Continuity Direct terms and conditions

Last updated: 7 November 2026

These terms and conditions (the “Terms”) govern the use of Continuity Direct: the web-based command centre, the iOS and Android apps, and the supporting cloud service (together, the “Service”). The Service is provided by SyCIS Limited (“SyCIS”, “we”, “us”, “our”), a company registered in England and Wales, company number 05525242, registered office Unit 6, Blackthorn Way, Five Mile Business Park, Five Mile Lane, Washingborough, Lincoln, Lincolnshire LN4 1BF.

Please read them carefully, particularly section 8 (Continuity Direct is not an emergency service), section 9 (availability), section 19 (disclaimer) and section 20 (limitation of liability). How we handle personal data is explained in the Continuity Direct privacy policy.

Key points

• Continuity Direct is a tool to support your incident management. It does not replace your emergency procedures, your own judgement or the emergency services. In an emergency, always call 999 or 112.
• We work hard to keep the Service available, but we cannot guarantee that it will always be available, uninterrupted, timely or error-free, or that every notification or message will be delivered, particularly during a major incident that affects power, networks or devices.
• You must keep alternative ways to communicate with and account for your people, and must not rely on the Service as your only means of doing so.
• To the extent the law allows, we are not responsible for any adverse impact, loss or harm arising from use of the Service, from relying on it, or from it being unavailable, delayed or inaccurate when needed. Nothing in these Terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit.
• The Service is for business use only. You own your data; we process it on your instructions.

1. Who these Terms apply to

1.1 These Terms form a contract between SyCIS and the organisation that signs up for, or is given access to, the Service (the “Customer”, “you”, “your”). If you accept them on behalf of an organisation, you confirm that you have authority to bind it.

1.2 Individuals who use the Service because the Customer has given them an account (“Users”) must follow section 7 (Acceptable use) and section 8 (Not an emergency service), and the disclaimers and limitations in sections 19 and 20 apply to them as well. The Customer is responsible for its Users’ compliance with these Terms.

1.3 The Service is supplied only to businesses and other organisations, not to consumers.

1.4 If you have a signed order form, proposal or statement of work with us (an “Order”), it forms part of the contract and, if it conflicts with these Terms, the Order prevails. Our data processing agreement (“DPA”) also forms part of the contract.

2. Definitions

• Customer Data: all data, including personal data, that the Customer or its Users put into the Service or that the Service generates for them, such as incident records, messages, photos, plans and the contemporaneous record.
• Site: a physical location or operational unit licensed under the Customer’s plan.
• Plan: the subscription tier (Essential, Business or Enterprise) and number of Sites chosen by the Customer.
• Subscription Period: the period for which the Customer has paid or agreed to pay for the Service.
• Working Day: a day other than a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday in England.

3. Accepting these Terms

3.1 You accept these Terms by signing an Order, starting a free trial, or using the Service, whichever happens first.

3.2 Users accept the parts of these Terms that apply to them when they first sign in to the Service.

4. Free trial

4.1 We may offer a free trial, normally of 14 days. During a trial the Service is provided free of charge and entirely “as is”, without any commitment as to availability, support or suitability.

4.2 You must not rely on a trial account for real emergency communications. To the extent the law allows, we have no liability of any kind arising from a trial.

4.3 At the end of a trial, your account will be suspended unless you take out a paid subscription. We may delete trial Customer Data 30 days after the trial ends.

5. Subscription, fees and payment

5.1 Fees are charged per Site per month at the rate for your Plan, as shown on our pricing page or in your Order. There are no per-User charges.

5.2 Unless your Order says otherwise, fees are invoiced monthly in advance and are payable within 30 days of the invoice date. All fees are exclusive of VAT, which you will pay in addition at the applicable rate.

5.3 Subscriptions continue month to month until cancelled under section 23, unless your Order sets a fixed term.

5.4 We may change our fees by giving you at least 30 days’ written notice. The new fees apply from the start of the next Subscription Period after the notice ends. If you do not accept them, you may cancel before they take effect.

5.5 If an invoice is unpaid 14 days after its due date, we may, after giving you written notice, suspend the Service until it is paid, and charge interest on the overdue amount at the rate allowed by the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.

5.6 Fees are non-refundable except where these Terms or the law say otherwise.

6. Accounts and Users

6.1 The Customer decides who may use the Service, sets their roles and permissions, and is responsible for keeping User details, teams, assembly points, plans and contacts accurate and up to date.

6.2 Users must keep their sign-in details confidential and must not share accounts. The Customer must tell us promptly at info@sycis.com if it suspects any unauthorised access.

6.3 The Customer is responsible for all activity under its account, and for removing access promptly when a User leaves or no longer needs it.

7. Acceptable use

You and your Users must not:

• use the Service for any unlawful, harmful, fraudulent or abusive purpose, or to harass or threaten anyone;
• send hoax alerts, false reports or test messages to the emergency services;
• upload anything that infringes others’ rights, or that contains malware or harmful code;
• try to gain unauthorised access to the Service, other customers’ data or our systems, or test their security without our written permission;
• interfere with or overload the Service, or use automated means to access it except through features we provide;
• copy, modify, reverse-engineer, decompile or create derivative works of the Service, except as the law expressly permits;
• resell, sublicense or make the Service available to anyone other than your own Users, or use it to build a competing product.

8. Important: Continuity Direct is not an emergency service

8.1 Continuity Direct is not a substitute for calling the emergency services. If anyone is in danger, call 999 or 112 immediately.

8.2 The “Send to Emergency Services” feature, where available, is a convenience to share structured information. We do not guarantee that a report will be received, read or acted on by any emergency service, or how quickly. It must never be the only way you contact them.

8.3 The Service is an information and communication tool. All decisions taken during an incident, including decisions to evacuate, shelter, account for people or call for help, remain the responsibility of the Customer and its people, using their own judgement and procedures.

8.4 Information in the Service, including status reports, head counts, locations, M/ETHANE reports and messages, is only as accurate and up to date as the information Users enter. It may be incomplete, delayed or wrong. A User who has not reported their status may still be in danger.

9. Availability, maintenance and support

9.1 We use reasonable skill and care to keep the Service available and working, and design it to stay isolated from your corporate network. However, we do not guarantee that the Service will be available at all times, uninterrupted, secure, timely or free from errors, or that it will be available at any particular moment, including during an incident when you need it.

9.2 The Service depends on things outside our control, including electricity supplies, internet and mobile networks, Wi-Fi, users’ devices and their settings, operating systems, app stores, push-notification services run by Apple and Google, email providers and cloud hosting providers. A major incident may affect any of them.

9.3 We may need to carry out planned maintenance. Where we reasonably can, we will do this outside normal business hours and give advance notice. We may carry out urgent maintenance or security work without notice.

9.4 Support is provided by email at info@sycis.com and by telephone on 01904 310 250 during business hours on Working Days, with priority support on the Enterprise plan. Any service-level commitments (such as availability targets or response times) apply only if they are agreed in a signed Order.

9.5 We may update and improve the Service, and change or withdraw features, provided we do not materially reduce its core functionality during your current Subscription Period. Older app versions or operating systems may stop being supported; Users should keep their apps and devices up to date.

10. Your continuity planning

10.1 You remain responsible for your own business continuity, emergency, evacuation and health and safety arrangements, and for meeting your legal duties to your staff and others.

10.2 You must keep alternative ways to raise the alarm, communicate with your people and account for them (for example, fire alarms, telephone trees, roll calls and fire wardens) that do not depend on the Service.

10.3 You should test your use of the Service regularly, for example in Exercise Mode, check that Users have installed the app, signed in and allowed notifications, and make sure your plans, contacts and assembly points are correct.

11. Notifications and messages

11.1 Notifications are sent by push notification, email and in-app messages. We do not use SMS. Delivery depends on the third-party networks and services in section 9.2 and on each User’s device, settings and connection.

11.2 We do not guarantee that any notification, message, task or alert will be delivered, delivered on time, or seen or read by its recipient. Delivery confirmations show only what the Service has been told by the device or network.

12. Compliance features

12.1 Features that support standards and regulation, such as ISO 22301, ISO/IEC 27001, JESIP, NIST SP 800-61, UK GDPR and health and safety requirements, are designed to help you meet your obligations. Using them does not by itself make you compliant or certified, and we do not guarantee any audit, certification or regulatory outcome.

12.2 Guidance, templates, example plans and articles we provide are for general information. They are not legal, safety or professional advice, and you should take your own advice for your circumstances.

13. Customer Data and data protection

13.1 You own all Customer Data. You grant us a limited licence to host, copy, process and display it only as needed to provide, secure and support the Service, and as these Terms or the law otherwise permit.

13.2 You are responsible for the lawfulness, accuracy and quality of Customer Data, and for having the rights, lawful basis and notices required to put personal data (including health or other special category data) into the Service.

13.3 For personal data in Customer Data, you are the controller and we are your processor. We will process it in accordance with our DPA and the Continuity Direct privacy policy. A copy of the DPA is available from info@sycis.com.

13.4 You are responsible for exporting and keeping any copies of Customer Data that you need, including for legal or regulatory record-keeping. Data retention periods depend on your Plan, and data you delete with hard delete cannot be recovered.

14. Security

14.1 We maintain appropriate technical and organisational security measures, as described in the privacy policy, and keep them under review.

14.2 You must keep your own systems and devices secure, use strong passwords, and configure roles and permissions appropriately.

15. Intellectual property

15.1 We, or our licensors, own all intellectual property rights in the Service, the apps, their software, design and content, and the Continuity Direct and SyCIS names and logos. Except for the rights expressly granted in these Terms, no rights are transferred to you.

15.2 Subject to these Terms and payment of the fees, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable right, for the Subscription Period, for your Users to use the Service for your internal business purposes.

16. Feedback

If you give us suggestions or feedback about the Service, we may use them freely to improve our products, without any obligation to you.

17. Confidentiality

Each party will keep confidential the other’s confidential information that it receives under this contract, and use it only for the purposes of this contract. This does not apply to information that is public through no fault of the recipient, that the recipient already had or develops independently, or that must be disclosed by law or a regulator. This obligation continues after the contract ends.

18. Third-party services and app stores

18.1 The Service relies on, and may link to, third-party services such as Apple, Google and our hosting providers. Their own terms may apply, and we are not responsible for their services or availability.

18.2 Mobile apps. If you download a Continuity Direct app from the Apple App Store or Google Play, these Terms are between you and SyCIS only, not Apple or Google. SyCIS, not Apple or Google, is solely responsible for the app, its maintenance and support, and any claims about it, including product liability, legal or regulatory compliance and intellectual property claims. Apple and Google have no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the app. Your use of the app must also comply with the relevant store’s terms of use. For apps obtained from the Apple App Store: if the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price (if any), and, to the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation; you confirm that you are not located in a country subject to a US Government embargo or designated as a “terrorist supporting” country, and are not on any US Government list of prohibited or restricted parties; and Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you.

19. Disclaimer

19.1 Except as expressly set out in these Terms, the Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the extent the law allows, we exclude all other warranties, conditions and terms, whether express or implied by statute, common law or otherwise, including any as to satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, availability, accuracy or uninterrupted or error-free operation.

19.2 We do not warrant that the Service will meet your particular requirements, prevent or reduce any incident, loss or harm, or achieve any particular outcome in an emergency.

20. Limitation of liability

20.1 Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded under the law of England and Wales.

20.2 Subject to section 20.1, and to the fullest extent permitted by law, SyCIS shall not be liable, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise, for any loss, damage, harm or adverse impact arising from or in connection with:

• the Service, or any part of it, being unavailable, interrupted, slow or not working when needed, including during an incident or emergency;
• any notification, message, alert, task or report (including a report to the emergency services) not being delivered, being delayed, or not being seen or acted on;
• any decision taken or not taken, or any action or omission, by the Customer, its Users or anyone else in reliance on the Service or information in it;
• information in the Service being inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, including information entered by Users or third parties;
• the failure of any network, device, power supply or third-party service described in section 9.2, or any event outside our reasonable control;
• misuse of the Service, or failure to follow these Terms or to maintain alternative arrangements as required by section 10;
• loss or corruption of data, except where caused by our breach of our security or data protection obligations, in which case our liability is limited to using reasonable efforts to restore the data from our latest backup.

20.3 Subject to section 20.1, we shall not be liable for any loss of profits, revenue, business, contracts, anticipated savings, goodwill or reputation, or for any indirect, special or consequential loss, however arising.

20.4 Subject to section 20.1, our total liability arising from or in connection with this contract in any 12-month period, however arising, is limited to the fees paid by the Customer for the Service in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim. During a free trial, our total liability is limited to £100.

20.5 You agree that these limitations are reasonable, given that the fees reflect them, that the Service is a support tool used alongside your own procedures, and that you are best placed to insure against losses from incidents affecting your organisation.

21. Indemnity

The Customer will indemnify SyCIS against all claims, losses, damages, costs and reasonable legal fees arising from: (a) Customer Data, including any claim that it infringes someone’s rights or was collected or used unlawfully; (b) use of the Service by the Customer or its Users in breach of these Terms or the law; or (c) any claim by a User or third party relating to decisions or actions taken in reliance on the Service, except to the extent caused by our breach of these Terms.

22. Suspension

We may suspend all or part of the Service, or any User’s access, if: fees are overdue as described in section 5.5; we reasonably believe the Service is being used in breach of section 7 or the law; or suspension is needed to protect the security or integrity of the Service or other customers. Where reasonably possible we will give notice first, and we will restore access as soon as the reason has been resolved.

23. Term and termination

23.1 This contract starts when you accept these Terms and continues until ended under this section.

23.2 Either party may end a monthly subscription by giving at least 30 days’ written notice, taking effect at the end of a Subscription Period. If your Order sets a fixed term, it ends at the end of that term unless renewed.

23.3 Either party may end this contract immediately by written notice if the other: (a) commits a material breach that cannot be remedied, or does not remedy a remediable breach within 30 days of being asked to; or (b) becomes insolvent, enters administration or liquidation, or stops trading.

23.4 We may end this contract by giving 90 days’ written notice if we decide to stop offering the Service. In that case we will refund any fees paid in advance for the period after it ends.

24. Effect of termination

24.1 When this contract ends, your right to use the Service stops, and any unpaid fees become due immediately.

24.2 For 30 days after the end, you may export your Customer Data using the Service’s export tools, or ask us to provide it in a commonly used format. After that, we will permanently delete Customer Data in accordance with the privacy policy, unless the law requires us to keep it.

24.3 Sections 8, 12, 13.4, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 24, 27 and 28, and any others intended to survive, continue after the contract ends.

25. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will give Customers at least 30 days’ notice of any change that materially affects them, by email to their administrators or within the Service. If you do not accept a change, you may end your subscription before it takes effect; otherwise the updated Terms apply from the date shown. The date at the top of this page shows when they last changed.

26. Events outside our control

We are not in breach of these Terms, and not liable, for any failure or delay caused by events outside our reasonable control. These include natural disasters, severe weather, flood, fire, pandemic, war, terrorism, civil unrest, cyber attacks on third-party infrastructure, government action, industrial action, and failures of power, telecommunications, internet, hosting or other third-party services.

27. General

27.1 Entire agreement. These Terms, any Order and the DPA are the entire agreement between us about the Service and replace any earlier discussions. Neither party has relied on any statement not set out in them, though this does not limit liability for fraud.

27.2 Assignment. You may not transfer your rights under this contract without our written consent. We may transfer ours to a company in our group or to a buyer of our business, and will tell you if we do.

27.3 Subcontracting. We may use subcontractors and sub-processors to provide the Service, and remain responsible for their performance.

27.4 Notices. Notices must be in writing and sent by email: to us at info@sycis.com, and to you at the email address of your account administrator or billing contact.

27.5 Severance. If any part of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the rest remains in force, and the affected part applies with the minimum change needed to make it valid.

27.6 No waiver. A delay or failure to enforce any right is not a waiver of it.

27.7 Third-party rights. Except as set out in section 18.2, no one other than the parties has any right to enforce these Terms under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

27.8 Relationship. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture or agency between the parties.

28. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms and any dispute or claim arising from or in connection with them, including non-contractual disputes, are governed by the law of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.

29. Contact

SyCIS Limited, Evolution House, 5 Pioneer Business Park, Amy Johnson Way, Clifton Moor, York YO30 4TN. Email info@sycis.com or call 01904 310 250.

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