It is redundant to state that everyone is well aware of the recent concerns over the H1N1 (swine) flu pandemic reports. Without overstating the situation, it is reasonable to assume that even the reports of contagions can have effects on the day to day operations of enterprises, disregarding size.
The reports and warnings certainly cause some reflection on the “what if” scenario. It is possible that in the near future an event will occur that will cause the implementation of business continuity plans. Power outages, SARS, snowstorms, the Great Ice Storm, floods in GTA and even the Mississauga train derailment, (for those of us with long term memories), are all events that have resulted in displacement of normal business activities for short and medium time frames.
In an era of increasing globalization, a snowstorm that would have the army scrambling for snowplows in Toronto would result in headlines in most Canadian cities, but not have much influence on the demands of clients served by Canadians in Tucson, Arizona.
Cost Containment and Business Continuity
There are connections and dependencies between business continuity, cost containment and technology solutions. The technology exists in both in-house systems and hosted applications that can provide solutions to two apparently different issues.
Customer Scenario
In our sample company, there are ten people working in an office environment providing call centre and customer support services for clients across North America. The company is facing financial pressures and the need reduce operating costs within their contact centre.
Management has indicated that there is only revenue to support the work of eight people. The natural reaction would be to eliminate headcount by two people, either by performance results or by seniority.
In discussions with the supervisor, all 10 people had expressed interest that they would be willing to work four days a week, (80 per cent of the normal work week), some of it from home, and in exchange, reduce some of their personal costs associated with commuting to the office. In addition, the government unemployment insurance is willing to provide funds for this type of program, which would supplement the employer and employee programs.
The telework oriented technology solutions to support this form of work sharing could also be deployed to support business continuity in the event of a pandemic or other event. In other words, instead of work sharing, these same workers could be deployed to their home offices very quickly in response to events that prevent them from reporting to the usual central work place.
It Begins with a Plan
A business continuity plan begins with reviewing the existing business processes and prioritizing those that are essential to the operation of the enterprise. The inventory of services, equipment, options and features can provide a baseline for the gap analysis of the basic telecommunications and technology solutions required to move forward.
The organization can either reinforce and extend existing technologies or overlay hosted services, to accommodate the business continuity ‘what if’ scenarios. These hosted services can be used on a periodic, part time or as-needed basis.
Regular Review and Testing
It’s also important to completely and frequently test the functionality and applicability as the requirements continue to evolve. These tests or reviews are important In the event that an unexpected event occurs, so that there is strong familiarity with the systems, processes and procedures to have key business personal work effectively from remote locations.
Benefits of Flexible Work Arrangements
These types of flexible work arrangements allow the organization to keep valuable, experienced resources through a financial downturn, and have them available when the economy recovers.
Fox Group professionals have been working with organizations to develop flexible, telework, technology programs, policies and procedures for over twenty years, and walks-the-talk every day as a distributed technology oriented organization itself.
As always, I welcome your thoughts, feedback and comments. You can contact me at [email protected] or 905-473-3369 x 1001.
