Vocal launches 2012 Prepare Campaign on Day 2 of Business Continuity Awareness Week

March 20, 2012 - PRLog -- Vocal launches 2012 Prepare Campaign on Day 2 of Business Continuity Awareness Week


Business Continuity Awareness Weeks marks the start of the Vocal 2012 Prepare campaign. Vocal has announced the content of its 2012 Prepare campaign, as organisations focus on Business Continuity preparations for 2012, especially preparations for the London Games.

Trevor Wheatley-Parry, Vocal’s Managing Director commented, “BCAW is the perfect time to launch our 2012 Prepare campaign.  With great awareness being placed on business continuity, now is the time for organisations to look at what needs to be done in the time remaining before the Olympic events start. We’ve been working with a number of public and private organizations, helping them prepare for the Games.  We’ve decided to share as much insight and best practice as possible, so any organisation can benefit from the experiences that we and our collaborating partners can divulge. We invite any organisation to follow our campaign to gain information, benchmark their efforts against other others and to share best practice as well.  The aim of this activity is to do all that we can to help organisations be prepared for the disruptions that 2012 will bring.”

It is anticipated that UK organisations will need to operate against a backdrop of disruption beginning as early as May when the Torch Relay takes place. Vocal’s London 2012 Prepare campaign will run from March to October 2012. During the campaign, Vocal will share insight and knowledge gained during its preparedness activity thus far.  They are also collaborating with a number of partners to help organisations identifying their risks, ensure their Business Continuity Plan is fit for the Olympics, prepare communications strategies and ensure plans have been adequately tested and rehearsed.  Organisations can follow Vocal on twitter @vocalltd for alerts on new information as it is released.

Campaign activities will include:
Take the survey.  Vocal is surveying businesses, asking respondents to indicate their level of preparedness for 2012.  Vocal will publish the results of the survey on the 2012 Prepare campaign page.

Working in partnership with risk management and Business Continuity consultants Needhams 1834, and Keystone Resilience, Vocal will publish a practical, “how-to” style handbook of advice.
Vocal will run a series of 2012 Prepare webinars.  You can register for these webinars by visiting www.vocal.co.uk/2012prepare
How to Prepare Your Communications Strategies for 2012
   22nd, March 2012, 10 AM
   29th March 2PM
Ensure Your Business Continuity Plan is Fit for the Olympics
   26th 11 AM

Vocal and Needhams 1834 will hold an exercise in London, where attendees will be able to share ideas about business continuity planning for the Olympics with colleagues and contemporaries from all corners of London’s public and private sectors.. Visit www.vocal.co.uk/2012Prepare to register for the event.
Olympic Planning Assumptions
Date: 3rd April 2012
Time: 10 AM Location: 11th Floor Broadgate Tower, Primrose Street, London, EC2A 2EW

Andrew McLeod from Needhams says, “Capitalising on the opportunities of the Olympics means being ready for business as unusual; prepared for challenges to staff, premises, IT and communications, and supply chains. It’s of paramount importance to carry out a practice exercise to test your business continuity plan in preparation for the Olympics. This will allow you to understand and successfully mitigate challenges to your business over the six weeks of the Games. Thorough preparation will ensure that your business faces the minimal disruption during the Olympics and is ready to take advantage of the unique opportunity of the Games.”

Organisations use Vocal’s iModus emergency notification system to deliver business-impacting information. The system is at the core of their commercial communications strategies; it will play a crucial role during the Olympics. With iModus, companies can identify mapped areas of potential disruption caused by the Games, relating them to company assets, transport routes and staff travel routes. Communication groups are set up to deliver targeted critical communications and message templates speed the delivery of pre-approved messages.


Businesses can sign up at http://www.vocal.co.uk/2012prepare/to request a free copy of the “How to Prepare for 2012” guide or to join a webinar or the Business Continuity planning assumptions exercise.

--ENDS



Notes to editors:

•   Needhams 1834 is a leading independent provider of risk management and business continuity consultancy, planning and training services. The company enables clients to identify potential risks, protect against them and put into place strategies, processes and plans that will mitigate the effects of disruptive events and ensure their business continuity. Visit www.needhams1834.com for more information
•   Keystone Resilience Ltd is an independent provider of expert services in business continuity, risk management, crisis management and information security. The company’s client base includes a wide range of private and public companies in the UK and abroad. More information can be found on the company website at www.keyres.co.uk.

About Vocal:
Industry leader Vocal has been providing business continuity solutions since 1998, delivering award-winning emergency notifications solution iModus, a resilient, flexible and innovative communications platform, to thousands of clients in the public and private sectors globally.
The new generation of iModus has grown with the needs of customers into a web-based, multilingual, resilient notification platform at the cutting edge of technology. It offers advanced notifications and acknowledgements capability, both broadcast and sequenced messaging, live voice, communication groups, voice solutions including crisis lines plus incident management and business continuity plan management capability. iModus also offers innovative location and lone worker technology options.
Visit www.vocal.co.uk for more information.

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Vocal are focused on providing communication solutions for its globally diverse and expanding client base. Vocal have have the experience, pedigree and range of solutions to ensure that clients business continuity requirements are managed successfully.