CAYLON Investment Bank

Major European Bank Case Study

/in , , , /by

Major European Bank

This customer is a major European financial institution with its regional HQ located in Singapore and Hong Kong.  It has other operations includes Bangkok and Tokyo, Japan.

History

The customer needed to implement a BC plan for its business units located in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Tokyo. This included both the HQ and local Singapore operations. This is required to ensure that it complies with the corporate objectives.  Another essential requirement is to meet most of the Central Bank’s audit findings.

GMH’s Services and Solutions

Figure 1: BCM Planning Methodology

Figure 1: BCM Planning Methodology

The solution was to adopt an approach to standardize the organizational BCM framework.  The effort was decentralized initally and guidance is directed from European HQ.  From the start, it is established that there is a need to have a common framework and each operations to develop its Minimum Business Continuity Objective (MBCO).  GMH’s consultants adopted the fast-track approach based on the BCM planning methodology (Figure 1) to facilitate the development of the BCM framework and plan documents. The framework has to take into consideration the overseas offices also required BC plans to be developed in the future. Thus, the BCM framework ensured that it is consistent and applicable to all the regional offices.

Conclusion

The approach and solution implemented by GMH for this customer is flexible, adaptable and scalable to meet the customer’s requirements and expansion plans. This ensured that the customer benefited from an innovative and cost-effective approach.  The client had since acceded to the Central Bank’s audit requirement upon completion of the consultancy.

 

About the Author

Dr Goh Moh Heng

Dr Goh Moh Heng is the President of BCM Institute and the Managing Director of GMH Continuity Architects – a specialized BCM Consulting firm. His primary areas of expertise include Business Continuity Management (BCM), Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP), ISO22301 BCM Audit and Crisis Management. Since 2011, Moh Heng has assisted more than 20 organizations, particularly those operating in the Asia Pacific and Middle-East Region in their successful implementation of their Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) and achieving their BS 25999/ SS 540 / ISO 22301 organization certification.  Prior to establishing BCM Institute and GMH BCM Consulting, Dr Goh held senior positions with a number of large organizations. During his career with the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), he was responsible for all aspects of its BC and contingency planning. At Standard Chartered Bank, he saw to the global implementation of its BC management and planning. He also managed the BCM practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Currently, Dr Goh is the senior advisor to the China BCM Forum, a quasi government agency responsible for BCM throughout China and an expert panel member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Network on Improving SME Disaster Resilience (since 2011) and JICA-ASEAN study to enhance resiliency of industrial areas against natural disasters (since 2012).   He hold a PhD and also been awarded the highest level of certification from the three major business continuity management institutes.  He is the author of nine business continuity management books.  Dr. Goh is instrumental in creating the first Wikipedia for BC www.BCMpedia.org. He can be contacted at moh_heng@bcm-institute.org or moh_heng@gmhasia.com.

Certification audit of 9G by Certification Intenational

9G Elevator Continuity Case Study (Elevator & Escalator Industry)

/in /by

9G Elevator & Escalator Business Continuity Management Case Study

9G Elevator Pte Ltd is a thriving elevator and escalator maintenance company that provides elevator and escalator services to building owners and managing agents. 9G operates in Singapore, providing their services to a wide-range of client’s, from town councils – Aljunied and Ang Mo Kio – to hotels such as Pan Pacific Hotel Singapore. With expanding local operations, a resilient operational plan is essential to manage the business in the event of a disaster.

The Challenge

9G is mainly involved in the commissioning and installation of elevators and escalators, as well as follow up services such as elevator and escalator maintenance and repairs. One example is the provision of 24-hour call-back service and emergency breakdown repair, which means that 9G will have to be on constant standby to deal with any problems. Due to the fact that there is zero allowable downtime for these services, as contractually agreed, 9G realized that a Business

Business Continuity Plan will have to be developed to prepare for potential disasters such as fire, telecommunication failure and the absence of key staff.

“We were concerned that 9G might not be able to fulfil the contractually required terms and conditions should we be hit by a crisis or disaster. Our reputation is of utmost importance.

Therefore, we feel very strongly towards a Business Continuity Plan that is functional and resilient, so as to protect our business. ” says Loo Tien Hoe, Managing Director of 9G Elevator.

One of the key competitive issues, such as brand assurance (and perception) of local enterprises, as compared to foreign MNCs, also drove 9G to venture into Business Continuity. The Elevators and Escalators industry is still largely dominated by foreign brands such as Mitsubishi, Escamo and Hitachi. Therefore, to give themselves an edge over these foreign MNCs, 9G decided that it needs to assure clients that they can continue to rely and depend on 9G in times of crises or disasters. It is with all these in mind that 9G embarked on the project, with the objective of developing a comprehensive plan with minimal disruption to current business operations. They required a robust plan to satisfy management and clients’ concerns.

The Solution

Even though the company has about 70 personnel, most of them are maintenance staff who operate on-site. This leaves about 20 administrative staff in the office, who provide back-end direction and support. With such a lean organization structure, 9G did not consider recruiting in-house expertise to drive the BCM Program, but instead appointed a project team to explore and pursue alternative solutions. The appointed 9G project team immediately started to source for a consulting firm to develop the company’s Business Continuity skills and create an effective Business Continuity Plan.

“After some deliberation between the different approaches to BCM consulting, we decided to advance with GMH’s consulting services because it proposed a more holistic BCM implementation this involves developing BCM competency in the organisation, which goes hand in hand with the consultancy service. This arrangement is perfect for a company like ours with no prior BCM experience,” recalls Tien Hoe.

GMH, in conjunction with BCM Institute, developed a specialized training program to inculcate and develop BCM Competency in the organisation. GMH consultants aided in the development of an integrated BCM framework by setting up 9G’s BCM objectives and policies, together with the management and project team. This set the stance of the management and provided clear directions for all staff in the organisation. Consultants also led the BCM team and management through the various phases in the BCM Planning Methodology.

For example, in the Risk Analysis and Review (RAR) phase, a list of potential threats was identified and each of these threats was rated according to their likelihood and impact on 9G’s people, processes and infrastructure.

In the Business Impact Analysis (BIA) phase, the Minimum Business Continuity Objectives for each business unit in 9G was documented. The team managed to identify the financial and non-financial impact of not performing a particular business function, as well as the Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) for each business function. As previously noted, all Maintenance business functions were identified as highly critical to the 9G, evident with their 4-hour RTO. This is followed closely by Admin/Accounts and IT’s business functions, some of which have RTOs of only 1-day.Therefore 9G had to come up with strategies to recover critical maintenance functions like call-back and hotline services so as be able to continue to respond to clients.

9G came up with three main recovery options after a cost benefit analysis – Provision of a remote site, establishment of a private alternate site and continuation of operations from clients’ site. 9G’s favoured operating from a private alternate site during a disaster as there is readily available infrastructure and utilities. Hence, this reduces the set-up time and any extra maintenance costs.

Due to the nature of the business, Logistics, Maintenance and Installation will have to continue its operations at the clients’ site, since these personnel are the ones performing the immediate/emergency repair, maintenance and installation jobs. Logistics will have to support Maintenance services with spare parts during a crisis. It was also decided during the Recovery

Strategy workshop that 9G’s IT data be backed up daily. All systems and data will have to be backed up weekly for the entire organisation and kept at the alternate site. As part of pre-crisis preparation, cross training will also be conducted for key personnel.

Armed with these strategies in mind, 9G, together with GMH consultants, then proceeded to write the Business Continuity Plan with more detailed recovery procedures for each business unit, including the roles and responsibilities of those in the BCM Team. Assembly points, alternate and remote site layouts and 9G’s organization and individual business unit call trees were inserted into the plan. The plan was consolidated by the consultants and the result was a comprehensive plan which can be easily understood by all. A call tree test and walkthrough exercise was conducted so that the staff are aware of the organization’s BCM efforts. “This BCM initiation really brought out the other side of 9G – one which is forward thinking and always planning for a disaster. A culture of non-complacency and service continuity in the face of disasters has also been embedded in the organisation,” remarked a very pleased Tien Hoe.

The Result

Certification audit of 9G by Certification Intenational

Certification audit of 9G by Certification International

9G developed operational and IT recovery procedures to overcome a seven day disaster (planning assumption). The project ensured that the company identified and prepared an alternate location as the headquarters for its management and operations. The Business Continuity Management System developed under GMH’s guidance allowed 9G to be certified SS540 compliant from Certification International. 9G is now the first company in its industry to attain BCM certification. This means that it will have the ability to create added value while tendering for key projects, especially those from government agencies, such as Housing Development Board (HDB). 9G is also able to ensure its corporate governance as an organisation and as a Service Level Agreement (SLA) provider by being prepared and certified in terms of service continuity. Loo Tien Hoe best sums up the project, “management and our clients now feel comfortable knowing that 9G’s operations are secure, which definitely gives us an edge over the other elevator and escalator companies.”

At A Glance

What they wanted to do:

  • Develop a robust business continuity plan
  • Create internal Business Continuity expertise

What they did:

  • Provided managers and staff the necessary knowledge to develop a business continuity plan
  • Jointly created a plan with GMH consultants

What they accomplished:

  • Achieved SS540 certification from Certification International
  • Developed a disaster headquarters
  • Implemented resilient IT and operational procedures
  • Satisfied management and clients’ concerns
  • First company in its industry to attain BCM certification

Statement:

“GMH provided us the necessary guidance to develop our Business Continuity plan and internal training program. We now feel confident to manage our own Business Continuity program.”

9G Elevator Pte Ltd

Managing Director

About GMH:

GMH offers a total business continuity solution for organizations of any size.  GMH, in conjunction with its clients, develops comprehensive business continuity plans. Its partnership with BCM Institute ensures that clients will gain domain Business Continuity knowledge and the ability to develop future Business Continuity plans.

DTS Marketing Case Study (Specialized Industry)

/in , , /by

DTS Marketing Business Continuity Management Case Study

DTS Marketing Pte Ltd is a leading company that provides Information Technology solutions and services to the banking financial sector and the hospitality and retail sector. Headquartered in Singapore, DTS operates worldwide with subsidiaries and satellite offices in Malaysia, Cambodia and China. With expanding global operations, a resilient operational plan is essential to manage its international businesses in the event of a disaster, especially to the banking financial sector.

The Challenge

DTS provides IT support and services to banks for machines such as the TK Personalisation MICR Encoder, Teller Scan Cheque Scanner and Talaris System, which involves the scanning and encoding of cheques. The company also provides Point of Sales System, Tracker Tenant Management Solution and Voucher Management System to the hospitality and retail industry. DTS core business is not only to market the products listed above, but to also provide after sales services that will help business owners manage their businesses from the front of the house operation to the back of the house operation.

For this reason, they are frequently governed by Service Level Agreements (SLAs). It was then that they realized a Business Continuity Plan would have to be developed in order to maintain their support operations to these clients in times of crises and disasters.  “The Management concern was that DTS would not be able to meet the stringent SLAs, especially for the banking financial sector, in the face of crises. This would cause DTS to incur huge financial and reputational losses,” says Janet Ong, Managing Director of DTS Marketing.

DTS embarked on the project with the objective to quickly develop a comprehensive plan with minimal disruption to current business operations. It required a robust plan to satisfy management and clients’ concerns.

Solution

DTS does not have any prior Business Continuity Plans or any kind of Business Continuity Management program. Due to its lean organization structure and lack of BC-skilled personnel, DTS’ Management looked to a consulting firm to develop the company’s Business Continuity skills and to help create a plan. “After some deliberation between different companies, we decided to move ahead with GMH’s consulting services because its two-pronged approach – consulting and training –provided the assurance that we would not only have a plan but also the expertise to maintain an organization BCM program,” recalls Janet.

GMH, in conjunction with BCM Institute, developed a specialized training program to increase the project team’s level of Business Continuity competency. It deployed consultants to oversee the project, aiding the DTS team in the analysis of the impact of potential threats to their business operations. Minimum Business Continuity Objectives were written for business units which were identified as critical during a disaster. Support and IT business functions were identified as the most critical ones with only a 4-hour Recovery Time Objective (RTO), as IT is almost always required to back-up Support’s operations.

Recovery strategies were weighed accordingly and it was concluded that DTS operate from a private alternate site during crises and disasters because of minimal setup cost and time required and convenient access to and activation of controls. It will be considered a “warm” recovery site with readily available infrastructure and utilities. Business units operating from the recovery site and remote sites were also considered. For example, to counter the stringent SLAs, it was decided that Support would operate directly from the client’s site for the first 2 days, keep their work logs manually until the recovery site is set up, monitor the situation and provide periodical updates to the command centre. IT, on the other hand will immediately proceed to set up the IT infrastructure at the recovery site, retrieve the backup files and provide support to the rest of the business units.

Business Continuity Plans were then created for each business unit, with detailed recovery procedures documented by the business unit representatives, under the supervision and guidance of the consultants. Other considerations like assembly points, call tree, key contacts and detailed directions to the alternate site were also determined by the DTS BCM Team.  The team also performed a walkthrough exercise to familiarise themselves with the recovery procedures, as well as a company-wide notification call tree test to ensure its effectiveness. The result was a 100% success rate of attempted contacts within 1 hour, with 95% of relayed messages returning accurate.

One of the key success factors of the whole consulting project was the fact that the management and business unit heads were present for all workshops, allowing the entire project team to be able to effectively iron out any discrepancies on the spot. The training was highly beneficial to DTS, resulting in the creation of a Business Continuity culture among employees and management. “Due to the rigorous process of implementing BCM in our organization, the BCM Team and Management had to meet frequently to iron out any problems and to discuss about the BC Plans. This really brought the (DTS) team together. We became more unified and BCM became a concept embedded in the employees, evident in the incorporation of backup procedures in their daily routines,” remarked Janet.

The Result

GMH assisting DTS in achieving its SS540 and ISO22301 BCMS certification

GMH assisting DTS in achieving its SS540 and ISO22301 BCMS certification

DTS developed operational and IT recovery procedures to overcome a seven day disaster. The project ensured that the company identified and prepared an alternate location for headquarters management and operations. The Business Continuity Management System developed under GMH’s guidance allowed DTS to be certified SS540 compliant from British Standards Institute.  Janet Ong best sums up the project, “management and our clients are now assured that DTS’ business operations are secure and will continue in times of crises or disasters.”

At A Glance

What they wanted to do:

  • Develop a robust business continuity plan to manage client expectations
  • Create internal Business Continuity expertise

What they did:

  • Provided managers and staff the necessary knowledge to develop a business continuity plan
  • Jointly created a plan with GMH consultants

What they accomplished:

  • Achieved SS540 certification from BSI
  • Developed a disaster headquarters
  • Implemented resilient IT and operational procedures
  • Satisfied management and clients’ concerns

Statement:

“GMH provided us the necessary guidance to develop our Business Continuity plan and internal training program. We now feel confident to manage our own Business Continuity program.”

DTS Marketing Pte Ltd

Managing Director

About GMH:

GMH offers a total business continuity solution for organizations of any size.  GMH, in conjunction with its clients, develops comprehensive business continuity plans. Its partnership with BCM Institute ensures that clients will gain domain Business Continuity knowledge and the ability to develop future Business Continuity plans.

Afternote:  In 2015, DTS with the help of GMH had successfully assisted DTS and they have successfully achieved their ISO22301:2012 certification.

Asia Development Bank

Leading Multilateral Financial Institution Case Study

/in /by

Leading Asian Multi-lateral Financial Institution

This customer is an international multi-lateral development bank whose mission is to help its developing member countries reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their people. Headquartered in Manila, and established in 1966, this institution is owned and financed 67 member Asian and global.  Its main partners are governments, the private sector, nongovernment organizations, development agencies, community-based organizations, and foundations.

History

This institution is not required to meet any regulatory requirements. However, it is committed to adopting good corporate government policies in line with international best practices, and maintain stakeholders’ confidence. The policies also required it to develop and implement a BCP.

GMH’s Services and Solutions

Although this customer is not bound to comply with any regulatory requirements, it had many key stakeholders. Their BC planning requirements had to take into consideration the multi-facet threats and also address any potential incidents or  events that may arise.  GMH’s consultants interviewed the Executive and Senior Management teams to ensure the key business objectives, critical business functions and strategy for recovery are addressed when BCP is activated.

Conclusion

This project involved the review of the critical business functions and the identifcation of the recovery strategies.  This is concluded with the summary of strategic BC plan implementation of the BCP within the country and also in another location outside of the host country. The business continuity objectives had to be carefully identified and evaluated due to the unique ownership structure of this institution. This was possible as GMH’s BC planning methodology and approach was flexible and adaptable to meet the unique requirements.

Healthcare Services Case Study

/in /by

Major Healthcare Services Client

Our customer is a leading healthcare services provider in Singapore; operating 9 major clinics sited in strategic locations to make affordable healtcare services easily available to the community. This organization is part of one of the major healthcare service clusters. Their vision is to lead in the field of family medicine using an integrated and holistic healthcare approach. The corresponding mission is to provide patient-centric, preventive and quality healthcare to all patients. The organization is also committed to promoting research, trainng and professional development.

History

Since it is designated by the government as a public healthcare services provider, the organization is considered one of the essential healthcare services provider. This requires the organization to continue to provide healthcare services even during any major incident or crisis. The key challenge was to identify critical operations that will continue functioning when one or more of its sites is affected by a disaster, and/or when there is a national or regional public emergency. In other words, the organization had to develop a BCM framework and implement BC plans that will enable it to continue critical business operations, and integrate their responses and activities with the relevant public authorities and agencies. The customer also required the BCM implementation to be compliant with the TR19:2005 Technical Reference for BCM (now relaunched as SS540 Singapore Standard for BCM in October 2008). Another key requirement was that the approach must be affordable, and does not require too much resources to be committed for too long.

GMH’s Services and Solution

Generally, the 9 clinics are identical in terms of the organization structure and services; with the exception of the corporate office which is co-located with one of the clinics located in the central region. Firstly, an organizational-wide BCM framework was developed and communicated to the BCM steering committee and BCP project team members. Team members came from diverse backgrounds – finance, administration, facilities management, nursing, doctors, corporate and engineering. To establish a common understanding of BCM, its objectives, the planning process, project timeline and key roles and responsibilities, we conducted a 1-day BCM fundamentals training.

Subsequently, the members went through a series of facilitated workshop and consulting sessions to identify the threats and risks, and determine the critical business functions and minimum business continuity objectives. From the information gathered, we designed a BC strategy that required the HQ and clinics to be segmented into clusters of 2 or 3 sites; with each site backing up the other. This ensured that the customer need not establish separate alternate sites to recover critical business functions. The detail BC plans and procedures were then established and tested. The simulation exercise conducted was designed to identify any gaps in the BC plans.

Conclusion

Contrary to common perception that implementing and sustaining BCM is expensive, and requires the commitment of significant amount of resources, this organization benefitted from using GMH’s cost-effective approach to implement an organizational-wide BCM program and plans. Implementation costs were also minimized by establishing other clinics as alternate sites for any affected site. The BCM  framework and planning approach also enabled the customer to fulfill its requirement to achieve TR19 certification.

Manufacturing/Service Case Study

/in /by

Marine Electronics and Office Automation Supplier

 

This customer started as a sole proprietor in 1976 to supply and service marine electronics equipment. It was then incorporated as a private limited company in 1978. Now it is now a holding company with dealings in properties, marine electronics and office automation. Its philosophy is to innovate, provide leadership and deliver good customer service; with the commitment to maintain social responsibility, human dignity, honesty and integrity.

History

In 2005, the Director and founder of the group, desired to leverage on BCM and the TR19 certification; to enable the organization to become more resilient and benchmark against established international BCM good practices. Being an SME with a workforce of less than 250 staff, the Director stipulated that the BCM program and plan implemented must be sufficiently comprehensive; yet, without causing business costs to increase significantly. Another key constraint was that the project resources and time should be restricted to minimum appropriate levels.

GMH’s Services and Approach

In view of the key project constraints and objectives, GMH deployed a very experienced team with a combined total of about 30 years BC-DR experience. Our consultants conducted the BCM fundamentals training and followed this up with a series of facilitated workshops; which were also complemented with interviews with key stakeholders, department heads and subject matter experts. This enabled the GMH team to identify the threats and risks, and determine the critical busines functions together with the minimum business continuity objectives. This led our consultant to guide the BCP project team to develop the BC strategies and subsequently, detailed recovery procedures. To ascertain the BC plan is effective, GMH conducted an exercise to validate the BC plan against the objectives and strategies.

Conclusion

GMH’s BCM framework and planning process is rigourous, flexible and adaptable to meet different customer’s specific BCM requirements and objectives. Through our framework and approach, this customer implemented a cost-effective BCM solution and program. This enable to the customer to enhance organizational process resiliency. Most importantly, the BCM program and plan implemented is scalable and will ensure that the customer can progressively upgrade its requirements as the organization expands.

Government Agency Case Study

/in /by

Key Government Agency

This customer is a key government agency tasked to spearhead Singapore’s economic growth and future. Its primary objectives are to attract foreign investments, expand and extend the industries, and help to sustain a pro-business environment.

History

In 2006, this government agency wanted to implement BCM and reinforce its DRP.  The scope required BC plans to be developed for its HQ (located in the central business district), local subsidiary offices and its international overseas offices. The scope for testing was limited to the local HQ. But the necessary knowledge and skills to empower the project team members to conduct their own tests for the subsidiaries and overseas, had to be transferred to them.

GMH’s Services and Solution

GMH’s approach was first to conduct the BCM fundamentals training to ensure that the management and project team members have the same common understanding of the scope, definitions and objectives BCM, as well as the BC planning process, and their roles and responsibilities. Identifying the threats and risks for the various locations was more difficult. The relevant project team members had to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to conduct the risk analysis, with remote support from the GMH team in Singapore. This approach was repeated for each major stage of the BC planning process. The local offices were supported by the GMH team with interviews and face-to-face meetings conducted to complete the information gathering. GMH deployed additional consultants to help the various teams complete the development of the BC strategies. Finally, BC plans were developed for each major site for this agency.

Conclusion

The development and implementation of the BCM frameworka, program and plan for this customer was more complex; as it included overseas offices; this was despite the constraint that the customer required the GMH team to facilitate the BC plan development for the overseas without physically going on-site. The experience and professionalism of our consultants enabled all the key project requirements and constraints to be adhered to, and lead the customer to a successful BCM implementation.

Telecommunications Case Study

/in /by

Leading Telecommunications Service Provider

This customer is one of Singapore’s leading telecommunications service provider for mobile communications and international call services. It provides customers with coverage and roaming services in more than 200 countries or territories. It was the first an island-wide wireless broadband service in December 2006.

History

This customer required to develop and implement a BC plan that would enable critical business functions to continue to service key customers during a disaster or major incident.

GMH’s Services and Approach

One of the first tasks was to develop the BCM framework and guidelines for the BCP project team. This required the management to define which groups of customers will continue to receive support and customer services. Another key challenge was to identify major single-point-of-failure for the major technology components and infrastructure as part of the risk analysis stage.  A key BC strategy the GMH consultants recommended was for the customer to establish another operation center to enhance network operations resiliency; which will work together with the existing operations center.  With the help of the GMH consultants, the customer successfully identify the critical business functions and recovery requirements; leading them to implement viable BC plans that were subsequently exercised and maintained.

Conclusion

Implementing BCP for an major technology-based company need to necessarily be always dependent on high-tech solutions. Some of the strategies would require relevant policies and manual interim processes to be executed by the corporate services support divisions during a disaster. Briefly, the BC plan and procedures had to be flexible and adaptable to a wide range of incidents.