Brittany Ferries prove it is all in the planning!

Feb. 8, 2010 - PRLog -- Back2business are the official Business Continuity partners to Brittany Ferries and due to a telecommunications incident beyond Brittany Ferries control the continuity plan was recently tested with a very successful outcome.

The incident occurred when the ferry company’s telecommunication provider conducted a line upgrade over night. The upgrade caused a fault across all their telephone lines resulting in over 12 Hours of no incoming or out going calls from their telephone reservations centre; a potential disaster for a company that relies heavily on telephone contact with their customers.

The fault itself was with the supplier and there was nothing wrong with the internal systems at Brittany Ferries. The incident was completely out of their hands. The team at Brittany Ferries immediately invoked their Business Continuity plan. As a result, 30 reservation staff were moved temporarily from the company’s head office in Millbay to the back2business Business Continuity Suite, based in, Estover.

On invocation back2business rolled out the Brittany Ferries “system image” using their proven restoration process ahead of staff arrivals. This resulted in staff being immediately back online with no customer disruption or lost business.

Gareth Bewley, Brittany Ferries customer services manager, explained: “We have tested various scenarios in the past so this invocation was like second nature to our team.

“The staff know our business continuity procedures and so immediately headed to their alternate office for the day. The team at back2business had us up and working by the time the customer service team had even arrived, which is remarkable considering their distance from us.”

And he explained that Brittany Ferries is not prepared to take a risk with the significant impact a fire, flood or IT failure could have on the business, when this can easily be mitigated by partnering and working closely with a continuity provider.

Mark Nicholas, Head of Business Continuity at back2business, added: “Every company or corporation should think about business continuity, regardless of its size. The latest extreme weather local businesses have been experiencing is testament to this and highlights further the need for solid business recovery plans so they can continue working with minimal disruption or impact to their business operations.

Business Continuity is really about protecting revenue, reputation and customer values which is something that Brittany Ferries understand extremely well and are a great example to other companies in the region.”

For further information on business continuity and the services back2business offer please visit; www.back2business.com.