We partnered with the client to assist with a review of the client’s Business Continuity Planning (BCP) and Disaster Recovery (DR) protocols. The client wanted to gain an understanding of their compliance in relation to industry best practice and general required standards, as well as of the risks they may be exposed to by not having sufficient BCP and DR contingency plans. A review of commercial IT contracts against the marketplace was also required in order to keep IT expenditure and staff training levels within market norms. When we commenced the project, there was no client ownership of BCP and DR planning. No internal auditing had been carried out for a significant period of time and there had never been an external audit, so gaps and failings in the client’s systems were very apparent.

We immediately undertook several investigations into the client’s business processes. Firstly, we performed a GAP analysis of the client’s BCP and DR systems, comparing to the industry standards. This thorough analysis involved discussions with a wide network of cross-organisation stakeholders and comparing with successful systems. During this investigation, we identified a need to partner with the client’s internal risk, service management and change, and incident management teams who had not previously been integrated into the existing BCP/DR considerations. This realisation proved key to improving communication and effectiveness of protocols. We also identified numerous unaccounted risks such as insufficient business impact analysis, and a general lack of sufficient planning for unforeseen events.

To investigate the commercial contracts, we performed an in-depth review of a selection of critical contracts, looking at historic expenditure, communication of requirements, and actual value delivery. We acted to consolidate contractual risks and provided a prioritised list of crucial considerations. Regarding staff competency levels, we looked at the training of the in-house team by meeting with the BCP management team and comparing training levels with industry standards.

By the end of the project, we successfully deployed a new cloud-based infrastructure to over 7,000 users, along with training, live support - on time and on budget. The versatile system included both Windows and Apple solution, and functionality was upgraded. Communication improved dramatically and the comprehensive training enabled the client’s internal staff to sustainably run the new, more capable PMO when tackling future projects.

*Modis, with Badenoch + Clark form part of The Adecco Group