The International Standard for Business Continuity – ISO 22301 is now officially available.   Its release comes at a time when the need for good BCM practice has never been greater. Set against a background of global recession, the growing threat of terrorism and increasing numbers of natural as well as man-made disasters, having a dedicated international standard adds real, measurable value to the business continuity global community and will be a key driver in the worldwide adoption of good BCM practice.

Lyndon Bird, Technical Development Director of the Business Continuity Institute welcomes the release of ISO 22301 as an important step forward for business continuity and adds, “Although it has been a long time and coming, its arrival should end the uncertainty felt in recent years by many practitioners about the future role and positioning of BCM in their organisations”.

The new standard has been developed in collaboration with experts from around the world to guarantee its international relevance and applicability and to ensure it better meets the needs of global organisations.  It is hoped that the new standard will create a path for greater international consistency and encourage worldwide adoption of good BCM practice by organisations working across different sectors.

Building on the existing work of National Standard bodies like the BSI, ANSI, Standards Singapore and Standards Australia, ISO 22301 provides organisations with an improved framework of good practice and a common language to support international working, which will help organisations with operational activities in multiple countries to better compare business continuity needs and capabilities globally.

A major objective of the any new ISO standard is to drive consistency through the adoption of common frameworks.  ISO 22301 brings together all the management system standards, including quality, environment, computer services, IT security and BCM under one common framework and helps organisations not only with BCM but also dovetails BCM processes with other related management processes in a consistent manner.  Through the use of common terms and processes, the new standard will help organisations to manage their systems in a more integrated fashion and thus provide a consistent means of measuring the effectiveness of an organisation’s BCM programme.

BS ISO 22301 is now available to buy here.