Build a BCMS with ISO 22301

What is ISO 22301?

ISO 22301:2019 is the international standard for a Business Continuity Management System (BCMS). It defines the requirements for a documented, repeatable system that helps an organization prepare for, respond to, and recover from disruptive incidents — from outages and natural disasters to supply-chain failures and cyber attacks. It is certifiable, and it follows the Plan-Do-Check-Act model common to ISO management-system standards.

What a BCMS covers

At its core, ISO 22301 is driven by a business impact analysis (BIA) and a risk assessment that together identify an organization's critical activities, their dependencies, and the impact of disruption over time. From there, the organization defines continuity strategies, sets recovery time and recovery point objectives (RTO/RPO), documents continuity and incident-response plans, and validates them through an exercise and testing program with reviews and corrective actions.

How it relates to ISO 27001

ISO 22301 shares the ISO harmonized structure (clauses 4–10) with ISO 27001, so the leadership, risk-management, and continual-improvement processes overlap substantially. Many organizations run the two together and pursue a combined audit, and the BCMS also strengthens the availability story for SOC 2.

How episki helps

episki implements ISO 22301 as a working BCMS: a BIA builder, disruption-scenario risk assessment, continuity plans tied to your recovery objectives, and an exercise program with corrective actions tracked to closure. Because it reuses your ISO 27001 management system, the BCMS is an extension of your program rather than a separate binder.