Design and Test Voice Services Business Continuity Plan

Company profile

Northern Rock Building Society was formed in 1965 as a result of the merger of two north East Building Societies; the Northern Counties Permanent Building Society (established in 1850) and the Rock Building Society (established in 1865). During the 30 years that followed, Northern Rock expanded by acquiring 53 smaller building societies, most notably the North of England Building Society in 1994


In January 2010 the Northern Rock bank was split into two parts. Northern Rock plc became the banking arm, whilst the asset side of the business became Northern Rock Asset Management plc (NRAM).

Business situation

Northern Rock had endured some particularly tough challenges during 2009 / 2010, with a directive from the EC to first logically split the bank, then complete physical separation by the end of 2010.  Certain conditions were imposed on the organisation, one being fully segregated Business Continuity (BC) provisions for both banks in order for the split to be completed.  Business Continuity was not one of the strongest areas for the organisation, particularly in terms of voice and recovery capabilities.

Technical situation

Having chosen a 3rd party to provide Business Continuity services at 2 recovery locations, Northern Rock were required to provide the full contact routing design for their telephony requirements. They also needed to carry out full end-to-end telephony testing, including the re-routing of number delivery from their main offices, to the recovery locations.

Solution

IISAS were selected to deliver a full representation of Northern Rocks business-as-usual (BAU) estate for voice and design a disaster recovery model to align with the contact centre recovery sites. The timeframes were extremely aggressive, however IISAS displayed a comprehensive understanding of these challenges in a very short space of time. IISAS provided recommendations for an efficient solution almost immediately.

Once the BC solution was provided, IISAS worked closely with the 3rd party recovery site infrastructure supplier to ensure the telephony routing was implemented and tested as per the design. IISAS produced comprehensive test plan and coordinated all the telephony testing. Fully documented test results were produced and all progress monitored throughout implementation.

Benefits

Anne Jardine, Head of Business Continuity, Northern Rock plc says: -

“Without the input of IISAS we would not have fulfilled our regulatory obligations to provide Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery capabilities for both banks.”

“The benefits and improvements that their work has brought to the organisation have been greatly received by our operational and voice teams alike.”

“Their ability to deliver on time and within budget whilst maintaining an exceptionally high standard of deliverables and professionalism leaves me in no doubt that I could rely on them to deliver further solutions.”

“It was a most pleasurable experience to work with a team of people who have not lost the ‘human touch’ in IT!”