Plan
Before
The plans, owners and recovery steps for each part of the business.
Business continuity software: How to choose the right kind
Start with what is driving the search. It decides whether a continuity tool is enough.
A buyer's guide for the people who keep operations running: what business continuity software does, the questions to ask every vendor, and how to tell when the job is bigger than a continuity plan.
TL;DR
- Business continuity software holds your impact analysis, plans, contacts and exercises in one place, so the plan stays current as the business changes.
- The right tool depends on why you are looking. An out-of-date plan is a different job from a regulator asking you to prove your services stay within tolerance.
- If you are comparing vendors, compare them on six things and ask each one the same questions. Both are below.
- If APRA's CPS 230 or the FCA's PS21/3 applies to you, a continuity tool covers part of the job. Operational resilience software is built for the rest.
What is business continuity software?
Business continuity software helps an organisation plan how it will keep operating, or recover, when something goes wrong, and keeps its plans, contacts and tests together in one place.
Act
During
Contacts, call trees and checklists to run a response.
Learn
After
Recovery steps, and a record of what happened and what changed.
What does business continuity software do?
Most business continuity tools cover the same core. The international standard for business continuity management systems, ISO 22301, sets requirements for much of it.
- Business impact analysis. Which activities matter most, how the impact grows over time, and when each must recover. How an impact analysis works.
- Plans and procedures. Templates, owners, approvals and review dates. What a plan must contain.
- Contacts and notifications. Call trees, and in some tools mass notification during an incident.
- Exercises. Scheduling tabletop exercises and recording the results. How to test a plan.
- Incident response. Checklists and logs while a disruption is under way.
- Reporting. Plan status, overdue reviews and exercise history.
What is driving your search for business continuity software?
Most searches for business continuity software start with a trigger. Find yours: it tells you what kind of tool the job needs before you compare a single vendor.
"Our plan is out of date"
The plan lives in documents nobody has opened since the last audit, and the contacts have changed.
What you need: A continuity tool, or good templates to start. What a plan must contain.
"A customer wants ISO 22301"
A tender, contract or insurer has asked for the continuity standard.
What you need: A tool that supports the standard's impact analysis, plans, exercises and reviews. ISO 22301, explained.
"An outage caught us out"
A system or supplier failed and the plan did not match what actually broke.
What you need: Start from your most important services and everything they depend on, suppliers included. This is where continuity turns into resilience. Important business services.
"A regulator or the board wants proof"
CPS 230 or PS21/3 applies, or the board wants evidence that services stay within tolerance.
What you need: Operational resilience software. The job is services, tolerances, testing and suppliers, with the evidence to show it. See operational resilience software.
What should you ask a business continuity software vendor?
Compare tools on these six things. Each card says what good looks like, and gives one question to put to every vendor.
Organised around services
Plans built around the services customers rely on, as well as the departments and sites behind them.
Ask: Can I see every plan, person and supplier behind one service on one screen?
Impact analysis built in
An impact analysis that sets priorities and recovery times, and feeds the plans directly.
Ask: If the impact analysis changes, do the plans that depend on it change too?
Plans that stay current
Owners, review dates, and an alert when something a plan relies on changes.
Ask: How do I see which plans are out of date today?
Testing with a record
Exercises recorded with their results, the gaps found and the fixes that followed.
Ask: Can I show an auditor what we tested last year and what we changed?
Suppliers in the picture
Third parties linked to the services and plans that depend on them.
Ask: If a key supplier fails, can I see every service it touches?
Evidence for the board
Clear status for the board and, if you are regulated, evidence in the shape your regulator asks for.
Ask: Could this produce what APRA or the FCA would ask to see?
What do CPS 230 and PS21/3 ask for that a continuity plan does not cover?
Both regimes ask for more than a continuity plan. A continuity tool can hold the plan and the exercises; these are the parts that usually sit outside it:
- Services and tolerances. CPS 230 asks entities to keep critical operations within tolerance levels approved by the board. The FCA's SYSC 15A rules ask firms to set an impact tolerance for each important business service.
- Mapping. SYSC 15A asks firms to identify and document the people, processes, technology, facilities and information behind each important business service.
- Testing. CPS 230 asks for a testing program across all critical operations, with an annual business continuity exercise and severe but plausible scenarios, including disruption at material service providers. Scenario testing, explained.
- Suppliers. CPS 230 asks for a register of material service providers, submitted to APRA every year.
The detail for each regime: CPS 230, explained and FCA operational resilience, explained.
Business continuity software or operational resilience software?
Business continuity software answers one question well: how do we keep going, or recover, when something goes wrong? Operational resilience software answers a harder one: can our most important services stay within a level of disruption we have decided we can tolerate, whatever the cause, and can we prove it?
- Choose a continuity tool when operational resilience rules do not apply to you, you run a small number of services with few critical suppliers, and the job is a current plan, contacts and a record of exercises.
- Choose operational resilience software when CPS 230 or PS21/3 applies, or soon will; when your services depend on suppliers and technology outside your direct control; or when the board wants evidence that services stay within tolerance.
Drova makes operational resilience software, so weigh this section with that in mind, and put the vendor questions above to us as well.
How Drova helps
RunReady is the operational resilience module of Drova's RunGood platform. It starts from your important business services and critical operations, maps the processes, people, technology, facilities and third parties behind them, sets tolerances, and runs scenario tests against them. Continuity planning and recovery workflows sit inside that picture, linked to the services they protect, and Mates, Drova's AI agents, help keep the work current.
The outcome: every important service mapped, held within a tolerance you have set, tested, and backed by an Operational Resilience Self-Assessment report when the board or a regulator asks.
See how RunReady maps your services, sets tolerances and tests them.
Need more than a continuity plan?
Business continuity software, answered
Do we need business continuity software or operational resilience software for CPS 230?
For CPS 230, operational resilience software fits the job better. CPS 230 asks for critical operations, tolerance levels approved by the board, a testing program and oversight of material service providers, alongside a business continuity plan. A continuity tool can hold the plan; the rest needs services, tolerances, tests and suppliers connected. The same applies to the FCA's PS21/3 in the UK. CPS 230, explained.
What is the best business continuity software?
The best fit depends on why you are looking. Start with the trigger, then compare tools on six things: services, impact analysis, plans that stay current, testing with a record, suppliers, and evidence for the board.
What is business continuity management software?
Software that runs a business continuity management programme: the impact analysis, plans, exercises, reviews and improvements that keep continuity working over time. ISO 22301 sets the requirements for that kind of management system. ISO 22301, explained.
Is there free business continuity software?
Free templates and tools can suit a small organisation starting out. The plan guide links to free government templates. As you grow, check how a free tool keeps plans current and where it stores your data.
Is business continuity software the same as disaster recovery software?
No. Disaster recovery software restores IT systems and data, through backups and failover. Business continuity software plans for the whole organisation, including people, premises and suppliers. Many organisations use both. Continuity, disaster recovery and resilience.
Business continuity
Explore related topics
Business continuity planning
The hub: how the continuity discipline works.
Business continuity plan
The sections a plan must contain.
ISO 22301
The international continuity standard.
Operational resilience
Where continuity sits in the wider picture.
Important business services
Decide which services matter most.
Impact tolerance
Set the limit a service must not cross.
Scenario testing
Test against severe but plausible disruption.
Operational resilience software
How RunReady approaches resilience.
