01 May 2005 Features

 

Business continuity case studies: Abbey and Voca

Two UK financial organisations which have both adopted active business continuity models are Abbey and Voca (part of the former BACS settlement system).

In Abbey’s case, working with SunGard, in case of an interruption Abbey’s business units based in the Midlands, Bradford, Scotland and London can all be recovered from shadow SunGard sites in Coventry, Leeds, Livingston, Normanton, and the South Bank. Voice and data services being on same network can be recovered simultaneously while there is also a workplace recovery solution for over 2,000 users, a dedicated facility in Milton Keynes for 204 users and a mobile office for 300 other workers, as well as a mainframe recovery option.

Jamie Watters, Abbey’s former Senior IT Manager — he has now taken up a role as position as Head of Business Continuity Management for Barclaycard — comments, “Like all management processes the key issue around business continuity is accountability. Too many people focus on the techniques and methods for doing it and miss this not. But if you don’t you’re really pissing in the wind.” Watters says that accountability for BC sits at the top of the organisation.” His advice: “Don’t assume because you have a DR strategy that you have it all covered — far from it — this mandates a systematic approach where you can’t afford to have any business-IT split, you need both sides involved.”

Meanwhile Voca — classed under the UK Civil Contingencies Act as part of critical national infrastructure — has partnered with BT to deliver a business continuity structure based on a high-speed wide area network linking three sites (Essex, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire).

“We see business continuity as one of our core competencies,” says Chris Dunne, Voca’s commercial business manager. “We see it as meaning having the service we offer continuously available. We pride ourselves on never losing a payment, and we spend 35 per cent of our core IT spend on it. We’ve tested different scenarios including terrorist attacks but also all the power going out across the South,” he says.