ICT Infrastructure Provider
The Client
This global ICT infrastructure provider is a key supplier to one of the largest UK government departments, taking responsibility for managing their ICT services.
The Challenge
In 2009, the government department client requested that their key suppliers show they had robust pandemic business continuity planning in place, thereby ensuring that they would continue to meet their service level agreements (SLAs).
The company workforce is spread over several sites, some located hundreds of miles apart. Business departments were operating in silos which had led to business continuity being addressed at that level rather than utilising a more cohesive site-based approach.
The challenge was to bring together this diverse community in adopting a coordinated approach to pandemic business continuity planning whilst taking into account local level issues. The government department had requested that all key activities were to be maintained given the critical nature of the work.
The Solution
As a large organisation, pandemic business continuity planning was in place at a corporate level and in some business areas. Therefore, Teed’s consultants proposed that the first phase of the solution would be to review this information and ensure this was taken into account by the client in developing their own pandemic plans.
The second phase brought together relevant individuals from across the account by inviting them to attend a series of three half day workshops. At these, it was possible to identify the critical activities required to meet the SLAs for the account and the resources required to sustain these over a period of time during a pandemic situation.
Once identified it was possible to define the strategies that could be adopted at different stages of a pandemic, for example, prioritising work, asking unaffected locations to take on work, ensuring good hygiene practices in the workplace and for individuals in order to reduce the spread of infection, maintaining clear lines of communication with the government department, cross training, etc.
Using the information obtained from the workshops and existing documentation, a pandemic management framework document was drafted clearly showing how the client intends to maintain its business critical processes in the event of a pandemic. The document serves as a high level reference point providing direction to existing corporate and business level business continuity plans and relevant guidance.
The Result
The client has been able to provide assurances to their key customer that they have effective pandemic planning in place and can be confident that they can continue to meet their SLAs in the event of a pandemic situation.
By drawing upon Teed’s expertise gained from managing many complex pandemic business continuity planning projects, the client was able to meet their customer’s expectations, within the required timescales.
The client recognises that proven business continuity management is a significant factor in managing their customer relationships and has engaged Teed to implement business continuity planning across the account.