Cybersecurity & IT

Business Continuity Assessment

Find out whether your organisation could actually keep running through a serious disruption. A business impact analysis and continuity capability review, with a clear plan to close the gaps before an incident exposes them.

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Overview

A business continuity assessment answers a practical question: if a serious disruption hits tomorrow, which critical activities survive, which ones stop, and for how long can you tolerate each outcome? Most organisations discover the honest answer only under pressure. Cyberattacks, ransomware, natural disasters, power outages, and supply chain interruptions are the scenarios that expose gaps. Preparedness is the difference between managed disruption and extended outage.

We start with a business impact analysis (BIA) to establish which activities are critical, what they depend on, and what your maximum tolerable downtime is for each. We review your recovery time objectives (RTOs) and confirm whether your continuity plans and arrangements reflect them. The business continuity plan and existing capability are then reviewed against ISO 22301 principles and good practice, covering both what exists on paper and what would work under a disaster scenario.

The gap analysis identifies the vulnerabilities and exposures that would hurt most. The output is a prioritised improvement plan with clear owners, not a generic BCP template. The BIA groundwork feeds directly into a serious business continuity program and enables more effective crisis management. Tabletop exercises and BCP testing are the logical next steps once gaps are closed, and we can support both.

What’s included

Business impact analysis (BIA) of critical business operations and dependencies
Recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective review
Business continuity plan and continuity capability review
Gap analysis against ISO 22301 principles and good practice
Prioritised improvement plan with identified risk owners
Ransomware and cyberattack scenario coverage
Natural disaster, power outage, and specific disaster scenario review

How we work

01
Business impact analysis
We identify critical business functions, their dependencies, and the maximum time each can be disrupted before causing serious harm to business operations or its obligations. RTOs are established for each critical activity.
02
Review existing capability
We assess your continuity plans, arrangements, and governance against ISO 22301 principles, looking at what exists on paper and what would work under a disaster scenario or cyberattack. Business continuity plan quality varies widely; we test assumptions rather than accepting documentation at face value.
03
Gap analysis
We identify and rank the vulnerabilities and gaps that represent the greatest exposure, distinguishing quick fixes from structural improvements. Outage scenarios including ransomware and natural disasters inform the prioritisation.
04
Improvement plan
We deliver a prioritised recovery plan with owners and sequencing, so the work progresses in the right order. The plan is actionable and aligned to the BIA findings.

What you get

Business impact analysis (BIA)
Continuity capability gap analysis
Prioritised improvement plan

Frequently asked questions

Do we need a business continuity assessment if we want ISO 22301 certification?

This assessment is an excellent foundation. It surfaces your impact priorities and capability gaps, which feeds directly into designing and certifying an ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management System. Starting here avoids costly rework later in the certification process. The BIA is a required input into ISO 22301, and the gap analysis gives you the roadmap to meet the standard.

What is the difference between business continuity and disaster recovery?

Business continuity covers the whole organisation's ability to keep critical business operations running during disruption, across people, processes, and technology. Disaster recovery is specifically about restoring IT systems and data after a failure. A disaster recovery plan is a subset of the overall business continuity plan. They are related but separate disciplines. We assess both, individually or together.

How often should a business continuity assessment be done?

Good practice and ISO 22301 both call for regular review, typically annual and after any significant change to the business, its technology, or its operating environment. BCP testing and tabletop exercises should occur between formal assessments. A single assessment is the starting point, not the destination.