Most London firms were able to carry on business as
usual after the recent terrorist bomb attacks, but they highlighted
the importance of careful planning
London's businesses coped well in the wake of the terrorist bomb
attacks two weeks ago.
The number of organisations directly affected was small, but it
included important institutions such as the London Stock Exchange,
the London Metal Exchange, and a number of City banks.
"We think that within London, 3,000 companies had disaster
recovery provisions," said Andy Tomkinson, director of the Business
Continuity Institute.
"Of those we reckon about 100 put their disaster recovery on
standby, which is relatively few. Out of those we think fewer than
10 actually had users moving from the primary location to the
disaster recovery site."
The London Stock Exchange asked traders to turn off their
computerised "black box" trading, to limit volatility on the stock
market. It also released traders from their obligations to quote
firm buying and selling prices, freeing them to keep pace with
rapidly changing prices.
Staff at the London Metal Exchange, which is close to the site
of the Aldgate tube bomb, were unable to reach their offices after
the police sealed off the area.
The exchange was forced to abandon trading on its open out-cry
trading floor and had to fall back on electronic and telephone
trading.
"A lot of the companies which would trade on the exchange were
also affected. They were concerned about the welfare of their
staff," said a spokesman.
When trading resumed, dealers were able to use the Select
electronic trading system, a Java-based platform which allows
exchange members to buy and sell from desktop machines in their own
offices. Trades were also made directly with dealers over the
phone.
Contingency planning by LCH.Clearnet, the financial clearing
house, ensured that trading at the London Metal Exchange and other
City exchanges continued smoothly. LCH offices in Aldwych were
evacuated and staff moved to a back-up centre from Thursday until
Tuesday 12 July.
Prudential UK was able to fall back on sophisticated
communications systems to help its managers with emergency
planning. The firm had recently digitised its business continuity
plans, and was able to deliver them electronically to 60 managers,
using their Blackberry handhelds, during the crisis. The system,
supplied by Lan 2 Lan, allows the plans to be automatically
updated.
The Swiss merchant bank UBS evacuated its offices near Liverpool
Street after police requests. "Our contingency plans were in place,
they were implemented and were very effective," said a spokeswoman.
"The systems were fully operational."
Sainsbury's was among the high-street retailers to face indirect
disruption as a result of the blasts. "We had three store closures,
two for a very short period and one for the best part of a day
following an incident at Fulham Broadway," said Steve Mellish, head
of business continuity.
"On the second day we wanted to keep it 'business as usual'. We
accepted that there would be transport disruption, so with line
management agreement people could work from home or from their
local stores," he said.
Cable & Wireless and neighbouring businesses were asked to
evacuate staff from offices in Holborn in the aftermath of the
explosions. Like other telecoms operators, Cable & Wireless
experienced unprecedented congestion on the networks, but its
networks proved "resilient," the firm said.
Mobile phones of little use >>
Business continuity plans kick in
Businesses throughout London put disaster recovery suppliers on
standby as the full scale of the bombing incidents began to
unfold.
Thirteen firms, mainly large insurance companies and
underwriters, and one major retailer contacted disaster recovery
specialist NDR, which put 20 engineers and three articulated
lorry-sized mobile data centres on standby.
In the end two organisations said they wanted to invoke disaster
recovery plans, said John Wordley, sales and marketing
director.
One firm sent its 10-strong crisis management team to NDR's
disaster recovery centre in Old Street, but decided not to invoke
its business continuity plan.
Disaster recovery specialist SunGard received 84 alerts from
businesses and 28 customers had to involve the service when they
found they were unable to gain access to their premises.
SunGard runs six emergency computer centres in London, and three
beyond the M25. In the aftermath of the bombings, most firms
requested back up sites in central London, with a few opting for
the extra security of sites outside the capital.
"We still have one customer currently on site working in live
production.
"Other customers did it for a shorter period, some for a day,
others over the week-end," said Keith Tilley, managing director of
SunGard's availability services.
Globalswitch runs two computer centres in Docklands. Its
commercial director Julian King said, "Quite a number of companies
invoked their disaster recovery plans.
"We had a number of requests from customers who wanted
reassurance that our building would remain online and be resilient.
There was a lot of concern about how this would affect
businesses."
Are you prepared?
- Ask how your firm would fare if significant numbers of
employees were unable to get to work
- Set up procedures to identify staff who might be affected by
such an event
- Ensure you can communicate through multiple channels with your
staff. Remember that mobile phone networks are usually ineffective
around the immediately affected area and may get overloaded
- Develop a crisis management capability and establish who will
make decisions
- Develop succession plans and cross-train people
accordingly
- Ensure that people can work from home or appropriate
alternative locations.
Source: Gartner