrupted service delivery while meeting relevant legal requirements.
This integrated approach allows the compliance software to play an important role in a well-functioning BCMS. By automatically generating audit trails and detailed reports, the compliance software supports the team in conducting internal and external audits. This leads to a better understanding of incidents, areas for improvement and corrective actions, ensuring that the company is always prepared for both operational and regulatory challenges.
Finally, regular exercises are organised within this BCMS to test the effectiveness of both recovery procedures and compliance controls. The feedback from these exercises is then used to continuously refine the processes so that the IT company can respond flexibly to new threats and changing regulations. These activities can also be recorded in the compliance software.
ISO 22301 standard for BCMS
Finally, it is important to note that there is an ISO standard for a BCMS. The standard, ISO 22301, provides organisations with an internationally recognised framework for implementing and maintaining effective business continuity management. Protify can help organisations set up their BCMS in line with this standard and use compliance software for speed, overview and effectiveness.
