How To Write A Business Continuity Plan

Transcription

1 J Ö N K Ö P I N G I N T E R N A T I O N A L B U S I N E S S S C H O O L JÖNKÖPING UNIVERSITY The need for a developed Business Continuity Plan Paper within Bachelor Thesis in Informatics Author: Peter Gneist Robert Kiersz Omid Osman Tutor: Jörgen Lindh Jönköping June 2009

2 Abstract In order for an organization to stay as resilient as possible a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) can be of importance. Today many advanced technologies are being implemented into organizations which are leading to a higher degree of risks and vulnerabilities. Organizations therefore need to focus on identifying problems in order to work more efficiently in order to succeed with their business. The report is using the framework of Business Continuity Planning approach and is emphasizing on how to prepare a plan in order to make organizations more resilient. The research is conducted in a deductive way which includes testing theories and their propositions against data which have been collected. Therefore the theories found from the literature were applied on a case and appropriate data was collected to suit our purpose. Moreover, problems were analyzed and suggestions proposed of how to deal with them. Many critical organizational components were revealed but the main findings can be summarized as how organizations can identify and evaluate problems. This is an important part of the BCP and is of need when preparing the plan. Other important suggestions which need to be considered when preparing the plan is to; obtain top management support, assigning a steering committee, a clear communication strategy and a documentation plan. i

3 Table of Contents Abstract... i 1 Introduction Background Problem Discussion Research Questions Purpose Perspective Delimitations Definitions Interested parties Methodology Scientific approach Research philosophy Research approach Research strategies Time horizon Literature search strategy Literature review Reliability and validity Generalizability Objectivity Data collection techniques Defining research ideas Observation strategy Interview strategy Analyzing techniques of interviews Questionnaire strategy Analyzing techniques of questionnaire Theoretical Framework Steps in creating a successful Business Continuity Process Training Risk Management Soft systems methodology Reflections from the theoretical framework Empirical findings Case observation Interviews Interview Interview Interview Interview Analysis ii

4 5.1 Categorization of problems Risk Evaluation Problem relation analysis Suggested components to become resilient Conclusion Fulfilling the purpose Future research References Appendix Appendix Appendix Appendix Appendix Appendix Appendix iii

5 1 Introduction Business survival depends on the assured continuity of core business activities and supporting services: business continuity (BC) (Morwood, 1998) Today most organizations are exposed to some kind of risks that can damage their business in different ways and threaten its survival. Therefore it can be vital to organize a plan to prevent the risks, to be able to recover from disasters, and to minimize the damage when a risk occurs as well. The approach of business continuity management (BCM) will be used in this report to work as a framework. Today more and more organizations are using a BCM approach due to the large amount of risks existing but at the same time many are not putting enough efforts in BCM as they should. The BCM covers numerous of organizational issues. However, this research paper will mainly focus on the working processes around IT/IS. Since an IT system can be very complex many organizations fail in identifying existing vulnerabilities. A system related problem can be devastating for an organization since IT is in many cases closely aligned with the business. When a system is down for a longer period of time, the business might stop functioning properly and in the long run this can lead to a major catastrophe. According to Doughty (2000), statistics indicate that having the IT system down for more than 5 days would put 90 percent of all organizations out of business within a year. Implementing and using a contingency plan, as the Business Continuity Plan (BCP), can help the organization to understand the risks and vulnerabilities associated with the IT system and at the same time provide solutions to deal with these issues. Critical components in the perspective of IT issues are not only IT components itself but also people, equipment, location, data and communication networks which can make the plan rather comprehensive (McCrackan, 2004). The plan can even, if implemented properly, lead to a more efficient and profitable organization in the long run (Reuvid, 2006). Impact and risk analysis is a part of the BCP and an important tool which will be handled in our research. 1.1 Background The perceived level of threats and risks has increased since the start of the computer era. This has put the business continuity management processes at a higher level of priority in order to become more preventive and resilient towards organizational wounds. The main purpose of BCM is to ensure that the organization has a response to major disruptions that threaten its survival (Reuvid, 2006). A threat towards the organization can occur from many different sources, everything from unintentional causes to intentional causes. Therefore a BCM approach takes into account a large range of aspects which are caused by several different factors. Analyzing the risks and threats can lead to a more cautious way of working with less disruptions and a more resilient organization. Identifying requirements and knowing how to deal with disruptions can also eliminate inefficient ways of working. Having a BCM that benefits an organization will assure that there is a more stable business environment. The BCM is a concept which has been written a lot about in recent years and 1

6 many different authors provided a high number of different ideas which can be useful for an organization. Implementing a BCM approach can though require essential changes in the organizations structure and culture, due to the need of alignment between business processes and the BCM (McCrackan, 2004). Hence, a BCM approach can be very time consuming and require lots of resources in order to be implemented in the business. Preparing a business continuity approach involves the construction of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP). The BCP goes through the steps required in order to deal with the issues around continuity management. Complex IT infrastructures within businesses can be very vulnerable and have to be managed very thoroughly to eliminate and deal with its risks. Some organizations or departments might become extensively damaged when their computers are down. There is not always room for a system downtime; the business can lose customers to their competitors while it is down. This in turn can lead to decrease in profits. An example is the case of Union Bank of Switzerland, when their computers crashed for only several minutes they experienced losses that could fund their entire network a number of times. The Executive Vice President of the Bank argues that the bank would collapse in case the computer systems would be down for more than 2 days (Doughty 2000). Processes around IT/IS can have many vulnerabilities and risks which might need to be considered and dealt with. A resilient IT infrastructure is of great importance to stay competitive. A well formulated guide specified for processes around IT/IS can lead to a better work efficiency is therefore of huge interest. 1.2 Problem Discussion Today s organizations have to compete in an ever growing and faster moving economy. Generally, managers have to make complex decisions much faster and mistakes can have huge impacts on an organization s performance and overall well being. Due to the fact that more and more critical and value producing business processes are based on information technology, it is crucial for organizations to ensure a high level of system reliability and availability. Morwood (1998) argues in the same direction when he says that business survival is depending on the assured continuity of core business activities and supporting services. However, problems with information technology and information systems are just a matter of time. In order to respond to the occurring problems in the best way, every organization would need to have a Business Continuity Plan. Unfortunately, not many organizations are aware of the fact how crucial a business continuity plan is to their operating business and internal affairs. Botha and von Solms (2004) state that resources and staff involved in Business Continuity Management is limited, especially when it comes to smaller organizations. Another problem identified by Weems (1999) is that the business continuity planning project is a non-revenue producing project and therefore it is not seen as a high priority project for most organizations. In comparison, Business Continuity Plans ensure that the organization has a plan in place prior to a disaster occurring. This can help and facilitate a speedy and cost- 2

7 effective recovery of core business activities following a disaster (Morwood, 1999). If a company does not have any Business Continuity Plans the impacts on the company can be immense. 1.3 Research Questions Focusing on the nontechnical side of the organizational IT/IS environment is our main target to conduct this research. How can an organization assess its IT/IS related problems? What could be done in order to achieve efficient solutions to IT/IS related problems? How can an organization achieve a resilient way of working in order to be prepared for upcoming IT/IS related problems? 1.4 Purpose The purpose of this research paper is to show how problems can be assessed and relationships among these problems can be drawn. This research paper will also focus on how to improve problem related working processes. Through analyzing the current situation of one service-oriented organization we intend to provide suggestions of what to include in a BCP in order to deal effectively with problem and risks. 1.5 Perspective A perspective statement is necessary for the internal agreement, which is a process of analyzing and developing different hypotheses and understandings about what involves in the research area (Goldkuhl, 1998). This study will be focused on system related problems in a department of a large service-oriented organization located in Sweden. The problem will study two perspectives, from the managers and the employees (agents) point of view. The agents perspective is assumingly more about the ease of use and usefulness since they are working with the system on a daily basis. In contrast, the perspective of the managers can be seen more as a strategizing perspective where the focus is more on the IT contribution towards the business. Moreover, the manager perspective is influenced by cost issues as well. Our basis for choosing more than one view is that it will provide us with a better and comprehensive understanding of the problems at hand and permit us to conduct our research from multiple views, rather than from one actor s perspective. 1.6 Delimitations The BCM concept will be the main focus area together with a larger case study. The approach will be conducted within processes around IT/IS. We will though exclude technical solutions in relation to the problems in this report. The case to analyze is a department of a large service-oriented organization located in Sweden. The focus will be narrowed down to this particular department. The employees working at this specific department and the internal working processes will be of inter- 3

8 est. Their processes of handling the IT/IS environment will be in the spotlight which therefore excludes other non-related working tasks. 1.7 Definitions Agent: Employee who works at the operational level of the organization Business Continuity Management (BCM): A holistic management process that identifies potential impacts that threaten an organization and provides a framework for building resilience and the capability for an effective response that safeguards the interests of its key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value creating activities. (Reuvid J. 2006) Business continuity plan (BCP): a series of procedures to restore normal operations following a disaster with maximum speed and minimal impact on operations. A comprehensive plan will include essential information and materials for necessary emergency action. (Doughty K. 2000) Resilience: Defined as the ability to recover quickly from unpleasant or damaging events. (McCrackan A. 2004) Risk: A risk is an uncertain event or set of circumstances that, should it occur, will have an effect of the achievement of one or more of the project s objectives (APM PRAM Guide, 2006, p. 17). Risk Assessment and management: In the use of any technology, process, or procedure, someone should determine where unexpected or undesired consequences are likely to occur. (Doughty K. 2000) 1.8 Interested parties This thesis is intended to benefit a number of interested parties. The specific serviceoriented organization we investigate can therefore be considered as the main interest party because of their direct involvement in our research. Due to this fact they are able to apply our suggestion and findings at first hand and benefit from them. Also other organizations that operate in the same field may benefit from this thesis. Since the organization which we investigate does not have a Business Continuity Plan we can assume that many other organizations in this sector will be in the same position as well. Therefore, they could be interested in this paper when they decide to develop and implement a BCP. Other interested parties are academics that work with risk management. These researchers could find new insights or perspectives on Business Continuity Planning which could influence their research or future research projects. Moreover, decision-makers such as project managers, IT managers and IT strategists can be interested in this paper due to the reason that this research will provide suggestions of what to include in a BCP in order to deal effectively with problem and risks. It also outlines aspects which are of importance to Business Continuity Planning and could therefore be applied in their organizations. 4

9 2 Methodology This chapter of the research paper will deal with methodology and data gathering techniques. Methodology is concerned with the philosophical research approach, reliability and validity aspects. Whereas, the data gathering techniques will describe how we collect the data and develop the theoretical frame. 2.1 Scientific approach Qualitative research is the art of involvement and deepening in a particular situation, which therefore disregards a general objectivity (Potter, 2002). An example of a qualitative research can be a face-to-face interview with one or two persons. On the other hand the quantitative approach is concerned with the statistics and generalizations. Conducting a questionnaire for a wide range of people is an example of a quantitative research. The research for this study will be approached and conducted mainly in a qualitative manner. The qualitative approach is seen to be the most suitable one in order to deepen our knowledge and understanding in the field of study. This approach is also helping us building a rich detailed set of data from the situation which we are investigating and at the same time to probe the answers to our research questions. People will be interviewed and revealing their perspectives can widen our insights and knowledge. 2.2 Research philosophy Researchers mostly distinguish between three different research philosophies positivism, interpretivism, and realism. Realism argues that the senses are showing us the truth. According to Saunders et al. (2007) interpretivism states that it is necessary for the researcher to understand the differences between humans in our roles as social actors. In contrast, the positivistic philosophy takes the role as a natural scientist. In this case the researcher prefers to work with an observable social reality and the results can be seen as law-like generalizations (Saunders et al., 2007). This research will follow a positivistic approach which is a part of the epistemological research philosophy. Due to the fact that we have direct access to the organization, this approach seems the most suitable for us. Since we are getting an understanding and further knowledge through investigating one organization in detail, we will be able to draw generalizations according to our findings and results. This is possible due to the nature of the organization we are going to investigate, which is very similar to most other companies in this business sector. 2.3 Research approach In general, one can distinguish between two different research approaches, deductive and inductive. The deductive research approach is a testing approach where a theoretical frame will be built and a hypothesis will be tested against these theories. Whereas the inductive approach follows the gathering of empirical data and developing a theory based on the collected data. In our research we will follow a deductive approach since we ought to use existing theories from the literature which will be tested by the use of our collected data. This research approach suits our intentions to explain causal relationships between different variables and their impacts on the organization. 5

10 2.4 Research strategies There are different research strategies that can help to answer the research question of a thesis such as experiment, grounded theory, case studies, action research, ethnography, and surveys. In this thesis, a case study will be used to gain empirical data from one organization in order to answer the research questions. Moreover, a survey strategy will be used as well to investigate the perspective of the employees in that particular organization. 2.5 Time horizon When undertaking research, there are two possible timeframes to choose from. When conducting cross-sectional studies the researcher is taking a snapshot, at a particular point of time, of a particular phenomenon. The second type is called longitudinal studies. This type of studies is more suitable when it comes to the study of change and development over time (Saunders et al., 2007). This research will follow a cross-sectional approach due to time and resource constraints. One major intention of the report is to reveal and find out about the current situation of the case which we explore in order to give suggestions of beneficial change later. Therefore, a snapshot of the organization will be analyzed and serve as a base for the analysis part. 2.6 Literature search strategy When searching for appropriate literature for a research paper one need to have a clear literature search strategy which helps to find the most sufficient information within a field of study. A clear literature search strategy also helps to cover most parts of available literature and ensures that one does not miss out on any important publications. According to Saunders et al. (2007) the literature search strategy can be seen as a process consisting of four steps. The first step would be to define the parameters of our search. These parameters can include areas such as language of publication, subject area, business sector, geographical area, publication period, and literature type. We defined that the language of the publication we intend to search for should be English or Swedish. This is based on the facts that most research is published in English language in order to provide it to a bigger audience, and since we are writing our own research paper in English as well we would save lots of translation efforts. The reason for including publications written in Swedish was that we are able to access a lot of student theses written earlier by Swedish students. This would not only give us the advantage of accessing a wider range of literature. Since our research paper will be written within the field of informatics, the literature we will be searching should be within the same field. Moreover, we are looking for literature that is written within management science Business Continuity Management. Due to the fact that we will not only have a look on information system issues but also strongly focus on workflow and management issues we are in need to obtain literature from these both areas. Another parameter of our literature search strategy will be the choice of a business sector. In our case the business sector we intending to investigate is the service-oriented 6

11 sector. We will collect our empirical data from a service-oriented company; therefore we are intending to obtain literature and knowledge about previous theories in this area. This will deepen our understanding and also help us to have a better data collection strategy in the end which will lead to better outcomes and findings. There will not be any limits when it comes to the geographical area of our literature search. Since most research papers, from all over the world, are written in English it would not contribute to the overall quality of our work if we would only focus on one or two geographic areas. In our case, focusing on only specific geographical areas would enormously increase the risk of missing important theses and works within our field of interest. Therefore, the geographical area of our literature will not be restricted. Information systems are getting more and more complex. Today s businesses have to pay high attention to the integration of business and technology. Therefore, the literature which will serve as a base for our research paper must be relatively up to date. Lots of old publications do not pay too much attention on integration and complex information systems because these issues have not been really important from the beginning. However, these aspects became more and more important during the last years. In order to write a sufficient research paper we need up to date information and knowledge, therefore we will focus in our literature search strategy on publications that were published within the last 15 years. The type of literature we will intend to search for will mostly be academic articles, theses, and books. This is based on the possibilities we have with accessing different material. Since we have the opportunity to use the university library we have access to numerous books within our field of research. Moreover, there are a lot of theses available written in the boundaries of Jönköping University. The university library also provides access to several databases which help to find academic articles which can be of good support for the research paper. However, our access to publications is also restricted. Some specific material is only available when you pay a subscription fee or buy the rights to access the material such as conference papers and publications. The second step in the process of defining the literature search strategy is to explain and define the key words and search terms we intend to use and how we came up with them. Saunders et al. (2007) suggests different techniques to generate key words, these include discussions with colleagues, the project tutor and librarians, initial reading, dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedia, handbooks, brainstorming, and relevance trees. We approach this step through the use of discussions, initial reading, and brainstorming. Discussions led to the result that we ended up with specific search terms and key words in order to maximize our chances to find relevant literature for our research paper. These discussions were within the project group and therefore really supportive in order to eliminate insufficient key words and focus on the ones we thought will bring the best search results. The internal discussions were also supportive in order to distribute the different key words and search terms among the group members, therefore not every group member used the same terms and it was possible to coordinate the workload in a better way. Furthermore, we received good feedback on our pre-defined key words during tutoring sessions and also got good hints on how to improve the already existing key words and to find new ones as well. 7

12 Since one group member has read about and handled with Business Continuity Management before, we had a good understanding in which direction we should develop our key words and search terms. The technique of brainstorming was mainly used during discussions in order to develop and refine the pre-defined terms. Our search terms and key words were: Risk Management Business Continuity Management Business Continuity Planning Soft System Methodology Resilience In order to develop a good Business Continuity Plan, one needs to identify the existing risks and problems. Therefore, risk management is one of our main search terms. It will ensure that we find literature about how to identify, assess, and handle risks. Business Continuity Management and Business Continuity Planning are important search terms in order to find sufficient material about how to develop a Business Continuity Plan and therefore essential for this research paper. The term resilience is used in order to find publications about efficient workflows and approaches to strengthen a company s problem handling procedures. In turn soft system methodology is a concept which is used to support problem identification. Most literature will be tried to identify through the use of several databases. In this case we mainly use the search tool possibilities of the university library website. Through different types of search functions one is able to cover a high number of different databases. Databases that have provided us with the most sufficient results were ABI/Inform, Springer Link, Academic Search Elite, and Business Source Premier. In this research paper primary and secondary literature is the main kind of literature that is used. The theoretical framework consists of primary literature such as academic reports, and secondary literature such as books, and journals. This happens due to ease and convenience of access. The assessment of the relevance and sufficiency of the literature we found is based on our own perspective, experience and judgmental values. Since we are three persons in our research group, with three different points of views and perspectives, the literature must have been agreed upon by every group member in order to be used within the research paper. To use the literature found in a sufficient way, recording the literature is an important aspect. We recorded our literature in the way that we saved all the relevant articles we found and also made notes about the most important facts within these articles. These relevant notes became a base for our writings later on. 2.7 Literature review To describe the context of a phenomenon when research is conducted, a vital part of the research process consists of critically reviewing the literature. Critical literature review is the process of a detailed and justified analysis and commentary of the merits and faults of the literature within a chosen area, which demonstrates familiarity with what is 8

13 already known about the chosen research topic (Saunders et al., 2007). The sources used in this research have been processed according to the approach suggested by Saunders et al. (2007). They suggest thinking of the review as a funnel consisting of seven steps: 1. Initiate the review at a more general level before narrowing down to the specific questions and objectives 2. Make a short overview of the key ideas and themes 3. Summarize, compare, and distinguish the research of the writers 4. Narrow down and emphasize previous work that is relevant to the research 5. Present a detailed description of the findings of the research and show how they relate to each other 6. Underline aspects where your own research will provide fresh insights 7. Guide the reader into later sections of the report, which investigate these issues Our literature review is following the guidelines of Saunders et al. We started by searching the most relevant literature that deal with the purpose of our thesis. The literature that we thought would be the most relevant was summarized and compared in order to find the most appropriate key ideas and to further develop our understanding of the relevant subjects. Hence, Business Continuity Management (BCM), risk management and soft systems methodology were the most appropriate topics to use as a theoretical framework. Additionally the concept of training within the guideline of BCP was added. The BCM is though the most important concept for our research which deals with the research questions we have specified. Additionally, the risk management approach is used to further develop a well founded BCM. To identify problems existing within an organization and in order to develop an even more thorough BCM, we found the importance of soft system methodology, (SSM). The SSM is used as a framework and guideline in order to help us analyze and understand the situation which will be researched upon. There is a lot of literature about the BCM and risk management concepts and we therefore carefully chose the literature which is of most help to tackle our purpose and research questions. This will be conducted by choosing the theory from the most acknowledged and known authors. We assume that by using the BCM approach we might get new insights of how to use it as efficiently as possible when applying the concept to our researched case. 2.8 Reliability and validity Reliability is a concept which is concerned about consistent findings. This means that different researchers with different techniques will have the same results and findings. We are trying to achieve a high degree of reliability through interviewing people in key positions. These people are the local IT manager, the Nordic operating manager, and the agents. These people will provide us with a comprehensive view on the organization and on all system related problems. Therefore, we can eliminate biased views on the working processes and the systems. Moreover, these persons know the organization best and therefore adding the appropriate level of reliability to our research. Through the use of different data collection and analyzing techniques, we are trying to increase the level of reliability as well. Through the use of interviews and questionnaires we are trying to show a comprehensive and complete picture of all the problems and 9

14 how to solve them. We also aim to show as clearly as possible how we collected and analyzed our data in order to make this research paper as reliable as possible. At the same time through a highly communicative research paper and a clear research approach we try to achieve a high degree of validity. According to Saunders et al. (2007) validity is about ensuring that the findings are about what they appear to be about and if generalizations are possible. In order to achieve a high degree of validity one has to eliminate as many threats to validity as possible. In order to ensure that the findings are about what they appear to be about, we are using different data collection techniques. This will support the development of a comprehensive view of the organization. Another important factor for achieving a high degree of validity in our research is to collect data from different people on different levels of the organization. This will also guarantee that our findings are really about what we think they are about and no misinterpretations are possible. We also minimized the threats of validity through making sure that we have a consistent dialogue to the same people in the organization at all time during the research. 2.9 Generalizability Generalizability is a concept which is about drawing predictions on recurring experience and findings. Frequency of occurrence is therefore of value. This means that a particular phenomenon which is generalizable can be applied on many cases (Colorado State University Department of English, 2009). As mentioned before other organizations in this service-oriented business sector are quite similar to the specific organization we investigate. We believe that this will lead to possible generalizations of our research. Most call centers work with communication/contact management systems (CMS), top down approaches, and computer infrastructures. The external validity is relative high since lots of organizations in this business sector can actually use our findings and outcomes and display it on their own organization in order to improve their BCP or even start to develop one Objectivity Objectivity is about the avoidance of personal interpretation and instead focusing on assumptions equally agreed upon (Saunders et al., 2007). The concept is therefore the opposite of subjectivity which deals with personal interpretations. An objective approach will avoid the subjective selectivity data gathering which helps making the research more valid and reliable. Our report will be of high concern to handle it as objective as possible. The fact that we are three authors with different perspectives is increasing the value free level of the report. The literature we use is created by many different authors with different theories, opinions and suggestions which also improve the quality of objectivity. Moreover we conduct in depth interviews with three different kinds of people in the organization where they freely air their opinions. This happens in order to give us a comprehensive picture of the situation. The data gathered from the conducted interviews can in turn shape our perspective and secondly our thesis into a more objective direction. The result from the use of this approach makes the report less bias. 10

15 2.11 Data collection techniques In this part we will describe how we intended to achieve our research objective. At the same time an explanation is provided why we choose to use these methods and how these techniques helped us to write the report Defining research ideas In order to come up with a research idea, rational thinking techniques were mainly used. First of all, the group tried to find out the areas in which each group member is interested in. After identifying a couple areas of research, the group looked into old theses and projects to get a better insight and new ideas within these areas. With the help of additional literature and electronic databases different topics were discussed in order to come up with a final topic. Brainstorming, a creative thinking technique, also helped in identifying the final research topic Observation strategy In order to get a good picture of the organization, its structure, and its processes we used the observation data gathering technique. This happened due to the reason that one member of our research group is actually working for this specific company. Therefore, we had rather free access and good insights into the organization. Saunders et al. (2007) suggest different types of observation techniques. The differences between those types are whether the identity of the observer is revealed or concealed and whether the researcher takes part in the activity or just observes it. In our case, we used the participant as observer approach. The researcher s identity was revealed since he is a regular employee (agent). Therefore, he knows most of the other employees within the department as well which facilitated easier access and greater willingness in order to conduct a good questionnaire later on. Moreover, as a regular employee of this organization he takes part in the activities of the everyday work. Therefore, he can contribute a lot of knowledge of his own experiences to this research. The fact that he is working there gives us as a group the advantage to find the right people easily from which we want to conduct our data gathering activities Interview strategy The main part of the empirical data will be collected through interviews. These interviews will be non-standardized. The way of conducting these interviews will be face-toface with employees in key roles in that particular organization. The group chose to go with a semi-structured interview strategy which means that we have a number of predefined questions and themes we want to ask and leave space for other issues and questions coming up during the interview. This is done, in order to cover our areas of interest and leave space to upcoming and follow up questions which can give us a deeper knowledge in certain areas. The persons we will interview are the local IT manager at the local department, and the Nordic operating manager. These two persons are in key positions for our research. The local IT manager at the local department can provide us with the most common occurring problems related to the information systems and how they are handled so far. 11

16 Moreover, he is able to give us a good overview about the work processes and the system architecture and hierarchy. The Nordic operating manager is of great value to our research since she is the connection between the local department and the headquarter. Moreover, she is attending board meetings and reporting directly to members of the board. Therefore, she has a lot of knowledge about the company itself and is mostly involved in strategizing new concepts for the company. Furthermore, she is the system owner of one of the systems in this organization. This interview will help us to achieve a comprehensive view of the nature of the organization and the thinking about IT from a headquarter perspective as well Analyzing techniques of interviews The analysis is based on our notes from the interviews. These notes are ought to be seen as the layer to create the valuable picture of the analysis. Our interviews will be recorded qualitatively and be completely available to the reader as an appendix. The collected data will be analyzed by using Yin s (2003) explanation building approach. This is a deductively based analyzing approach which is in line with the overall deductive approach of the research paper. Moreover, we can explain the relation between the collected data and the proposed theory which will help us to gain a thorough base for our analysis section Questionnaire strategy We also intend to gather valuable material by using a questionnaire. This questionnaire will be distributed to a number of agents working for the organization in order to get an understanding of their perspective on the existing issues. Since we want to keep the number of respondents high, we will approach the agents with a self-administered questionnaire. This will also help us to save time. Due to the fact that we can access the organization directly, we will hand out the questionnaire to each respondent and collect it later. Therefore, we are using a delivery and collection questionnaire strategy. The types of variables we want to collect by using a questionnaire are opinion variables. Opinion variables record how respondents feel about something or whether they think or believe that something is true or false (Saunders et al., 2007). This will support our vision of getting an insight on the employee perspective in this particular organization. The style of question will be a mixture of open questions and closed questions. Saunders et al. (2007) define open questions as questions that allow respondents to give answers in their own way. In contrast, closed questions provide a number of alternatives or suggested answers from which the respondent has to choose. This will lead to the fact that we can ensure that some answer possibilities will not be too limited in order to not miss out on any important information. The open questions will be used in order to find out what the biggest problems are in the point of view of the agents. In contrast, closed questions will ensure that we will just get the information and data we intend to collect. The way we chose to distribute our questionnaire was non-probability sampling. This was the most sufficient method to reach the agents due to the fact that not all agents work at the same time. We hand out the questionnaire to any agent possible since all cases are equal due to the fact that all agents work with the same systems. 12

17 In our point of view, the most appropriate sampling technique was purposive sampling. This means that the researcher uses his judgment to select cases that will best enable him to answer the research questions and to meet the objectives. Total number of responses 10 Total response rate = = Total number in sample ineligible 22 0 = 0.45 = 45% Total number of responses Active response rate = Total number in sample (ineligible + unreachable) 10 = = 0.45 = 45 % 22 (0 + 0) The total and actual response rate is about 45%. The reason for this is that we interviewed ten out of 22 agents of the sales department. We achieved a 100% responds rate from the agents we interviewed. We missed out on 12 agents due to the fact that most of the agents are part-time employed. Therefore, the chance to meet all agents at the same time is not given. However, since all the agents work on identical tasks and with the same equipment the number of agents interviewed can be seen as representative. Moreover, they all work on the same level and their position within the company is the same. In our case, ten agents was a sufficient number in order to identify the main part and most important aspects and problems related to their work with the information systems of the organization Analyzing techniques of questionnaire The questionnaire is analyzed by using qualitative and quantitative techniques. The results will be displayed in a bar chart according to how many respondents have mentioned particular problems. This will give the reader the advantage of getting a quick overview of the problems identified by the agents and the most mentioned problems. Moreover, to display the results in a more detailed way, the answers of the questionnaire are presented in a qualitative way. This is done partly in the analysis section and the complete results of the questionnaire can be found in appendix 5. Therefore, we can focus on the most important facts concerning our research without leaving any facts away from the reader. 13

18 3 Theoretical Framework This section will cover important literature and theories already written. Through our research techniques we choose the following concepts to present: Steps in creating a successful Business Continuity Process, Training, Risk Management and Soft Systems Methodology. The displayed concepts will help to analyze our empirical data and draw the conclusions. 3.1 Steps in creating a successful Business Continuity Process To establish a Business Continuity Plan there is a guideline to follow developed by Karakasidis (1997) which consists of eleven components. These components are supposed to be used in conjunction with a risk management process. Hereby a brief explanation of the components will be presented: 1. Obtain top management approval and support. The managers need to support the BCP with the required resources and funds. They also need to fully understand and approve the plan in order to carry it out. 2. Establish a business continuity planning (BCP) committee. The committee is supposed to deal with the objectives and scope together with the development of the plan, but also to report, test, and maintain the business recovery processes. 3. Perform business impact analyses. The business impact analysis (BIA) is about the identification of the potential risks and how to carry out a preventive plan, together with the most reasonable resources. In order to perform an efficient impact analyses Wan (2009) suggests the following steps: Define assumptions and scope of project for which BIA is being conducted. Develop a survey or questionnaire to gather necessary information. Identify and notify the appropriate survey recipients. Distribute the survey and collect responses. Review completed surveys and conduct follow-up interviews with respondents as needed. Modify survey responses based on follow-up interviews. Analyze survey data. Verify results with respondents. Prepare report and findings to senior management. 4. Evaluate critical needs and prioritize business requirements. This stage is about the evaluation of processes and resources that are of need, in order to continue the business operations. 14

19 5. Determine the business continuity strategy and associated recovery process. This step is about reviewing the components and defining the recover strategy which can help the organization to restore from a failure. 6. Prepare business continuity strategy and its implementation plan for executive management approval. Creating a manual with the necessary information about the strategies which can be rolled out for any department is of great importance. This will include the tasks, standards, and responsibilities together with other details in order to recover from a failure. 7. Prepare business recovery plan With the help from a template all information and data concerning the recovery will be put into a larger plan. 8. Develop the testing criteria and procedures. This step can be seen as a plan for a training mechanism and is created to test and understand how well the recovery plan works. 9. Test the business recovery process and evaluate test results. A key component is to have meetings regularly before, during, and after the implementation of the plan in order to evaluate the business continuity plan. In this step the testing of the recovery procedures takes part. 10. Develop/review service level agreement(s) (SLAs). To reach a balanced service level agreement between two parties, in order to function synchronously. 11. Update/revise the business recovery procedures and templates. The continuous maintenance is done in order to prevent that all the procedures have to become redeveloped. Instead it is more efficient to continuously update the procedures by responding to changes, keeping the staff updated, and having an ongoing testing of the plan. 3.2 Training Morwood (1998) distinguish between two different types of training best suited to business continuity training. These types are awareness training and scenario training. Awareness training intends to give all members of the organization an appropriate level of understanding of the Business Continuity Plan. This type of training consists of two sub-division, introductory awareness training and detailed awareness training. 15

20 Introductory awareness training briefs all members of the organization who will have an indirect role in the execution of the Business Continuity Plan. In general, a 60 minutes session about the framework, strategies, and important procedures under the plan should be enough to inform the staff. Detailed awareness training, in contrast, is aiming to educate the members of the organization who will have a direct role in the execution of the business continuity plan. Morwood (1998) suggests that a half-day session should be sufficient to educate the staff about all aspects of the Business Continuity Plan. The information covered in this session is almost the same as in the introductory session, only more detailed. Another important part of the detailed awareness training is to focus on the precise roles and responsibilities each staff member will have under the Business Continuity Plan. In general, awareness training should be conducted for all members of the organization upon the establishment of the Business Continuity Plan or following significant changes to it. Moreover, it should be conducted for all newly hired employees and for those people who have moved into new positions or responsibility areas. The second type of training is scenario training. Morwood (1998) suggests that this type of training should be conducted as a follow up of the awareness training. Scenario training should be conducted at a level as appropriate as possible compared to the crisis or disaster situation. In Morwood s approach scenario training includes practical exercises designed to confirm employees understanding of the Business Continuity Plan. Moreover, it is aimed to raise their skill levels in the execution of the tasks and to identify potential weaknesses and issues relating to further development of the Business Continuity Plan. Morwood (1998) divides scenario training into three distinct variants of training - desktop exercises, call-out exercises, and operational exercises. Desk-top exercises are taken place within the office environment and participants are just required to assess and comment on how they would react to various scenarios. During call-out exercises participants are required to contact key staff members with responsibilities under the Business Continuity Plan and confirm their availability and recall time. Operational exercises will be practiced with full operational response to the exercise scenario. The Business Continuity Plan will be physically implemented by the exercise participants. Due to cost issues, normally, the activation of outside resources is not involved in the training sessions. 3.3 Risk Management A risk is a potential problem, a situation that, if it materializes, will adversely affect the project. Risks that materialize are no longer risks, they are problems. All projects have risks, and all risks are ultimately handled. Some disappear, some develop into problems that demand attention, and a few escalate into crises that destroy projects and careers. The goal of risk management is to ensure that risks never fall into the third category. (Hallows, 2005 p.96) A risk is a possible unplanned event. It can be positive or negative. In project management the success of our projects depends on our ability to predict a particular outcome. Since risks are the unpredictable part of the project, it is important for us to be 16

21 able to control them as much as possible and make them as predictable as possible. (Newell & Marina, 2004 p.174) Risks can be divided into two categories - known risks and unknown risks. Known risks are risks that can be identified and unknown risks are those risks that cannot be predicted at all. A threat or a pure risk can only have a negative possibility as a result. In contrast an opportunity is a risk that can only have positive outcomes. Business risks are considered as normal risks of doing business and can both have good and bad outcomes. Risks occur in all companies, therefore an important aspect of managing and minimizing risks is known as Risk Management. The International Federation of Risk and Insurance Management Associations (IFRIMA), the international umbrella organization for risk management associations throughout the world, says that risk management is a central part of any organization s strategic management (Reuvid, 2007). Risk management is the process of identifying, categorizing, responding to risks strategically, and managing the risks. This process is also known as enterprise risk management (ERM). The initial focus in risk management should be on identifying the risks. These risks can be factors that cause time delays or impede the usual way of working in an organization. According to Hallows (2005), the most common risks that an organization can encounter are: Staff Risks Key staff will not be available when needed Key skill sets will not be available when needed Staff will be lost during the project Equipment Risks Required equipment will not be delivered on time Access to hardware will be restricted Equipment will fail Client Risks Client resources will not be made available as required Client staff will not reach decisions in a timely manner Deliverables will not be reviewed according to the schedule Knowledgeable client staff will be replaced by those less qualified Scope Risks Requirements for additional effort will surface Changes of scope will be deemed to be included in the project Scope changes will be introduced without the knowledge of project management Technology Risks The technology will have technical or performance limitations that endanger the project Technology components will not be easily integrated 17

22 The technology is new and poorly understood Delivery Risks System response time will not be adequate System capacity requirements will exceed available capacity The system will fail to meet functional requirements Physical Risks The office will be damaged by fire, flood, or other catastrophe A computer virus will infect the development system A team member will steal confidential material and make it available to competitors of the client (Hallows, 2005 p.97) Analyzing information available from previous cases will be valuable and helpful in identifying risks in the current organization. A structured review of previous cases should be done as a part of the identification process. Individuals both inside and outside the organization will also be useful for the risk identification process. Risk identification process often involves large numbers of individuals, it is therefore recommended to use different group techniques such as: Delphi Technique: In the Delphi technique the participants are usually anonymous. By having anonymous participants, problems such as negative effects of face-to-face discussions or individuals that dominate the process by using their authority or position are avoided. In this technique the facilitator asks for input from the participants, in the form of answers to questionnaires and their comments to these answers. The contributions are then summarized by the facilitator into a list that is send to each participant. The participants then add additional thoughts to the summarized list. This process continues until there are no more thoughts generated. This technique can be conducted using any form of communication technology such as or telephone. One of the advantages of the Delphi technique is that the individuals can participate from many different locations. Brainstorming Technique: The Brainstorming technique is one of the most common group dynamics techniques. In the brainstorming technique a group of participants are summoned to a meeting. The participants are then asked by the facilitator to name any risk that they can think of, no matter their significance. The risks are then listed by the facilitator on a board. The main purpose of the brainstorming technique is to create a kind of chain reaction of identification of risks. For example the ideas generated by one participant will generate new ideas from another participant. The downside of brainstorming technique is that the whole process is dependent on an excellent facilitator. If the process lacks a good facilitator there will be minimum involvement from the participants. This downside will even get bigger if there is a big difference in the status of the participating individuals. An individual who has more authority may dominate the meeting with his thoughts and ideas. The second part of the risk management process is dealing with categorizing the risks. Risk categorization is the process of evaluating the risks that have been identified. The 18

23 purpose of categorizing the risks is to set up a way of classifying the risks in the order of their importance. Several statistical methods of defining the degree of risk exists, but the simplest and most effective method is to depict risks as high, medium or low. The level of the risk depends on two characteristics; the probability and the impact of the risk. The probability and the impact of the risk can be evaluated on a scale of one to ten. When the impact and the probability value are multiplied together the result will represent the expected severity value of the risk. Figure 3.1 and 3.2 illustrates a method of determining the degree of a risk. Figure 3.1 Risk Evaluation Table Figure 3.2 Risk Evaluation Table Note: Scales are arbitrary By categorizing risks one can identify the risks that are the most critical ones and consequently require the most attention. When the potential risks are identified and ranked one can start to plan how to strategically respond to those risks. There are a number of strategies available for dealing with risks. These strategies are; acceptance, avoidance, transfer, and mitigation strategy. Acceptance: Risks that are not so harmful fall into the domain of acceptance strategy. This means that risks that are low-ranked should be accepted but not fully ignored. If the planning efforts for fixing the risk would cost more than the actual cost of fixing it, then the organization should just fix the risk when it occurs. The acceptance strategy consists of two types of acceptance; active and passive. An active acceptance is when a plan is made for what to do if an accepted risk occurs. Normally low-ranked risks tend to occur more frequently. Therefore it is much more effective to have a plan when these types of risks occur. In contrast to active acceptance, passive acceptance is when no plan has been made for when a risk occur. These risks are very small risks that are hardly noticeable. The cost of dealing with the risk without preparation is often lower than documenting and developing a plan for the risk. 19

24 Avoidance: This strategy is used when one prevent a risk to be a possibility. The risk is avoided before an occurance is possible. This is for example done by changing the design of a product or system so the risk cannot occur. Transfer: This strategy focuses on giving the responsibility of a risk to someone outside the organization. This does not mean that the risk disappears it is only the responsibility of the risk that transferred to someone else. One way to do this is to give the responsibility of the risk to a contractor such as a software vendor. Another alternative which is possible is to buy insurance for a specific product or system. The cost of the insurance is often smaller than the cost of the risk. Mitigation: The mitigation strategy is often used towards medium and high ranked risks. This strategy focuses on lowering the overall severity of the risks by reducing the possibility or the impact of the risks. Using this strategy involves transferring out some money from the contingency budget. The money should then be used in the strategy plan to mitigate the risks. When the probability or impact of a risk is reduced the expected value of the risk will be reduced as well. This in turn will result into a reduced contingency budget. One of the biggest problems with risks tends to be that they get forgotten in the regular day to day routines. Managing the risks is the process of monitoring, controlling and reevaluating the risks that have been identified. From this process it is possible to identify new potential risks. There are three methods for managing risks: group meetings, status reports and manager reflection. During regular group meetings one should devote a part of each meeting to a risk review wherein the risks are discussed by each group member. This will make the risks visible and all members will be aware of potential risks. The main purpose of the risk review is to identify what risks exists and if they have changed. The risk review will also facilitate the process of uncovering new risks and their potential consequences to the organization. Status reports are also an important part of managing risks. By continuously reporting risks, the management will be aware of the risks and prepared for bad news and surprises. Figure 3.3 illustrates how a risk management process can possibly appear. 20

25 Figure 3.3 the process of risk management Soft systems methodology The soft systems methodology (SSM) is an approach which is used for change management and problem solving within organizations and has its roots from the systems theory. It was developed at the University of Lancaster in Britain, by Peter Checkland and others, with the help from an action research program. The methodology is helping to understand and analyze organizational problems. SSM is ought to model processes in the organization but also to include the involved people in the system together with their social and political environment in order to match the real world better. A hard systems approach would focus more on simplistic formal business processes which are rooted in physical science while the soft approach is seen as part of social and management science (Checkland, 2000). A soft system methodology approach has in mind that organizations are systems and systems are complex which might make it difficult to reach a solution to a certain problem. A narrow and specialized problem solving approach is not what this methodology is emphasizing on but rather on a wider approach where a lot of parties together with their environments can be taken into consideration. Therefore, this approach will help in getting a better insight in the complexity of the problem situations that might exist. The approach can though be very complex and difficult to conduct since humans with different attitudes, beliefs, and world views are included and the analyst might therefore need to take many different perspectives into consideration. When conducting the action from the framework of the methodology the analyst is supposed to work as a participant of the research in order to get the most efficient insights of the situations. The SSM framework is built up of a guideline with 7 stages which are recommended to follow in order to understand the organizational problems (Checkland, 21

26 2000). The stages do not necessarily need to be followed in order but can be used iteratively and interchangeably. The SSM stages revealed: 1. Problem situation: unstructured This stage is concerned with finding out the problem situation. The problem analyst takes part of all views from people which are part of the problem situation. Here the analyst also tries to reveal the processes occurring in the context of the problems. 2. Problem situation: expressed From the information conducted in stage one this stage will express the information in a formal way. Drawing a picture diagram of the perceived situation can be a good way of expressing the state together with problem identification. The drawing can be seen as a tool for communication used by the analyst to express the perception of the current state. It can contain things like the people involved, areas of problem, information flow, and relations. 3. Root definitions of relevant systems This stage is about from which perspectives the problem solver should see the problems. Here the analyst together with the problem owner defines the problems and the relevant systems. The root definition is therefore also a way of stating what the system is. By the use of the CATWOE technique the analyst can create a root definition. CATWOE is a helpful tool to take all aspects of the perspectives that can exist in a system; customer, actor, transformation process, weltanschauung, owner and environment. 4. Building conceptual models From the help of the defined root definitions from previous stage a conceptual model is created in this stage. The model is supposed to be a diagram with activities that tell what the system will do, and is meant to describe something relevant to the problem situation. In this stage a debate is welcomed to shape the model between the actors in order to create a model related to the real world. 5. Comparing conceptual models with reality This stage compares the models created in stage four with the drawings from stage two. Since all illustrations are created with the help from people with different views, this process can be difficult. 22

27 6. Assessing feasible and desirable changes By analyzing the results from stage five the problem solver proposes the desirable changes needed. 7. Action to improve problem situation The last stage is dealing with the suggestions of actions in need to solve the desirable changes. To keep in mind is that this methodology is building up a framework of how to work in order to understand certain problems and is not providing any certain guidelines of how to solve the problems. As told before the seven steps might not necessarily be performed in order but might have to be conducted iteratively and interchangeably to reach for the most sufficient understanding of a certain problem. Due to that many perspectives are being considered there might be difficulties to reach a consensus when using this methodology. However, the SSM approach is perhaps one of the most effective tools in order to reveal the real situation when analyzing an organizational system. 3.5 Reflections from the theoretical framework The material presented is of great importance to us in order to succeed with our thesis. All literature is created within the timeframe of 15 years which makes the literature accordingly to us up to date. In order for us to analyze and identify problems within an organization we need a frame to work with, therefore the concept of SSM approach is seen as the most suitable. As well the theory has the ability to help us to gain new insights from the case when following it as a guideline. A Business Continuity Process is a guideline for how to establish a resilient work environment. Risk management and training are in turn parts of the Business Continuity Plan. Risk management is the process of identifying risks and problems which we will emphasize conduct from our empirical data in the analysis. Training is as well a tool within the BCP concept, since training benefits the awareness of the BCP and how to use it. Therefore the training approach can be a suggestion for the organization to use when preparing for a BCP. 23

28 4 Empirical findings To gather the appropriate data from the case for our purpose we have used the soft systems methodology as a guideline to help us reveal the organizational situation and its problems. The empirical findings section will start off with a description of the case. Continuously the perspectives of important organizational key persons will be presented with their problem perception. These persons will be the Nordic operating manager, the local IT manager, and agents. This step is the first part of the guideline from the SSM approach which is concerned about revealing the problem situation in an unstructured way (Checkland 2000). 4.1 Case observation The following case description is conducted by observations. Since one of our group members is employed at the department, he has the ability to gain useful information for our case description as stated earlier in the methodology section. The case of our study is within a department of a service-oriented organization located in Sweden. The company is one of the biggest retail businesses in Sweden. The main headquarter is located in Norway where many of the strategic plans and decisions are executed. The specific department in the organization where the research is conducted is a call center. Customers from entire Sweden and other Nordic countries contact the call center for support of a product, to ask questions about the products offered or to purchase a product. The department is divided into three sub areas, sales, after sales and helpdesk. The sales department works with customers who are interested in purchasing products. The after sales department supports customers with service related matters. Lastly the helpdesk is responsible for supporting customers with computer related questions. Unfortunately the department experiences many different problems mainly from their IT/IS and related work processes which affect their organization badly. As it seems today they do not have any Business Continuity Plan in order to deal more efficiently and resilient with their current problems. 4.2 Interviews The following interviews are conducted with three different kinds of employees with different roles at the department; Nordic Operating Manager, local IT Manager and Agents. Interview number one is conducted with the Nordic Operating Manager and interview two and three with the local IT manager while the fourth and last interview involves the agents. As told in the methodology part our reasons for choosing different employees with different roles is to gain many perspectives of the situation in order to make the findings consistent. This is also the first step in the SSM which we use as a guideline and concerns the identification of the problem situation in a rather unstructured way. At the same time this data gathering is a part of the BCP which concerns the business impact analysis. Hereby we present the most relevant findings from the interview to support our report. 24

29 4.2.1 Interview 1 The Nordic operating manager has a very important role in the organization where she has the ability to establish strategic decisions. She attends board meetings at the contact center in Norway and is positioned just under the Nordic board. At the same time she works with tasks such as human resources, development, customer expectations and is additionally the owner of the CRM system. When it comes to workflow and how business functions are performed in the organization the Nordic operating manager means that the business is quite big and complex which reduces the organization s flexibility. The business is also very focused on several key performance indicators and the organization measures productivity in hours available for the customers. When it comes to problems in the context of workflow and business functions the first main problem is that it is difficult to reach the right competence at the right time. Secondly she argues that...there is no system in order to find sufficient information for achieving quick handling time. The Nordic operating manager explained some problems within the IT/IS context that she perceived; the broadband is sometimes slow, no clear routines, no local backup plan. Some of their systems are still under development and might take 1-2 more years before they are fully implemented. And obviously all the problems affect the organization badly. When asking the Nordic operating manager how the errors of system issues are handled, she explained that they document all their problems in a log and when their information systems crash or go down the twin servers at the headquarter are switched on. This is seen as a backup solution. In most cases the employees ask the local IT manager when an IS/IT related problem occur. If the local IT manager cannot solve the problem, he in turn calls the headquarter/it support for assistance. The department does not have any documented follow up routines for the problems; they are instead in the local IT manager s head. The final question in our interview was to ask what the Nordic operating manager think a about a local BCP. She replied that she for sure would prefer one. Though at the same time, she says that they do not have the time to develop a BCP Interview 2 Accordingly to the local IT manager a BCP is a preferable plan for the department, which does not exist though. A plan to handle the load of all the existing problems at the department is of need. When dealing with IT/IS problems the local IT manager explains that there is a system support located at the headquarter where he calls or mails to get assistance to problems he cannot solve himself. Most problems are with the contact management system and can be very deep. The responsibility for fault assurance lies at the very top which can make it hard to solve errors. The manager mentioned that it is difficult to find the right person for support which is the first main problem. Help is needed mostly very fast and the helpdesk is big so it is hard to get to the right guy. Receiving the help depends on the problem, since different people have different responsibilities. 25

30 Secondly he mentions that the department does not have any routine of how to report problems. The entire chain is in need of a routine. Today when a problem occurs the employees me about the problem, come by and ask face to face, just run around, and sometimes they do nothing, just lazy. When the agents experience computer problems they regularly do not solve the problems but wait for feedback from the local IT manager. Thirdly he explains that one of the biggest issues is the contact management system since there are many bugs in the system causing problems. When it comes to the consequences from when the contact management system is down the response was; Loosing customers, customers lose faith, losing money and not reaching the goals. The local IT manager means that they document all problems which cannot be solved by him in a log. Deeper problems, such as code errors are not documented since only the system vendors have the rights and the knowledge to handle these problems. The most time consuming tasks to handle are the computer software and hardware problems. These can be problems such as: logging problems, crashing problems, hardware malfunctions. When asking how the communication between him and the vendors works, he replied that he does not get that much time with them as he would like to. Normally he only contacts the Nordic IT department and in turn they contact the vendors. There needs to be a standardized way of how to rout and log problems according to the local IT manager. It is therefore necessary to have education and training for the employees about routing of problems Interview 3 To begin the local IT manager was asked to depict the organizational hierarchy and the system structure of the company (see appendix 3). Subsequently the manager was asked if the IT related problems and risks are addressed during the management meetings and if that was the case, how and how often. The local IT manager explained that the meetings are conducted once a month with a decent structure. During the meetings 30 minutes are provided for the local IT manager to address issues related to the IT and IS. He continues to explain that during each meeting a protocol is kept and the progress of the discussions is checked at the following meeting according to the protocol. He stresses that he do not have so much authority in the overall organization in contrast to the authority that he has locally. Problems and issues that are beyond his authority are forwarded to the IT department in Norway, some of these problems tend to take twice as much time to solve. The interview continued with the local IT manager explaining some unknown problems that we had identified. These problems were A: CMS server full every morning, log files too big, B:.NET error messages, C: IVR and D: back + save problem. Problem A is associated with when the contact management server that is located in Norway gets full with log files, this results that the department cannot receive any incoming calls from its customers. The problem has been known more than three months and still no actions have been taken to solve it. The IT department in Norway does not want to solve the problem; they claim that it is the software vendor who has the responsibility for that. Problem B is related to the contact management.net framework; sometimes unexplained error messages appear which leads to a computer crash at the department. In this case there is a conflict between the IT departments in Norway the 26

31 software vendor as well. Problem C is linked with the interactive voice response (IVR) issues. IVR is the voice menu of the contact management system. A number of issues are related to the IVR. The voice menu has bad sound quality which irritates many customers, sometimes choices don t work and at times the customers are put in any queue but not in the one of choice. Lastly, the local IT manager explained that problem D occurs when the back button and the save button are clicked after each other in the contact management system application and therefore the software sometimes crashes. The interview ended with that the local IT manager helped with assessing the likelihood and impact of the identified problems in relation to the risk evaluation table Interview 4 This part will cover the findings from the questionnaire with the agents. The agents are the ones who operate at the lowest level in the organization and they are the ones who frequently interact with the systems. Therefore an important aspect of our empirical data was to get a better understanding of the agent s problem perspective. Ten agents answered the questionnaire, of them seven male and three female. In the questionnaire the agents were asked to answer what possible problems exist in the organization and to what extent these problems limit their working capacity and working goals. Each agent had the option to state more than one problem and subsequently suggest what possible actions are needed in order to prevent or eliminate these problems. The problems from the first question were then summarized into five categories: management, system/technical issues, knowledge/resource, lack of marketing and work environment issues. The majority of the agents (70%) felt that the major problem/problems are technical issues or problems related to the systems. Problems such as; incoming calls are not loud enough, system crashes and freezes, difficulties with the payment system or the problem of working with too many systems was highlighted more than once by the agents. For instance one of the respondents answered The major problems are all the problems related to the contact management system. It is too instable with too many bugs. It crashes and freezes at least once a day. The second most mentioned problem was related to the lack of knowledge and resources. 60% of the agents stressed that they experience lack of knowledge and resources in their daily work. Some of the respondents said: We know too little about our products, lack of product knowledge is the main problem, It would be much more efficient to have a better homepage with more information about the products, today one have to look after information from other sites or from the colleagues, We also lack resources (information) that our competitors have. A number of other problems were also highlighted. These problems consisted of issues related to the management, work environment and marketing. For more detailed information see appendix 5. However these problems were only mentioned from 10 to 20% of the agents. Diagram 4.1 illustrates how often a problem related to a specific problem category was mentioned by the agents. 27

32 Problems from Agents perspective Management System/Technical issues Knowledge/Resource Lack of marketing Work Environment 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% Percentage of Agents Diagram 4.1 Additionally the agents were asked what needs to be done in order to prevent or elimi- nate these problems. Concerning the first problem category Management the agents recommended that there is a need of a better approach in giving feedback about the problems and that someone needs to work with the problems regularly. They also suggested that in order to solve most of the technical issues the management needs to real- ize that the systems need to be improved and take proper actions so that changes really occur. For the system and technical issues the agents suggested that more investment should be allocated on less sensitive and stable systems. In addition, they expressed that a new platform is needed in order to integrate all the applications with each other. Several agents felt that they lacked resources and knowledge in their daily work. As a solution to solve this they felt that they needed more information about the products they work with and better sales tools that facilitates their work. They also expressed that they need better and more frequent education. Lastly a number of the employees suggested that their customers should receive more advertisement about their specific department. 28

33 5 Analysis Hereby the data from the empirical findings part will be analyzed. The analysis will follow the framework of the Soft Systems Methodology (Checkland, 2000) in conjunction with the Business Continuity Plan guideline (Karakasidis, 1997). With the help of the risk management approach the risks and problems will be assessed, evaluated, and relations among the problems will be established. This will present the answer to the first research question. When following the BCP approach, step one to five will be used. This will happen due to the fact that step six and further are out of our research scope. This section is aiming to provide answers to research questions number two and three. Therefore, possible solutions to IT/IS related problems and ways to make the organization more resilient on this issue will be provided. 29

34 5.1 Categorization of problems Staff Resources Technology/Software Workflow S1. All IT responsibility depends on one individual S2. Staff not really prepared to handle problems S3. Local IT manager not available R1. Lack of sufficient information to support work of agents R2. Not enough in-house IT knowledge T1. Ghost calls W1. Finding the right consultation person T2. Re-connect to customer W2. Problem reporting T3. Connect customer to another agent W3. Insufficient communication/relationship between Nordic IT department/local IT manager and vendor T4. Customer able to listen to agent-to-agent conversations W4. Assigning key roles T5. Agent cannot hear customer (Silent call) -> disconnected -> CMS sometimes crash W5. Problem handling routines T6. System terminates calls W6. No formal documentation of local IT manager s knowledge T7. Sending/receiving problems with s T8. Delay of displaying incoming call pop-up bar (5-6 sec.) T9. Answer button freezes for 5-6 sec. T10. System mixes up incoming and outgoing ringtones T11. Beep tones during the calls T12. Pressing consultation button 2x -> CMS freezes -> Agent hears customer and consultation at the same time T13. Backup System T14. CMS server is full every morning log files too big T15..NET error messages T16. Quality of interactive voice response menu T17. Calls cannot be received T18. Back + Save T19. Payment issues with the payment system 30

35 The displayed problems in the table above are based on the information gained from the interviews with the Nordic operating manager, local IT manager, and agents. The identified problems are categorized according to Hallows (2005) suggestions which were mentioned in the theoretical framework part before. The problem categories we chose were Staff, Resources, Technology/Software, and Workflow. These categories were partly suggested in the theory and partly adjusted to and created from the identified problems. Staff problems include areas related to employees and particular persons within the organization. The second problem category is about resource issues. This group of problems includes issues like the lack of sufficient information to support the work of the agents or the absence of enough in-house IT knowledge. The biggest category consists of the technology related problems. This group is made up by software and technological equipment problems. The last group of problems is called workflow related problems. This category includes problems which are related to the way of working. 5.2 Risk Evaluation The following is a risk evaluation of the problems perceived by the IT and Nordic operating manager. A risk evaluation model from our theoretical framework of risk management has been applied. It is ought to help identifying the likelihood and impact of the risks and problems within the department. Our evaluation was conducted together with the local IT manager. The stages in the evaluation process are; high (H), medium (M) and low (L). The Likelihood is the first letter while impact is the second letter in each title. HH HM HL MH W3. Insufficient communication/relationship between Nordic IT department/local IT and vendor (HH) S1. All IT responsibility depends on one individual (HM) W6. No formal documentation of local IT manager s knowledge (HM) T16. Interactive voice response (IVR) menu system (HL) W1. Finding the right consultation person (MH) T1. Ghost calls (MH) T8. Delay of displaying the popup bar of incoming calls 5 6 sec (MH) T9. Answer button freezes for 5 6 sec (MH) T14. Contact management system server is full every morning, log files too big (MH) T17.Calls from customers cannot be received (MH) 31

36 MM LH LM LL S2. Staff not really prepared to handle problems (MM) R2. Not enough in-house IT knowledge (MM) W5. Problem handling routines (MM) W4. Assigning key roles (MM) S3. Local IT Manager not available (LH) T4. Customer able to listen to agent-to-agent conversations (LH) T5. Agent cannot hear customer (Silent call) disconnected CMS sometimes crashes (LH) T2.Re-connecting to customer (LH) T6. System terminates calls (LH) T7. Sending, receiving problems with s (LH) T13. Back-up system (LH) T12.Pressing consultation button 2x -> CMS freezes and sometimes agent hears customer and consultation at the same time (LH) T18. Back + Save (LH) T15..NET error messages (LH) R1. Lack of sufficient information to support work of agents (LM) W2. Problem reporting (LM) T3.Problem when connecting customer to another agent (LL) T10.System mixes up incoming and outgoing ringtones (LL) T11.Beep tones during calls (LL) 5.3 Problem relation analysis The following diagram is about the existing problems at the organization and there relations. This is conducted in order to identify the main factors that are causing the continuous upcoming problems and the consequences of the problems. The diagrams can be seen as step 4 from the SSM theory, which is about building conceptual models. At the same time the diagram is a part of the impact analysis step from the BCP which is explained in the theoretical framework. A main and abstract problem is always put at the top of the diagram while it is divided into a branch of problems relating to each other along the way down in the diagram. The results from the problems are presented in circles at the bottom of the diagram. 32

37 Explanation of the components from the diagrams: Consequnce from problem(s) Relational arrow Diagram 5.3 Insufficient communication/partnership between local IT manager and vendors is one of the most critical problems. Many other problems occur, develop and result due to this circumstance. Based on the lack of communication the organization is missing a standard way of reporting problems. This means that the vendors do not get a standardized report about the problems because of hierarchy issues within the organization. This concludes in a conflict between the Nordic IT department and the vendors. Furthermore, the vendor is 33

38 convinced that the organization should deal with the problems itself and therefore the vendors are missing to fix these problems in an adequate way. The issue with problem reporting occurs on different levels within the company. There are no standardized reporting procedures from the agents towards the local IT manager and from the local IT manager towards the Nordic IT department as well. However, due to a lack of insight into the relationship between the Nordic IT department and the vendors the analysis of the cooperation is based on the perspective of the local IT manager. Due to the reason that the department does not have a standard way of problem reporting, many technical problems related to the contact management system still exist at the department. The technical errors are causing delays in work and frustration among the agents which in turn lead to a decrease level of service quality. The major problem associated with the contact management system is the problem with overloaded servers when business activities start. The overload occurs due to log files which are too big and not getting deleted in time. While the servers are overloaded with log files the contact management cannot function properly. The consequence of this is that customers cannot reach the call center. Therefore there is a risk that the company loses their calling customers to its competitors. In this case a backup system is started automatically which tells the customer to send his/her request via . However, the functions are also down at that moment. Consequently, the s can only be received again when the log files have been deleted and the system is running again. The backup system is also put in place when the system is down due to other issues. Nevertheless there are also other technical problems at the department which are not only related to the contact management system. One of these problems is related to the payment system. When a customer calls to order a product, sometimes the agent cannot create an invoice due to system errors. The consequence is that a purchase cannot be conducted and the business is losing its customers which in turn lead to possible profit losses. Another problem for the local IT manager is to find the right consultation person at the Nordic IT department in order to get the right support. There is no clear knowledge of who to contact. Additionally there seems to be too little sufficient information about the products in order to support the work of the agents. The consequences of this and the previous problem mentioned lead to a delay of work which in turn leads to a decrease of service quality. All IT responsibility at the department depends on one individual which is the local IT manager. This can as well be seen as a major problem with huge possible impacts on the organization. The department does not see the importance of documenting his valuable knowledge to keep it in-house. In this case, no one in the company can actually recapitulate or understand his work and might plan future improvements in the way of working. If the local IT manager would leave the company a lot of valuable information can in turn get lost which could lead to a decrease of quality. Moreover, the new local IT manager would need to learn everything from scratch and it would require him to take a while in order to get an overview about everything. This would influence the performance of the company really bad. 34

39 Even though the local IT manager is just absent due to any reason, there will be no IT support available locally. This would result in the consequence that no one can handle or fix the occurring problem immediately which would decrease the service quality or make the department in a paralyzed state, in the worst case. As the Nordic operating manager identified that the organization could need more inhouse IT knowledge since all IT responsibility depends on the local IT manager. This also affects the training and preparedness of the agents. We experienced that the employees are not really prepared and do not really know what to do when a problem occurs. There are no assigned key roles at the department and no systematic ways of assigning necessary roles which can be of need when the local IT manager is absent or a problem occurs. This is tightly connected to the fact that there are no problem handling routines. All problems mentioned above could lead to decreased service quality which in turn can result in a loss of customers. When the organization loses customers the obvious consequence is that the organization loses profits. 5.4 Suggested components to become resilient When it comes to developing a Business Continuity Plan the most important thing is to obtain top management support for this activity. Without top management it will be difficult to get the resources needed to develop a good BCP. Moreover, a BCP and its necessary activities could be communicated in a satisfying way when top management support is provided. Top management involvement would show the rest of the organization that the BCP is a needed and important issue and therefore could motivate and encourage people to better understand and support it as well. This would probably lead to a better acceptance of the BCP developing activities within the organization. Obtaining top management support is also considered as the initial step when developing a BCP according to the BCP literature. Applying this to the case would mean that the Nordic board and local top management need to understand the impact and affects of the problem and possible risks that can occur towards the business. Subsequently, they need to understand that the consequences would be a loss of customers and profits. Moreover, top management needs to recognize the benefits of a BCP and in what ways a BCP approach can improve the way of working and business processes overall. The second step in developing a BCP should include that top management establishes a BCP committee. This committee will become the driving force for planning a BCP and implementing it later on. Members of this committee should not only come from the IT department of the company. It is also necessary to include business people in order to align the BCP efforts with the ongoing business strategy and to effectively communicate the planned efforts. In the specific case it would be advisable to include the Nordic operating manager, call center manager, local IT manager, and the department manager in the BCP committee. Since the Nordic operating manager and the call center manager have an overall picture of the business it is wise to put them in the committee. The local IT manager should be included due to his specific knowledge about the IT infrastructure. Moreover, the department managers could add useful feedback from the operating level and daily work routines such as that there is a lack of sufficient information to support the work of the agents. 35

40 This committee should also assign key roles to individuals who will be responsible to minimize specific risks or to guide the process of problem solving when a problem occurs. These roles have to be clearly stated and the individuals need to know exactly what is expected from them in particular situations. In turn, this would support and improve the problem handling routines. The BCP committee should also schedule regular meetings which could be weekly or monthly. This can be decided depending on the size of the organization. In our case, a weekly meeting at least in the beginning would be reasonable due to the high number of existing problems and risks. Areas covered in these meetings include problem handling, risk management, status reports about progress, and reflections. In general, these meetings should be used to assess which risks and problems occur, what needs to be done in order to fix it, and to govern and control the ongoing problem solving processes. The BCP committee should also evaluate critical needs and prioritize business requirements in these meetings which could be done by using the risk management evaluation criteria as a solid ground. In order to identify problems and risks in the future the BCP committee should use the Business Impact Analysis. This can be seen as an ongoing repeatable process of identifying, solving and evaluating problems. To have a good communication strategy is really crucial for an organization. However, it is not enough to just have a good internal communication strategy. There is also a big need of having an excellent external communication, especially between the organization and the software vendors. As our example showed, when the external communication is not optimized several problems are not getting solved. The same thing counts for the part that is responsible for the maintenance of the organization and even more if maintenance is outsourced. With good communication it is easier to find the right consultation person, report problems, and spread knowledge. An important aspect is to consider training in order to communicate and raise awareness of the BCP. As stated by Morwood (1998) the first action that should be taken is awareness training. In this case, all the employees get informed about the BCP and its components. This will provide them with knowledge about how to react in specific situations when problems occur. From our perspective every employee should be provided with the possibility to take part in awareness training. General awareness training could prepare the staff to react in an efficient way when problems occur in organizations. In these briefing sessions employees should also be provided with a manual where the most important facts are written down for further recapitulations. In addition, problem handling routines would be improved by common standards. This would also decrease the delays of work and therefore increase the service quality within the organization. Furthermore, a documentation plan could be of helpful use. It can be seen as a supporting tool for the communication strategy and knowledge sharing. A documentation plan can also be a part of the problem reporting routine. When employees experience a problem they need to report it in a standardized way. This can be an efficient way of identifying and understanding problems that exist. Moreover, a good documentation plan can capture all the activities and knowledge of the local IT manager which could be useful in the future when he might be absent or leave the company. Eventually, this will increase the IT competence of some other persons within the company as well. 36

41 6 Conclusion Since business processes get more and more influenced by information technology, the need of a working Business Continuity Plan is increasing. Organizations are more dependent on their information technology infrastructure, and therefore need to be as resilient as possible in case problems occur. The specific case analyzed showed that organizations should focus on risks that are evaluated with high likelihood and high impact. These risks can cause lots of negative results to an organization s business process outcomes such as the key performance indicators. Additionally, they have to get the most attention based on the fact that they cause lots of other problems due to their high impact on the organization. In case of problems with a low likelihood and a low impact on the organization, the acceptance strategy should be applied. Service quality is highly affected by the problems that exist at the company. Therefore the organization is in need to deal with the issues in order to improve their service level. Obviously as the results show the problems existing are in turn causing loss in profits and without any improvements the organization will continue to lose money. Therefore a BCP can be a great tool in order to perform better. 6.1 Fulfilling the purpose The purpose was to show how problems can be assessed and relationships among these problems can be drawn, and how problem related working processes can be improved. Furthermore, the purpose was to provide guidelines for components of a BCP and of how to develop a BCP. We believe that we achieved our purpose by identifying and evaluating problems, showing their relationships, and presenting guidelines. 6.2 Future research Future research can include areas such as investigating and developing strategies of how to measure the impact of a Business Continuity Plan on organizations. Our research is proposing guidelines and not taking in consideration the measurement of the outcomes. Additionally, the investigation of other cases within the same or another business sector could lead to a better foundation of our results. Since our research is aiming for generalizations, a more specific approach could help other particular companies due to their need of certain particular requirements. 37

42 References APM PRAM (2006), Association for Project Management, Project Risk Analysis and Management Guide (2 nd edition), APM Publishing: High Wycombe, Bucks, UK, Botha, J. & von Solms, R. (2004) A cyclic approach to business continuity planning. Information Management & Computer Security, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp , Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Checkland, P. (2000). Soft Systems Methodology: A Thirty Year Retrospective. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Vol. 17, S11 S58 Colorado State University Department of English (2009) Generalizability: Definition, Retrieved May 27 th 2009 Doughty, K. (2000) Best Practices, Volume 15 : Business Continuity Planning : Protecting Your Organization's Life. Boca Raton, FL, USA: Auerbach Publishers, Incorporated, p 6, 8. Goldkuhl. G. (1998). Kunskapande. Internationella Handelshögskolan i Jönköping. Centrum för studier av Människa, Teknik och Organisation (CMTO). Linköpings universitet Hallows, J. (2005) Information Systems Project Management: How to Deliver Function and Value in Information Technology Projects, Second Edition, Chapter 4, Amacon Karakasidis, K. (1997) A project planning process for business continuity, Information Management &Computer Security, pp 72 78, MCB University Press McCrackan, Andrew. Practical Guide to Business Continuity Assurance. Norwood, MA, USA: Artech House, Incorporated, pp , 97-98, Morwood, G. (1998) Business Continuity: Awareness and Training Programmes. Information Management & Computer Security, MCP University Press. Newell, M. & Grashina, M. (2004) The Project Management Question and Answer Book, Chapter 8, Amacon Potter, S. (2002) Doing Postgraduate Research. Sage Publications, p.160 Reuvid, J. (2007). Managing Business Risk (4th Edition), London, GBR: Kogan Page, Limited, p 6 Reuvid, J. (2006) Secure Online Business Handbook: A Practical Guide to Risk Management and Business Continuity (4th Edition). London, GBR: Kogan Page, Limited. p 141,

43 Saunders, M. et al. (2007) Research Methods for Business Students. 4 th Edition, Prentice Hall, p 61. Wan, S. (2009) Analysis Using Business Continuity Planning Processes. Campus-Wide Information Systems, Vol. 26 No. 1 Weems, T.L. (1999) Business continuity planning for the rest of us. Disaster Recovery Journal in Botha, J. & von Solms, R. (2004) A cyclic approach to business continuity planning. Information Management & Computer Security, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp , Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Yin, R. K. (2003) Case Study Research: Design and Methods (3 rd Edition), Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage in Saunders, M. et al. (2007) Research Methods for Business Students. 4 th Edition, Prentice Hall, p

44 Appendix Appendix 1 Interview with the Nordic operating manager 1. What role do you have in the organization? Nordic operating manager. I am working closely with the contact center in Norway, where the board meetings occur. 2. What are the main tasks in your position? Strategic tasks mostly such as coaching, development, HR, systems, customer expectations, talent management, and CRM system owner. 3. What authority do you have? High - below the highest board. 4. How are the Business processes / workflow functioning? Since the organization is very complex and spread, the degree of flexibility is not too high. The organization s performance and strategies are mostly based on several key performance indicators (KPI) such as availability, adherence, average handling time (AHT), and fix at first time. The organization measures productivity in hours available for the customer. Problems with the business processes: To get the right competence at the right time There is no system, in order to find sufficient information for achieving quick handling time (related to fix at first time) 5. How are the errors of system issues handled? The organization is working with a twin system solution at the headquarter location. This means that there is a spare server provided if the regular one goes down. Organization has a log to document the problems Problem with the systems: IT support is outsourced due to system centralization, Feels that in-house competence would be nice to have but not possible Broadband problems slows down the business flow Different system have different problems 40

45 - Speed problems - Some systems are still in the development phase, it will approximately take 1-2 more years to get a finished product that the organization can live with No backup plan No routines 6. How do the problems affect the organization? Each problem has a direct or indirect impact on the KPI s, with other words tremendous impact. 7. How do you handle the problems? Some of the problems, mainly technical are documented in the log. In most cases the employees ask the local IT manager when a problem occurs. If the local IT manager cannot solve the problem he asks the headquarter/it support. 8. Do you have any follow up routines to the problems? No, more or less all the follow up routines is in the local IT manager s head. 9. Do you have any BCP? If not, why? if not, are you thinking of developing one No, we have not been thinking about it and we have not the time for it. We would prefer to have one but there is no plan in developing one. 41

46 Appendix 2 Interview 1 with the local IT Manager for the department 1. Do you have a BCP/Strategy? There is no plan. There is not much effort put in to it. It would be preferred to have one, due to all the existing problems. 2. How do you deal with the problems? -The contact management system covers , support, sales, and ticket system. - It is quite easy to get support with the contact management system. We have a contact management system support in Norway. When a problem occurs I usually the support in Norway about the problem. -Contact management system problems can be very locally but some problems can be very deep which I can t solve by myself. Responsibility for fault assurance lies at the very top. 3. Which problems do you experience as the most extensive? 1. Finding the right support guy/getting to the right guy. Help is needed mostly very fast and the helpdesk in Norway is very big, this aggravates the process of finding the right guy. Receiving the help depends on the problem, since different people have different responsibilities. 2. Routine how to report problems/problem reports. Problems can be very deep. We are in need of a routine of how to act. The entire chain is in need of a routine. Today when a problem occurs the employees me about the problem, come by and ask face to face, just run around, and sometimes they do nothing, just lazy. 3.The biggest problem/issue is with the contact management system and vendor problems. When I m gone a local IT manager in Norway helps the department to handle the problems. It is descent to reach him. 4. What are the consequences when Contact management system is down? -Losing customers, customers lose faith, losing money and not reaching the goals -The company keeps track of the problems, collecting info and will in the end try to calculate how much they lose in downtime. 5. Do you have a documentation plan for the problems? The problems that I can solve are kept in a log. The deep problems such as code errors are not documented, because it is only the software vendor who has the right knowledge and the rights. Also all the local IT-problems are documented. 42

47 6. Which of the working tasks are the most time consuming? -Computer problems are most time consuming such as hardware, logging in problems, crashing problems etc. -The backup action when the contact management system crashes is to turn on a machine that tells customers that they have technical problems and that they can mail instead. But the doesn t work when Contact management system is down. -The company has everything centralized in their databases at the plant, and a backup is sent to Norway regularly which is time consuming. 7. How does the communication work between you and the consultants and the vendor? -I don t get that much time with the consultants as I would need/like to. Normally I am not in contact with the vendor, the consultants contact the vendor. 8. How do employees solve problems? -They wait for feedback from group leaders 9. How is the training conducted? -The leaders (Department Managers) together with me are forming the training. 10. What would you like to include in the training? -I would like more training and education around routing of problems. -There is no standard way of logging problems; I log the problems in my own way. 43

48 Appendix 3 Interview 2 with the local IT Manager for the department 1. How does the organizational structure look like (picture)? 2. How does system structure look like (picture)? 3. What is your title and authority do you have in the organization? 44

49 IT manager for the call center in Sweden. High authority locally and low authority centrally. Problems and issues that are beyond my authority are forwarded to the IT department in Norway. Some of these problems tend to take twice as much time to solve. 4. Are problems and risk assessment addressed in the management meetings, if so how and how often? Yes, we have meetings once a month with a decent structure. During the meetings I get approximately 30 minutes to talk about the systems and issues related to them. We also keep protocols during each meeting and at following meeting the progress is checked according to the protocol. 5. Unknown problems a. The CMS server full every morning log files too big The CMS server located in Norway is getting full with the log files, this result into that we cannot receive calls from the customers when we open. The problem has been known more than three months and still no actions have been taken to solve it. The IT department in Norway does not want to solve the problem; they claim that it is the software vendor who has the responsibility for that. b..net error messages The Contact Management System is based on a.net framework; sometimes we get unexplained error messages which results into client s crash. Even here the IT department in Norway blames the responsibility on the software vendor. c. IVR IVR stands for interactive voice response it is the voice menu of our contact management system. We have a number of issues related our IVR. The voice menu have bad sound quality which irritates many customers, sometimes choices don t work and at times the customers are put in any queue but not in the one of choice. d. Back + Save After clicking the back button and then save button the client sometimes crashes. 6. What is the likelihood and impact of the identified problems in relation to the risk evaluation table? 45

50 Appendix 4 Questionnaire supplied to the Agents Frågeformulär Detta frågeformulär är avsett för en kandidatuppsats som skrivs av 3 studenter på högskolan i Jönköping. Uppsatsen behandlar betydelsen av en kontinuitetsplan inom företag. All data kommer att hanteras anonymt. För frågor rörande uppsatsen så kan vi nås på följande mail adress: [email protected], eller telefon: 0736-xxxxx. 1. Kön? Man Kvinna 2. Hur lång tid har du jobbat här? 0-3 månader 4-6 månader 6-12 månader 1 år eller mer 3. Vilka eventuella problem känner du existerar på avdelningen som begränsar din arbetsförmåga/arbetsmål? 4. Hur skall man, tycker du gå, tillväga för att förhindra/eliminera problemet/problemen? 46

51 Appendix 5 Questionnaire answers from the Agents 1. Gender? Men = 7 Women = 3 2. How long have you worked for the call center? 0-3 Months = Months = Months = 2 1 Year or more = 8 3. What possible problems do you feel exist at the call center and to what extent do these problems limit your working capacity and working goals? Respondent 1: We know too little about our products. Lack of product knowledge is the main problem Respondent 2: Many system related problems, the payment process muddle too often; this creates irritation both with the customers and the agents. The contact management system is too often down. It also feels that we have too many different systems; it would have been easier with one or at least fewer systems. It would be much more efficient to have a better homepage with more information about the products, today one have to look after information from other sites or from the colleagues. Respondent 3: I think that we work with too many systems/applications, this result into an inefficient way of working, time consuming. Respondent 4: The requirements on the invoice function are too high. It feels like only 1 of 3 invoice processes succeeds. Installment function would be nice to have online/by phone also to be able to accept gift cards. Respondent 5: In most cases it is the technical issues such as system failure that limit my working capacity/goals. We also lack resources (information) that our competitors have. There is also too little marketing towards our customers about us. Respondent 6: Technology, applications that crashes or lags. Parts of the management. 5 Management to inflexible. Respondent 7: To high loudness level, tight with space. To low sound on incoming calls. Not enough product knowledge. Respondent 8: Low commitment from the management. Lack of knowledge. Respondent 9: To high loudness level, this result into frustration and difficulties of understanding what the customers are saying. This forces me to talk louder with the customer which sometimes is perceived in a bad way from the customers. Respondent 10: The major problems are all the problems related to the contact management system. It is too instable with too many bugs. I crashes and freezes at once a 47

52 day. The second problem is the lack of information available to us. The product information available is insufficient most of the times. This forces most of us to tell the customer to wait and look for the information from other sources. 4. From your point of view, what needs to be done in order to prevent/eliminate the problem/problems? Respondent 1 (W): More product knowledge, more knowledge and focus on the products with good margin. Respondent 2 (W): I think we need more than one IT-manager, one is not enough. More communication about the system problems, we need to be able to give feedback about the problems and someone needs to work with them regularly. Respondent 3: A platform that enables all the applications integrated with each other. Respondent 4: Lower the requirements of payment system Respondent 5: Market the call center to the customers. Focus on attaining better and more sales tools ex. Installation of products in all Sweden not only in Stockholm, return freight, installment. Be able to give the customer more packaged prices and discounts than we have today. Respondent 6: Prevent technical issues/problems with more stable and less sensitive systems. Restructure the management. More flexibility for the agents. Respondent 7: Take advantage of the work space available. Invest in working systems! Allocate more resources in providing more information about the products. Respondent 8: Put more effort in employment. Better and more frequent education. Respondent 9: One problem was that our department lacked cohesion, to solve that we moved the agent s tables closer to each other. This action resulted instead to a new problem, such as the loudness issue. Respondent 10: The management needs to realize that the systems need to be improved and they need to take action so changes really happen. Better information resources and tools needs to be available for us. 48

53 Appendix 6 Problems from agent s perspective System/technical issues Many system related problems The contact management system is too often down. It also feels that we have too many different systems; it would have been easier with one or at least fewer systems I think that we work with too many systems/applications, this result into an inefficient way of working, time consuming In most cases it is the technical issues such as system failure that limit my working capacity/goals Technology, applications that crashes or lags To low sound on incoming calls The major problem is all the problems related to the contact management system. It is too instable with too many bugs. I crashes and freezes at once a day Payment issues The payment process muddle too often; this creates irritation both with the customers and the agents Requirements on the invoice function are too high. It feels like only one out of three invoice processes succeeds Knowledge/resource issues We know too little about our products. Lack of product knowledge is the main problem It would be much more efficient to have a better homepage with more information about the products, today one have to look after information from other sites or from the colleagues We also lack resources (information) that our competitors have Lack of knowledge The second problem is the lack of information available to us. The product information available is insufficient most of the times. This forces most of us to tell the customer to wait and look for the information from other sources Work Environment To high loudness level, this result into frustration and difficulties of understanding what the customers are saying. This forces me to talk louder with the customer which sometimes is perceived in a bad way from the customers To high loudness level, tight working space. Too low sound on incoming calls Not enough product knowledge Management Parts of the management Management to inflexible 49

54 Lack of marketing There is also too little marketing towards our customers about us Solutions from Agents perspective System/technical issues A platform that enables all the applications integrated with each other Lower the requirements of payment system Prevent technical issues/problems with more stable and less sensitive systems Invest in working systems! The management needs to realize that the systems need to be improved and they need to take action so changes really happen Knowledge/resource issues More product knowledge, more knowledge and focus on the products with good margin Focus on attaining better and more sales tools ex. Installation of products in all Sweden not only in Stockholm, return freight, installment. Be able to give the customer more packaged prices and discounts than we have today More flexibility for the agents Take advantage of the work space available Allocate more resources in providing more information about the products Better and more frequent education Better information resources and tools needs to be available for us Work Environment One problem was that our department lacked cohesion, to solve that we moved the agent s tables closer to each other. This action resulted instead to a new problem, such as the loudness issue Management More communication about the system problems, we need to be able to give feedback about the problems and someone needs to work with them regularly The management needs to realize that the systems need to be improved and they need to take action so changes really happen Put more effort in employment I think we need more than one IT-manager, one is not enough Lack of marketing Market the call center to the customers 50