Global consulting firmWatson
Wyattis revising itsbusiness continuity planbased on
lessons learned from using the original plan last
year.
Watson Wyatt was able to maintain services when its London
offices were evacuated in June 2007 after the partial collapse of a
nearby building, but found some areas of the plan that needed
improvement.
The business continuity plan provided for some employees to move
to a workplace recovery centre provided by SunGard Availability
Services and others to
work remotely from home, but many found collaboration
difficult, said Vijay Bains, risk manager for Watson Wyatt in the
UK.
"Before the incident we were pushing ahead to get as many people
as possible working from a remote location, but after four days
more people were asking for a seat at the recovery centre so they
could work with their teams," he said.
The company's revised business continuity plan makes provision
for more people to use its workplace recovery centres in future if
necessary.
Bains said last year's incident had shown that a more blended
approach to business continuity was better than a single approach
centred on remote working to allow greater flexibility.
The revised plan also makes provision for alternative venues for
events scheduled to take place at the company's offices during any
future disaster recovery period.
"As a result of last year's incident, we had to cancel a lot of
presentations because there was not enough room at the recovery
centre for the size of seminars we had organised and we could not
reschedule them at short notice," said Bains.
Another important lesson learned, he said, was that business
continuity was not only about technology, but was also about people
and it is important for planning to take that into account.
He said although Watson Wyatt had a detailed plan in place last
year, the company realised that there was more that could be done
because business continuity was not only about getting people
behind PCs, but also involved looking at all activities in the
business and how they worked together.
Watson Wyatt, which has 7,000 staff in 32 countries, plans to
get certified on the
new British standard BS 25999 for business continuity by the
end of 2008.