Public sector case study

Citizen service continuity and crisis governance for a national public authority

Public authorities represent the foundation of societal continuity. During disruption events, citizens and critical stakeholders depend on government institutions to remain operational, coordinated, and capable of sustaining essential services.

Resilience Guard GmbH was engaged by a major public sector authority operating across multiple jurisdictions, with responsibility for essential services, regulatory oversight, and public infrastructure continuity.

The organisation required strengthened crisis governance, continuity assurance for citizen critical services, and resilience maturity uplift aligned with ISO 22301 principles and essential entity expectations under European resilience frameworks such as NIS2.

This engagement focused on operational continuity of public services, executive crisis leadership capability, and measurable resilience governance across departments.

Business context: Public sector resilience is societal resilience

Public authorities operate under disruption pressures such as:

• cyber disruption affecting citizen facing service platforms
• infrastructure outages impacting essential public service delivery
• cross agency coordination challenges during crisis escalation
• increasing regulatory expectations under NIS2 for essential entities
• public accountability requiring rapid and transparent response

Unlike private organisations, public sector disruption affects societal stability directly.

Executive leadership required confidence that the authority could maintain essential functions under scenarios such as:

• cyber enabled disruption of public administration systems
• crisis events requiring multi agency coordination
• loss of infrastructure supporting citizen service delivery
• systemic disruption affecting critical national services
• regulatory scrutiny regarding resilience obligations

The core question was:
How can citizen critical services remain operational, coordinated, and resilient under high impact disruption events?

The situation: Fragmented crisis coordination across departments
The authority operated across multiple departments with varying maturity.

Key challenges identified included:

• inconsistent continuity priorities between service divisions
• limited crisis escalation clarity across leadership levels
• absence of unified governance linking departments under disruption
• insufficient exercising of real crisis command structures
• lack of measurable resilience maturity reporting for executive oversight

The organisation required continuity capability built around citizen service outcomes, not only internal documentation.

Resilience Guard delivery focus: Resilience built around essential public service capability

Resilience Guard structured the engagement around public sector operational assurance, ensuring crisis governance could function under real disruption conditions.
The work was delivered through four public authority resilience pillars.

1. Citizen critical service prioritisation and continuity assurance
Resilience Guard worked with leadership to identify which public services must remain available under disruption.

Focus areas included:

• essential citizen service delivery platforms
• regulatory oversight and critical decision functions
• emergency coordination and escalation capability
• continuity of public communication and stakeholder trust
• minimum operational capability across essential departments

Outputs included:

• tiered classification of citizen critical services
• definition of maximum tolerable disruption thresholds
• restoration priorities aligned with societal impact
This ensured continuity investment reflected public accountability.

2. Business impact analysis aligned with ISO 22301 for public authorities

A structured ISO 22301 aligned BIA was conducted across essential service functions.
The analysis defined:

• recovery time objectives for citizen critical service delivery
• recovery point objectives for supporting public administration systems
• minimum staffing and resource capability during disruption
• disruption tolerance thresholds linked to societal impact

This created measurable continuity governance suitable for audit and oversight.

3. Crisis leadership governance and command structure strengthening

Public sector crisis capability depends on decision clarity and coordination.
Resilience Guard strengthened crisis governance through:

• unified command structure across departments
• executive escalation thresholds linked to service disruption impact
• defined roles and decision authority during crisis events
• cross agency coordination procedures for disruption escalation

Executive simulation workshops ensured crisis leadership could operate under pressure.

4. NIS2 contextual resilience obligations and essential entity readiness

Public authorities increasingly fall under essential entity resilience expectations.

Resilience Guard supported alignment with NIS2 related resilience domains, including:

• incident preparedness and continuity governance
• crisis escalation and response capability
• supplier and infrastructure dependency oversight
• auditable resilience maturity reporting for leadership
This produced a structured roadmap toward sustained resilience compliance readiness.

Quantified outcomes delivered
The engagement produced measurable improvements across citizen service continuity, crisis coordination, and governance maturity.

Recovery time objective improvement for essential services
Across priority citizen service domains, the authority achieved:
• 30 to 40 percent reduction in recovery time objectives
• defined restoration sequencing ensuring citizen critical functions recover first
• improved continuity stability during disruption simulation exercises

Crisis escalation coordination uplift
Following governance implementation:
• escalation ambiguity decreased by more than 50 percent
• decision speed improved significantly during executive exercises
• cross department coordination maturity strengthened across regions

Resilience maturity uplift across public service divisions
A structured maturity model was applied across departments.
Initial maturity variance:
• Level 2 developing in decentralized service units
• Level 4 managed in mature critical oversight divisions
Post engagement baseline:
• Level 4 maturity achieved across all essential service resilience domains
• roadmap established toward Level 5 optimised governance over time

Oversight and audit preparedness enhancement
The authority strengthened resilience evidence supporting:
• ISO 22301 aligned continuity governance
• essential entity resilience expectations under NIS2
• executive level reporting of crisis readiness
• increased stakeholder confidence in disruption preparedness
Leadership reported significantly improved assurance in societal service continuity.

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Frequently asked questions: Public sector resilience
How does ISO 22301 apply to government authorities?
ISO 22301 provides the governance framework for business continuity. In public authorities it ensures citizen critical services, crisis leadership structures, and recovery objectives are measurable, auditable, and embedded across departments.

What does NIS2 require from public sector essential entities?
NIS2 introduces resilience expectations including preparedness, continuity planning, crisis governance, supplier oversight, and evidence based resilience maturity reporting.

What measurable outcomes can public sector resilience programmes deliver?
High maturity programmes typically achieve:
• 30 to 50 percent faster restoration of essential services
• stronger crisis coordination across departments
• improved oversight readiness under essential entity obligations
• enhanced societal trust during disruption events

Book your resilience consultation
Resilience Guard GmbH supports public authorities across Switzerland, Europe, and international markets with award winning expertise in:

• ISO 22301 aligned business continuity
• Citizen critical service continuity governance
• Crisis leadership and executive exercising
• Essential entity resilience assurance frameworks
→ Book Your Resilience Consultation