Insight on...
An Insight Case Study
Risk management
Business continuity
Security management
eSecurity infrastructures
Compliance
Insight Consulting Asked who is the UK’s largest toy and small
electrical appliances retailer, or the second
works in
largest retailer of jewellery, many people may
partnership with be surprised to learn that in each case it is
Argos.
Europe’s largest
catalogue store Established in 1973 and acquired by Great
Universal Stores in 1998, Argos is now
chain, Argos, to recognised as one of the most powerful
develop company- forces in British retailing, a £2billion business
with around 450 retail stores offering up to
wide business
8,500 lines throughout the UK and the Irish
recovery plans Republic. “Reflected in our current
advertising message, ‘what ever you want’,”
says Martin Wilson, Facilities Manager with
overall responsibility for business continuity,
“Argos has grown through the development
of a simple idea, combining the convenience
of home selection – via a twice-yearly
catalogue – with the immediacy of High Street
shopping.”
A simple idea perhaps, but logistically a
complex business to manage with many
attendant risks. In 1994, Argos began work
with leading independent specialist
consultancy, Insight Consulting, to review
their existing systems and business continuity
www.insight.co.uk
Argos
plans and subsequently to develop a
company-wide implementation and testing
programme, in a relationship which continues
today. As Ian Glover, partner, Insight
Consulting, emphasises: “To be truly effective,
business continuity planning is an on-going
commitment, evolving to address new issues
and new problems.”
Review
This is exemplified by much of the work
currently in progress. The emphasis has
switched from an initial series of projects -
designed to put in place effective business
recovery plans across the company - to a
continuous review programme of testing and
updating
Today this takes the form of an annual review
of each department’s needs and requirements
to ensure that the relevant recovery plans are
fully up to date. A formal sign off is required at
both business recovery manager and director
level, to confirm that the plans agreed are both
sufficiently robust and will meet the demanding
targets set.
At the same time it must take account of the
growing range of services Argos now offers.
Traditional, High Street store operations and
‘Call and Collect’ satellite stores have been
augmented by a nationwide telephone stock
enquiry and reservation service, Argos
Business Solutions (an incentives business),
Argos Direct (a home delivery service based at
Acton Gate), a national Wedding List
Operation, Open digital TV shopping and
Internet shopping.
“From a systems perspective,” Glover points
out, “ these recent developments have placed
new, more complex demands on the
company’s disaster recovery capability.
Wilson agrees, adding: “Argos has historically
maintained a strong reputation for the quality of
its operating systems in the retail arena, yet we
are now more dependent than ever on the priority. As a strongly centralised organisation,
resilience of our IT systems.” the head office functions play a critical role in
the operation of the whole company - from
One example is the move toward entering data
stock movements and allocation in distribution
directly onto computer from the telephone or
centres to stock and display in stores - and
from automated stock movements within
thus any incident impacting on head office will
Distribution Centres, with few or no manual
have widespread effect.
records as backup. The impact of loss of data
becomes more significant and traditional Within each department, an impact analysis
recovery from off-site backup’s do not meet the and recovery requirement definition exercise
business recovery requirements. was conducted by Insight, with requirements
then translated into an invitation to tender (ITT)
Recovery of voice services is also critical and
for the provision of standby work areas. The
therefore the SDX recovery strategy within
ITT responses were then analysed and third
Argos’ call centre operations must be timely
party contracts negotiated, with systems
and effective. In order to provide automatic
connectivity and infrastructure services facilities
call distribution (ACD) and, in the near future,
implemented. In each case a work area was
integrated voice recognition (IVR) additional
allocated within the new, separately located
standby SDXs are now sited at Argos’ business
business recovery centre and the re-routing of
recovery centre, to ensure that all the facilities
the telephone exchange organised.
provided by the switches at the call centre can
be replicated during a disaster situation. “This was a complex issue,” recalls Glover,
“especially with regard to Argos Business
A company-wide crisis control manual is under
Solutions, where for example calls had to be
constant review and refinement to ensure that it
answered in a precisely defined manner and
continues to meet current and future business
specific contractual obligations met with regard
needs and to reflect lessons learned from the
to third party companies for whom Argos
testing and invocation of existing recovery
managed incentive programmes.”
plans.
Supporting business continuity plans were
Priorities
developed and agreed with senior
What did Insight find upon arrival in 1994?
management and fully tested before
“Argos were in many ways ‘ahead of the game’
implementation. The result in each case has
compared to many organisations,” recalls
been an all-embracing set of recovery plans; in
Glover, “with systems recovery already both
an emergency evacuation for example this now
well-defined and regularly tested. In other
goes beyond simple fire alarm procedures to
parts of the operation however plans were less
include roll call check lists, alternative
well-established – business recovery strategies
assembly points, emergency services
based on full replication in standby mobile
infrastructure and staff counselling procedures.
accommodation for example were not always
practical.” Distribution centres and call centres (which
have increased in criticality over time) were
Wilson, who joined Argos as a store manager
considered next and a similar process of
in 1978 before moving to Head Office five
impact analysis and recovery planning
years later, agrees: “Argos had, since the early
undertaken. “During the design and
1980s, developed its own business continuity
construction of our warehouses,” confirms
plans, focusing primarily on IT recovery. By
Wilson, “a great deal of attention has been paid
1994 however, it had become increasingly
to risk reduction measures - from zoning to fire
apparent that we needed additional specialist
and water detection and fire suppression -
skills to help us develop other aspects of
minimising the level of impact that could be
business recovery in the event of systems
experienced from any one incident.
failure, flooding or fire.”
In the event of an incident affecting a
In agreeing a plan of activity it was recognised
distribution centre computer modelling would
at the outset that business recovery planning
be used to re-route deliveries from the
for the Head Office functions should take
damaged distribution centre and to re-allocate
store supply, together with an increased the
level of home and direct supplier delivery.”
Similarly, where an incident occurs in a single
store, continuity plans are designed to
minimise customer inconvenience during the
recovery period, by ensuring stock levels are
increased at stores within close proximity to
meet the additional demand. The
Merchandise Division holds accurate profiles
of each store for all product lines held which
can be overlaid onto other stores in the area if
that store has to be closed for any reason.
Commitment
“Full management buy-in and comprehensive
training programmes have also been key
contributory factors to the success of this
whole process,” believes Glover.
“Familiarisation with the business recovery
centre - starting with senior management and
filtering down to all staff - has also been
essential,” Wilson adds, “for until we had a
tangible and demonstrable recovery facility, it
was very difficult to obtain practical recovery
plans.”
Argos take staff to the recovery centre both to
test and review recovery strategies and plans.
Regular exhibitions also demonstrate the
recovery process, describing incidents and
near incidents which have occurred. This
helps with familiarisation and adds a valuable
element of realism to the process.
Throughout, Insight has enabled skills transfer
to take place, documenting all aspects of the
on-going programme in a clearly
understandable and maintainable format.
On several occasions in recent years,
problems have demanded the invocation of
Argos’ business continuity plans. The most
potentially damaging of these arose in
Autumn 1998 with a major computer failure at
the company’s Acton Gate call centre.
As part of the recovery plan, within 24 hours
the establishment of a supplementary call
Business continuity
centre at the business recovery centre was About Insight
underway. Overseen by a six-strong Argos Insight Consulting is the
team and with Insight providing direct leading independent provider
assistance, 70 fully operational call centre of services and solutions for
positions were set up, to be operated by staff information security, business
with no previous call centre experience. The continuity and risk
usual two-week training course was management.
compressed into one half-hour session and We offer a complete, end-to-
logging on was phased to avoid overloading end portfolio encompassing:
the system.
• Research
Within a week – and with the original
• Consultancy
computer problem resolved – the two call
centres working in parallel had cleared the • Testing
backlog of orders. “Though the experience of • Implementation
living through such a crisis is perhaps one
• Training
that employees will never forget,” says Wilson,
“we met all pre-determined recovery targets • Recruitment
and learned valuable lessons along the way.” • Managed services
Partnership Insight is BS7799 certified, is
In summary, Argos takes the issue of an S-CAT Category 7 supplier
business continuity very seriously. Working and subscribes to the CESG
with Insight it has addressed all the major Listed Advisor Scheme (CLAS)
elements of the business, ensuring that and CHECK services.
appropriate recovery strategies and plans are
If you’d like to discuss how
in place that both meet the requirements of
Insight could help you improve
the business and can be cost-justified. These
security in your organisation, email
are underpinned by comprehensive crisis
us at insight@insight.co.uk
management procedures, effective testing
or visit our web site at
schedules and regular awareness-raising
www.insight.co.uk
exercises, designed to protect the interests of
customers, staff and shareholders.
“Argos originally selected Insight,” believes
Glover, “because of our specialist experience
and logical approach, viewing business
continuity from a practical, commercial
perspective.”
Wilson is impressed with what has been
achieved: “We regard Insight not as a supplier
but as a true partner, helping us to solve
problems pragmatically and cost-effectively.
The result may not be business recovery
‘made easy’, but it has laid the foundation for
Insight Consulting
us to tackle any problem in a controlled and
Churchfield House
effective way.”
5 The Quintet
Churchfield Road
Walton on Thames
Surrey KT12 2TZ
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1932 241000
Argos
Fax: +44 (0)1932 244590
www.insight.co.uk