Business Continuity Plan for ASDA UK - Case Study Example

Business Continuity Plan for ASDA UK Introduction of ASDA UK ASDA is the name of a cheaper super market chain in UK. It sells food, clothes, toys, and all general items. There is also a mobile telephone network called ASDA mobile. In 1999 this became the second largest chain after TESCO in UK. And it became a subsidiary of American Wal-Mart. It is known as the UK’s lowest price super market. ASDA is the abbreviation of Asquith dairies. In 1997, ASDA became famous all over the world, when Spice Girls earned 1 million Pounds for their performance sponsored by ASDA (Deloitte & Touché". www.deloitte.com). In 2008, ASDA has launched a campaign on TV (why pay more), to suggest that ASDA is the Britain’s cheapest super market. ASDA has been declared the winner of the lowest price in the grocer’s magazine in 2009 (http://findarticles.com/p/articles). It owns the greatest social corporate responsibility and now a day it has been sponsoring and promoting Valentine’s Day by selling a dozen roses for 2 pounds each. ASDA has both living and fresh stores all over the country. And it also sells its products to sprinter delivery vans. This has one of the biggest internet operations in the country. And also issues ASDA branded loyalty credit cards. Only in March 2009, ASDA’s share in UK’s grocery market was 17.5%. Presently ASDA employees 150,000 employees and it have one of the largest trade unions. It has already been granted many awards from 1997 to 2009. Being the second largest super market chain in UK, ASDA has got a perfect and well elaborate business continuity plan. ASDA UK and its BCP This essay is aimed at identifying and describing the key organizations that are involved in the disaster management of ASDA UK and appraisal of their rolls. A critical review of the emergency planning with respect to the preparedness of response and recovery from natural and man made disasters is also given. The key elements of conflict, identification, resolution and various command structures for ASDA have also been discussed in detail. The roll of media in disaster response for ASDA UK is given in the end of this essay. Towards the conclusion critical evaluation of guidance documents, response procedures and inter agency team working is also given. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 has been taken benefit from. Before going into the details of the Asda Contingency plans and business continuity planning, it is necessary to conceptually clarify the term of emergency and business continuity planning. Main concepts defined “An emergency has been aptly defined to be an event that would ultimately threaten serious destroying to the concerns of the wellbeing in a venue in the United Kingdom. It may be the ecology of a place in UK or an act of terror that could threatens an eminent damage to the security” (part 1 of Civil Contingencies Act 2004). ASDA Fits into the number 1 workplaces in the civil contingency act 2004. Business continuity plan means a comprehensive process aimed at identifying those threats to an organization that would purportedly impact the business operations (Kenneth L Fulmer 2006). ASDA BCP details Business continuity plan for ASDA provides the organizational resilience which is an effective capacity of an organization to respond and safeguard the interests of all the stake holders, their reputation, brand and value of the organization itself. The stakeholders in ASDA are the owners, employees, the customers, and supply chain linkages. The business stakes like reputation levels are very high for Asda. These objectives are achieved by the ASDA UK by improving its ability to supply the main services and to react with resilience at full vigor against any disruption and can effectively manage all the risks. It can therefore, be said that the business continuity plan is a well defined set of procedures based upon a very well collected and complied data and it aims at continuation of organizational activity even at a maximum tolerable thresh hold of risks, threats and disruption. Business continuity plan for ASDA also contains some other conceptual Clarence about recovery time, invocation, risk appetite and critical activities. These conceptual headings are put against X and Y axis of the graph and time bucket is calculated (Judy Bell 2003) . Here, the disruption at ASDA means a negative deviation from expected levels of service and the business continuity life cycle means the series of business activities collectively covering all phases of business. In order to achieve the business continuity life cycle there are basic certain questions about ASDA organization that needs to be clearly understood before embarking upon the analysis good business continuity plan. It is essential to know about the goods and services that are delivered by the organization, the objective of this delivery, the process in which the gods and services are produced and marketed, the mechanism in which the goods and service are produced and which are the most critical services in this process. In order to understand this whole phenomenon it is necessary to know the mission statement of ASDA organization, the rules of business and the statutory duties of the organization, the environment in which the organization is working, to have a full know abut the stake holder and to have a full grip over the knowledge of available resources. It is also necessary to know the dependents and inter dependent variables relying o other organizations and to have a clear perception about the dangers. In order to have a annotated knowledge about all the above data it is necessary to have a metrics of the stake holders, assist, human resources, IT resources, risks, threats, dependent and independent factors etc. It is commonly understood that in an organizational factory at ASDA, the inputs in the form of assists and resources go into the critical activities and processes to give out the out puts I the forms of goods, services and products. Before, a business continuity plan is perceived it is necessary to assess the chance of disruption of organizational activity then a maximum level of disruption id established. The acceptance level of minimum services is established. The threats are assessed against the impact of staff well being. The disruption at ASDA is also analyzed with regard to the environmental damage, damage to the reputation, loss of technology and assist, financial loss etc. in order to deal with above situation it is necessary to chalk out certain critical activities that can be taken out, these activities have to be supported by the allocation of resources, the risks assessment is done and the thresh hold level of risk taking is established, hence, the vulnerability level of existing resources is determined. The choices before ASDA in this situation are the reduction of likelihood of disruption, shortening the period of disruption, limiting its impact, avoiding and accepting the risks, and suspend and terminate the service which is more vulnerable. The critical strategy at ASDA The critical strategy is essentially base upon people, premises, technology, information supplies and stake holders; people based strategy means involvement of third parties by succession planning, multi skilled work force and documenting how the things are going on. The premises based strategies means working from home or remote working and looking for the alternative ASDA working. The technology based strategy means developing back up systems, remote access and external factors. It is also necessary that electronic and hard copy formats of all the information should be stored. The stake holder’s strategy means having diversified and increased number of stake holders, diversifying the suppliers, better managing of relations with the stake holders. Similarly the business continuity plan at ASDA can be implemented by identifying the critical activities, evaluating the threats, choosing appropriate strategy, dealing with the threats, and making good recovery levels. However, the business continuity plan has to be short and user friendly. It has to be realistic and consistent, can use other information, has clear job description, has the control over versions, has a good communication with the stake holders, has check list of standard Performa’s. The clear responsibilities are made regarding procedures adopted, invocation of statutory rules, monitoring and delivering the results. The welfare needs site security, emergency, logistics, insurance, third party resources, and pay rolls have to be ensured. The response structure includes good planning team, very well documentation of plans, communication with media and stake holders. However, the process of invocation is very critical in a typical BCP. The constant review document control and audit and assessment are also comprehensively necessary. Invocation of emergency preparedness Business continuity planning for ASDA, chain of stores applies to the provision of all the support functions and fire and rescue services are further elaborated as under. The aims and objectives of this BCP at ASDA provides for a comprehensive frame work through which critical process are identified, internal and external risks are assessed and the plans are developed which can ensure an acceptable level of service in the aftermath of disruption. Then the procedures are developed to invoke the BCP which precedes the tests, whether this business continuity plan would work and the personnals are accordingly trained to understand their roles then the responsibilities to the personnals are accordingly assigned. In this connection, Civil Contingency Act 2004 with respect to its emergency preparedness, guidance, on part 1 and its associated regulations and non-statutory arrangements are invoked along with immediate emergency response and recovery. Protection of civil life in UK and a BCP In the United Kingdom, the protection of civil life property, vehicle equipments and infrastructures is based on the concept of integrated emergency management. The focus is always placed on the impacts of the events and not on the causes. The local responses are matched with the recovery process. In ASDA the BCP integrates with the combine fire authority, In order to maintain the provision of critical services to the public and customers during and after the period of disruption. This BCP, for instance involves key documents, emergency authorization procedures, recovery plans and back up strategies. The BCP is always designed in such a manner that assists the responsible people to return the services to normality within the shortest time scale. Business as usual at ASDA is the objective of BCP. The service normally adopts a three tier mechanism for the continuous review of the service situation. Green Level 1 requires no action. Amber Level 2 requires mitigating action to avert an emergency. Red Level 3 triggers the crises planning group into action. The transitions between the above signals are always spontaneous. The duty principle officers, duty area managers, and fire authority, planning committee make the crises planning group (Harney, J.2004). Usually the terms of reference for the team dealing with the BCP of ASDA include the formation which is comprised of executive board, head of finance, head of engineering and transport, head of fire risk management, head of IT, head of procurement, head of estate, health and safety officer, manager human resources, head of operational risk management and chief security officer. At ASDA the above board is responsible for formulation of required plans for service activity and delivery, consideration of service performance, dealing with strategic issues, for deliverance of consistent messages, maintenance and monitoring of risk registers, and acting at the amber level of the business continuity planning. Crisis management at ASDA At ASDA the crisis planning group is chaired by the principle duty officer and he is basically responsible for the clarification of the nature of emergency, identification of membership of crisis planning group, activating the business continuity plan, determining the emergency strategy, recording all the decision taken and strategizing the business recovery. As far as the vehicles and equipment, information and their preparedness are concerned, it is necessary that during the green level, 80% front line appliances should be available. 70% appliances should remain available at amber level. And 60% appliance should remain available at the red level at the front line. Similar is the situation of required level regarding equipment, IT and communication infrastructure. Now, we will see that how the emergency authorization procedures are invoked at ASDA in the case of different emergencies. Any executive board member can trigger invocation of BCP through the emergency contact number and declaring an emergency. Similar is the case with communication systems at ASDA. Information back up strategy at ASDA is required to be put in various types of locations and systems. As far as insurance cover is concerned the long term and short term premium paid treaty, insurance policies are resorted to for the personnel equipment, vehicles, infrastructure, fixtures, continuous business profitability and good will. Insurance aspect of ASDA The insurance policies of ASDA are being constantly renewed the mature policies are deposited into the net profits of this business chain. Similarly the estate management is also covered under insurance. The business continuity plan for the procurement estate management, financial management and property department have their own ingredients. In case of property department the key service providers like plumbers, electricians, glazers, carpenters, air condition experts and roof experts are always put on constant vigil and notice. The fire risk management keeps using fire plan software and AutoCAD architectural software on the desktop (IWA 5:2006). The gas suppliers, caterers, water providers, security officials etc are always kept on the duty rooster. Annual maintenance is done for all the supply line by the property department. The generators of electricity are weekly inspected and monitored regularly at ASDA UK. Media person at ASDA Business continuity planning can not be successful unless a media spokes person is actively working at ASDA. His main job is to act as a press officers and making statements on behalf of organization, contacting with press, police, local government, security officials, hospitals, fire authority and supervising the major incident control room. This spokesperson must have also some staff and finances at his disposal. He is also responsible for organizing the access and visits to the scenes of incident for media output. He also briefs the media people on any damaging incidences to the organization. He works under guidance of the CEO and also has a good liaison with VIPs of the area and the central government. He has the vigilance to suspect any terrorism and can deport the same internally and externally. As far as the test for BCP is concerned, there are various forms and the metrics that are needed to be filled and their data is complied to see how far the business continuity planning has been successful in mitigating the loses in making recoveries. Conclusion It can, therefore, be concluded that the BCP for ASDA UK is very comprehensive and holistic in nature and coverage. The ASDA UK can not afford to be without a proper BCP. Therefore, it envisions plans, strategies and implements the BCP in proper time and proper place. The disaster management team is responsible for the above-mentioned job. The risk analysis is done in a very proper manner. The threats mitigation is done in a timely manner. a minimum threshold level of the risk bearing is already determined. The service delivery is ensured at all risk levels. The insurance coverage is given t the staffs, equipment, the infrastructure and IT services in a holistic manner. ASDA can not afford to go without media manager (www.corporatewatch.org). Each and every job in the contingency planning and disaster management is well defined and well tasked at every level. The contact persons are always available at the beck and call. The equipments and plants are checked and inspected at periodical basis. The details are always discussed at the board meeting and it is always decided that all out efforts are ensured to ward off any emergency conditions. The disruptions are always taken very seriously and the same are dealt with in the befitting manner. Therefore, ASDA presents a model business continuity planning in all respects. This presents a presentable and replicable model for other organizations in the UK. The most mentionable aspect of ASDA UK’s BCP is that it has full support of the local, federal government and all the emergency documents that are available in support of the business continuity, disaster and emergency planning for businesses in UK. BCP for ASDA UK is the model mentioned above and can be described as second to none in the arena of business in United Kingdom. Sources 1-"Business Continuity Planning", 2006. A Step-by-Step Guide with Planning Forms on CDROM by Kenneth L Fulmer 2-"Disaster Survival Planning: A Practical Guide for Businesses" by Judy Bell 2003 Oxford University Press 3-BS 25999-1:2006 Business Continuity Management Part 1: Code of practice - British Standards Institution 4-IWA 5:2006 Emergency Preparedness - International Organization for Standardization 5-Harney, J.(2004). Business continuity and disaster recovery: . AIIME-Doc Magazine, 18(4), 42-48. 6-Global powers of retail report - wall mart remains world's largest global retailer - Deloitte & Touché". www.deloitte.com. 7-"Wal-Mart buys Asda in UK retail shock". Euro food. 17 June 1999. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DQA/is_1999_June_17/ai_55041044. 8-http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7508982.stm. Retrieved 2008-10-06.    9-Cinven Case studies Corporate Watch. http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=800 Retrieved 2008-04-06.  Read More