Development of Business Continuity Plans and ISO 22301:2012 certification

AccessPay

The Situation

Access Systems provides cloud-based payment and cash management solutions as a software-as-a-service model with subscription based pricing. As a business Access Systems takes pride in providing its customers with the highest standards of technology and implementing it quickly and efficiently for clients. It recognised that certain catastrophic events could have significant impact or the company’s viability and risk its well-established reputation for customer service. 

The Challenge

Access Pay recognised that an externally certified well-written Business Continuity Plan tailored to its business needs would not only give the company competitive advantage but would also contribute to its preparedness. Access Systems did not have the internal resource to devise and develop a business continuity plan and will require assistance from an experienced specialist consultancy to develop the plan.

The Solution

Using its dedicated analysis tool JEC carried out a Business Impact Analysis with the managers of the key departments to identify the key risks and mission critical activities of the company.

JEC drafted the following documents in with the ISO 22301 standard:

• Business Continuity strategy,
• Business Continuity ,
• Incident Management Plan and
• Business Continuity and Recovery plan.

We attended the assessments to provide support and assistance to Access System’s Business Continuity coordinator. We ensured that recommendations and comments made in the assessments were incorporated into the revised documentation. 

The Results

Access Systems was recommended for ISO 22301:2012 certification.  During the assessment the BSI auditor remarked that it was “the best Stage 1 assessment I have seen this year.”

At each stage we ensured that Access System’s  Business Continuity coordinator was actively involved and through a transfer of knowledge from JEC’s consultant was capable of taking the company through future re-assessments against the standard.

Eddie White MBA

VP - Service Delivery Operations, AccessPay

John supported AccessPay as a consultant during the preparations for our ISO22301 Business Continuity assessment. This included assisting with Risk Assessments, training staff & planning exercises. We were working to a very tight timeline and John helped us to keep on track and to budget. His efforts were rewarded when BSI Certified AccessPay to ISO22301 in July 2015. If you have a similar project I would highly recommend contacting John for sound advice and a professional service.