Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery Case Studies

Many businesses are already prepared for disruptions with completed, tested business continuity plans. The case studies below could help you to plan, update or modify your strategy or plans by showing you the approach other organizations have taken in specific situations. It's always less painful to learn from others' experiences!

One firework could have brought down a business. (Item #1)   Read about some of the lessons this company learned as the result of a disruption. (Item #2)   Glasgow Airport's business continuity management (BCM) strategy came into its own during a car-bomb attack. (Item #3)  

A suspicious powder put Norwich Union's BC plan through its paces. (Item #4)   An exploding bomb put Marks & Spencer's plan to a test. (Item #5)   If you're not aware of your critical vendors' BC plans, take note of this case study. (Item #6)  

As always, we look forward to hearing your comments & insights regarding business continuity. If you have a topic you'd like us to cover, email me at [email protected].

Bob Mellinger, President
Attainium Corp

1. Sungard saves the day in toy story

Surveys constantly reveal fire to be one of the greatest concerns for BC managers and the 'disaster' most fear having to deal with. But the experience of James Galt demonstrated that implementing and committing to a BCP enables organizations to respond effectively and efficiently when the worst occurs. The effects of the fire may have been devastating for their old office, but thanks to BC, the same could not be said for James Galt's business.
http://www.safetynet247.co.uk/resources/casestudies/JamesGalt.pdf

2. Real-Life Experiences with Business Continuity

When a disaster occurs, it often reveals the true measure of an organization's preparedness. An unplanned business interruption occurred recently in the company where Rich Schiesser works. This article presents some of the valuable lessons the company learned from this event.
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=102203

3. The Glasgow airport attack from a business continuity and crisis management point of view

On 30 June 2007, the second busiest day of the year due to the school holidays commencing the previous day, Glasgow Airport became the target for a car bomb attack, which propelled the airport into the glare of the world's media and created severe business continuity issues for the airport. In line with BAA group requirements, Glasgow Airport has a fully functioning business continuity management (BCM) strategy. This came into its own during the incident and this case study details the attack and its repercussions, overviews the response and highlights the lessons learned.
http://www.continuitycentral.com/glasgowairportcasestudy.pdf

4. Norwich Union

As a result of the regulated environment that Norwich Union operates in and the sound business practice of protecting its staff, customers, shareholders and key stakeholders, Norwich union takes Business Continuity Management very seriously. Norwich Union has planned to mitigate against a variety of disasters; one major incident that was managed happened from the discovery of an envelope containing a suspicious substance was detected in the post room in Norwich.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets
/@dg/@en/documents/digitalasset/dg_176766.pdf

5. Marks & Spencer: The Manchester Experience

The morning of The 15th June was bright, warm and approximately 80,000 people were shopping in Manchester. There were 21 police officers on duty in the city centre. We were at level 2 security status, which meant we were undertaking additional internal security measures but not to our highest level which would have meant permanent manning of our CCTV systems. At approximately 10am the police were alerted that there was a bomb in the City Centre.
http://www.londonprepared.gov.uk/downloads/businesscontinuity/casestudies/mands.pdf

6. Web Hosting - The Hidden Dangers

Despite the importance of e-business, many companies entrust key aspects of their business to external suppliers. However, what happens when things go wrong? Bryan Hall, from Business Continuity Service providers, ICM Assurity uses a Case Study to outline the dangers and ways to avoid them.
http://www.londonprepared.gov.uk/downloads/businesscontinuity/casestudies/assurity.pdf