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Empty offices are a good sign
Monday September 22nd 2008. Posted: 09:30
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In the new disaster centre are, back row, from left, Colin Mack, Robert Evanson, Kevin Budd and Liam Moore-Saxton. Front, Hayley Freeman and Chris Skapoullou
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A new suite of offices opened at Annandale House, Sunbury-on-Thames, has no-one in it . . . and BT hopes it will stay that way.
For if people are called upon to use the offices, it will mean there has been a major problem. The office suite is fully fitted out ready for use in emergencies. It will come into its own if either of the customer service centres at Leavesden Park near Watford or Sevenoaks in Kent is put out of action. It has been set up by the large deal shared services operations (LDSSO) organisation to enable customer service to get back to normal as quickly as possible in the event of a complete breakdown. Annandale House’s location, midway between Leavesden Park and Sevenoaks, means service advisors from either building can reach it within an hour via the M25. “Physically, the recovery suite looks like a deserted office,” said BT Operate’s LDSSO business change manager Rob Evanson, who managed the project. “It’s got a set of desks, with desktop PCs, phones and monitors. But it’s a lot more secure, as it’s not shared by any other team. There are large metal doors to protect it - and no-one can get in without secure access.” Originally, both Leavesden Park and Sevenoaks had fallback suites at each other’s centres. But BT Property wanted to lease out the Sevenoaks space, and the recovery suite was moved, temporarily, to Delta Point in Croydon. A decision was then made to install a combined recovery suite at Annandale House, which could be used by teams from either of the customer service centres in an emergency. “Apart from providing better security, the idea will save LDSSO more than £200,000 a year in accommodation costs,” said Rob. “Annandale can be used by 50 people from Leavesden, and 38 from Sevenoaks. The service centre people deal with some very high-profile customers, including major banks, so this will help guarantee a more reliable service for them if a disaster happens.” Rob worked with operations managers and the Monteray facilities management company to carry out the moves. They took place over two consecutive weekends, with the first one tested before the second one went ahead. A new voice switch was installed so calls could be rerouted from the service centre sites, and a local area network was set up. The centre was officially opened by Guy Rickenbach, LDSSO general manager for major incidents, problem management and jeopardy management. Guy presented gift vouchers to thank five of the people who had made the project a success: Peter Ward, John Hardingham and Colin Mack from LDSSO; Liam Moore-Saxton from BT Operate service assurance; and Martin Day from BT Design.
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Last updated:
10:55