Solicitors
The Client
A well respected firm of solicitors providing legal services to commercial, public sector and private clients, operating from several locations in the UK and with approximately 200 employees.
Teed has been working with the client since 2004, initially to develop and implement a business continuity management (BCM) system to manage time-critical activities, maintain the ability to respond to urgent client and court requirements and protect data in their control.
Subsequent activity has focused on maintaining currency of plans to take account of organisational changes and ensure they continue to fulfil stakeholders expectations.
The Challenge
As business continuity had not been actively considered back in 2004, Teed’s consultant initiated a full project taking the client through the BCM lifecycle to reach their objective of maintaining services to clients following an incident. Significant risks were identified during that initial project which provided justification for improvement activity, for example, it transpired there were some instances where IT and data could not be recovered and the practice operated from a mixed range of premises with inherent problems. At the time, there was no formal incident management structure or response and recovery mechanism.
Since then, there has been an ongoing requirement to maintain the momentum and ensure plans, technologies and strategies continue to be fit for purpose.
The Solution
From the outset, Teed has worked with the client to address the risks and implement appropriate recovery strategies, with validation through exercising. A move to more appropriate premises has enabled the firm to manage risks more efficiently.
Teed has delivered training to individuals with responsibility for managing BCM internally and is brought in every two to three years to facilitate review, awareness and exercise sessions for different practice areas and the incident management team. Teed also provides advice on IT disaster recovery and resilience in terms of technical recovery capability and support for testing activities. In addition, we are on hand to provide specialist external support as required.
Advisory services do not usually have the luxury of suspending activities as clients expect services and communication to continue uninterrupted. Therefore, business continuity and IT disaster recovery strategies need to be sufficiently flexible to allow continuous client facing activities, and a quick recovery of back office functions that support them.
Specific known events and threats are addressed beforehand by exercising the incident management team to ensure the team can respond accordingly. This type of advance preparation paid off when a global event held in the capital city where the head office is located, gave rise to a range of adverse situations.
The Result
BCM continues to be embedded within the organisation enabling them to provide evidence to banking and other clients who seek assurance and audits that effective business continuity, IT disaster recovery and resilience are in place.
Reputation is paramount for professional services firms and if jeopardised, could mean a loss of market share. With proven BCM in place, the partners and management team can be comfortable that risks are dealt with appropriately and are independently verified.