ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE IN PARTNERSHIP

• Established in 1869, today the company is one of the UK’s leading food retailers with interests in financial services
• Operations throughout the UK, with primary Store Support Centre in London
• 153,000 employees
• 2005 revenues exceeded £17 billion
• Supported from many of SunGard’s London and North of England Recovery locations
• Contracted to Workplace Recovery for over 900 users UK-wide and Managed IT Solutions, and supported by ScaleNet and the SunGard National Network
• www.j-sainsbury.co.uk

“Sainsbury’s takes business continuity very seriously; we’re always trying to improve.  Because of our maturity and achievements, we needed to find a partner who was similarly positioned in approach, image, reputation, attitude and success.  I stress the word ‘partnership’ because that is what I believe we have found with SunGard [Availability Services].  We have a very strong relationship and have achieved everything we set out to do.”
Steve Mellish FBCI, Head of Business Continuity, Sainsbury’s

Keeping promises, setting standards

“Sainsbury’s is a leading UK food retailer with interests in financial services. It consists of Sainsbury's Supermarkets, Sainsbury's Local, Bells Stores, Jacksons Stores, JB Beaumont, Sainsbury's Online and Sainsbury's Bank. It employs 153,000 people.  Our objective is simple; to serve customers well and thereby provide shareholders with good, sustainable financial returns. We aim to ensure all colleagues have opportunities to develop their abilities and are rewarded for their contribution to the success of the business. Our policy is to work with all of our suppliers fairly, recognising the mutual benefit of satisfying customers' needs. We also aim to fulfil our responsibilities to the communities and environments in which we operate.”

With such a statement in the public domain, Sainsbury’s is one organisation that appreciates the importance of business continuity (BC) management and Information Availability (IA) as a means to ensuring its presence in the marketplace and its ability to deliver on its stated aims and objectives.

A veteran of such events as Y2K, Paddington, Potters Bar, the Fuel Crisis, Foot & Mouth and more, the Company has certainly proved its BC strategy in anger many times.  It is also known as a standard bearer within the BC industry, with the Company’s Head of Business Continuity, Steve Mellish, serving as Chairman of the Board of the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) as well as being a regular presence on the speaker circuit.

A timeline towards excellence in Information Availability

But this success is the result of many years of commitment and effort, and started in earnest back in the early 1990s; Steve Mellish takes up the story:  “Our ‘history of business continuity’ really started back in 1991, when we undertook a project to formalise the backup arrangements for our two key data centres.  I was part of the team that devised a policy and detailed the procedures for the backup of these facilities.  I found myself really enjoying the whole project – I had just left computer operations – but from that point forward I was convinced that my future career lay within business continuity”.

• 1991 – First formal procedures and business continuity policy for J Sainsbury developed.
• 1996 – Five years and several other BC projects ensued.  “At this time, we were focused on understanding industry best practice with a view to adopting it at Sainsbury’s.  The risks we faced at the time were such things as IRA bomb threats in London, but anything that could disrupt store operations had to get my attention.  I spent a lot of time taking advantage of learning and networking opportunities in order to be able to properly understand BC and also to ensure board level sponsorship for a dedicated BC function, which was achieved when the Group Property Director took responsibility for BC.”  Following a secondment to develop a Business Continuity (BC) plan for their Blackfriars Head Office, Sainsbury’s created the position of business continuity manager, which Steve assumed. 
• 1998 – In the next two years, BC plans for the entire range of J Sainsbury’s businesses were developed including Homebase and Savacentre.
• 1999 – Sainsbury’s, in common with most other western businesses undertook its Y2K compliance programme.  For the retail group, this also included BC and as such considerations like failures of traffic light systems, utilities and fuel shortages.
• 1999 – for the first time, this year sees the BC function reporting directly to a Board Director.
• 2000 – In September the company faced the fuel crisis for real in an event that assembled the corporate Business Continuity Management Team (BCMT) for the first time.  The team was charged with minimising business disruption; ensure deliveries to stores, fuel for 240 forecourts and compliance with Government directives on emergency fuel requirements.  The ultimate outcome was positive:  deliveries were controlled and stores were monitored to keep any disruption to supply to a minimum where such things occurred.  The BCMT then divided its activities, with one half focussed on business continuance and the other on business reinstatement.
• 2001 – This was the year the Foot & Mouth epidemic occurred and involved both the BCMT and the Serious Incident Committee (SIC) – the former being skilled in BC considerations and the latter expert in handling matters such as product recalls.  Unlike the fuel crisis, the Foot & Mouth crisis was going to take weeks, not days to resolve, so handling this issue effectively meant that the BCMT and the SIC worked to develop a process that would see the handling of this situation become part of everyday operations.  The BCMT were also in action to deal with the effects of September 11th.
• 2001 – Sainsbury’s awarded the CIR business continuity award for ‘Most Effective Communications Strategy’ as a result of their response to the fuel crisis.
• 2002 – In this year, the BC strategy expanded to address the “total loss of a store” scenario.  Steve and his team developed a high-level generic BCM process for the restoration of any lost facility. – and which had store specific appendices attached.  Steve commented:  “The plan has information that enables swift decision making so that we can redirect staff, customers and deliveries as efficiently and painlessly as possible; whilst also planning for business recovery when the disaster has ended.”  So, when later that year, the Potters Bar train crash occurred, the local store’s daytime personnel found themselves involved in the support of the emergency services.  Meanwhile, other store staff contacted the business continuity helpline to receive information and instructions regarding the incident.  As a result, night-time staff were in-store as usual to ensure stock rotation and disposal where necessary.
• 2003 – In this year, the BCMT responded to two separate store fires.  One took the store out for 10 days, the other was smaller, but the principles of response remained the same.  Steve observes:  “In the early days our plans and processes were much more prescriptive than they are now.  Experience has taught us that the nature of risk is both diverse and changing – but the basis for an effective BC strategy is fundamentally the same.  We have developed an approach that means our BCMT and associated processes could be likened to a well drilled army.  It doesn’t matter what the problem is, our processes enable swift, informed decision making and speedy deployment of the solution we require to maintain availability.”  Steve’s plan takes the Company’s goal “At Sainsbury's we will deliver an ever improving quality shopping experience for our customers with great product at fair prices. We aim to exceed customer expectations for healthy, safe, fresh and tasty food making their lives easier everyday.” And places it at the centre of his planning.  From this he has devised Values, a Mission, Vision and Identity for his team.  The group defines BC Goals which align with the 6 elements of PAS 56 and from which operational objectives stem.  From this, Steve can plan for both the ongoing and project based continuity needs of the company, whilst ensuring executive buy-in for overall programme success. 
• 2003 - Sainsbury’s awarded the CIR business continuity award for ‘Crisis Team of the Year’.
• 2004 – Sainsbury’s becomes a SunGard Managed IT Solutions customer.
• 2005 – To ensure a truly holistic approach to its BC strategy, the Company embarked on a programme to ensure its chain of supply would not let it down at the crucial moment.  To this end, third party suppliers are now expected to implement BC policies and furthermore must demonstrate that these processes compliment and support the plans we have developed”, explained Steve.
• 2005 – This year also saw the Steve and his team conducting a risk workshop to devise an appropriate Avian/ Pandemic Flu response – all tied into UK Government and World Health Organisation alert levels.  “This is very much a business impact assessment process,” commented Steve, “with divisional plans being drawn up to tie in to our overall plan; it encompasses a range of considerations for stores, depots, and other operations.”
• 2005 – The BCMT responds to 7/7: no loss of staff or customer life, but some stores have to be closed and some deliveries get stuck in traffic.  Event precipitates some new thinking in terms of Workplace Recovery needs.
• 2005 – Steve wins the CIR business continuity award for ‘Business Continuity Manager of the Year’.
• 2006 – Sainsbury’s selects SunGard Availability Services as its Information Availability partner for Workplace Recovery and undertakes it first test; Calum Roberts, Sainsbury’s account manager observed: “In all my years in this business, I have never seen any customer undertake such a complex test at such an early stage in their contract tenure with such success.”

Rollback and so much more

In March 2006, it was time for Steve to review his BC arrangements with reference to Workplace Recovery.  As he stated: “In the light of 9/11, 7/7 and other incidents, it was clear to me that the sort of risks we were facing and the disruption they could cause was changing.”  Ironically, on July 7, the BCMT had met for its quarterly BCM Steering Group meeting – a meeting that was rapidly called to a close as they handled the realities of 7/7. 

Four of the UK’s business continuity providers received an invitation to tender for Sainsbury’s business.  SunGard Availability Services was the only one who responded to precisely the criteria laid down by Steve and his team.  “SunGard came back with exactly what we were looking for,” recalled Steve.  “I’m a fan of keeping things simple for maximum effectiveness; in their Executive Summary of Sainsbury’s requirements and subsequent proposals, SunGard demonstrated clarity, conciseness and exactness, whilst also being innovative in suggesting the best response to our requests.  It made it very easy for me and my colleagues to review the proposal and make a decision in SunGard’s favour.”

SunGard’s Rollback capability was also very compelling for Sainsbury’s.  Since 2002, SunGard has invested heavily to create a standardised desktop and telephony configuration across all recovery locations.  SunGard has also deployed an award winning national Ethernet network  – the SunGard National Network (SNN).  SNN interconnects all regional recovery facilities, and links them to SunGard's flagship Information Availability data centre, the fully-resilient London Technology Centre: from here the network extends across SunGard’s optical network, ScaleNet, to the London recovery locations thereby creating a UK-wide virtual recovery campus (comprising over 20 facilities) which delivers a solution of unrivalled robustness and flexibility to SunGard customers. 

This network infrastructure not only provides a unique inter-service proposition, which enables customers to exploit the rich recovery capability SunGard has at its disposal, but also powers effective rollback when it is needed. This same network also allows SunGard personnel at other recovery locations to provide additional remote support to the local staff in cases of major incidents and rollback, regardless of where they are based.

It is this capability, the high quality of the facilities – and the enthusiasm and knowledge of the SunGard staff – which convinced Steve that there was no other choice but SunGard.  To this end, a recovery solution was put in place, whereby 600 users from their Holborn offices would relocate to one of SunGard’s many London locations, whilst a further 200 would relocate from their Streatham office to an alternative SunGard London location; with other aspects of the business being supported from Recovery Centres serving Leeds and Leicester

Winner “Most Innovative Product” – 2006 Business Continuity Industry Awards

Testing times pay dividends

Since the outset, Sainsbury’s has been committed to ensuring the success of its BC programme, and the best way to embed the culture, as well as to ensure confidence and competence is to put any solution through it’s paces.

Within a month of signing with SunGard, Sainsbury’s conducted an initial test of the desktop imaging and communications recovery processes. 

Then over three days in July, 103 business users from Supply, Trading, Finance, Retail, Convenience, Bank, Online, Human Resources and IT – all of whom were using their newly supplied zed-card user guides to direct them – decamped to the Docklands Recovery Campus to put the solution through its paces. 

The users were greeted with a ‘Sainsbury’s’ Reception Desk to ease their access to the building as well as to give then a familiar face when arriving on site.  Meanwhile, 140 desktops were imaged in 3 minutes and 17 seconds in readiness for the users, whilst communications were established with mainframe, UNIX, Oracle, Tandem, Sun and EMC systems at Sainsbury’s primary data centre.  Feedback forms were completed by all present and the consensus of opinion was the test was a success.  The Company’s future tests will become even more challenging as Sainsbury’s continues to push itself.

Steve is convinced that he’s made the right decision: “The pre-test meetings, on site support and post-test review meetings were all excellent, but more to the point, so was the rapport between us and SunGard.” 

A continuity culture

To ensure the success of their BC programme, Sainsbury’s has been both dedicated and innovative.  For example, all new staff receive a BC induction, staff based at the Company’s two key London locations each have a credit card sized zed-card information leaflet providing instructions on what to do in an emergency or invocation and including full details to their designated primary recovery facility; all other staff in stores and depots have credit card-style information cards and all badges have the BC hotline number on the reverse.  In addition, there are ‘unannounced’ phone cascade competitions and BC Awareness Week activities to remind employees of the overall BC plan, but in a way that is memorable and fun.

The responsible corporation

Sainsbury’s has a well-defined Corporate Responsibility programme.  As its website states:  “Corporate Responsibility is at the heart of what we do at Sainsbury’s.  Five principles underpin our activities:
1. The best for food and health
2. Respect for our environment
3. Sourcing with integrity
4. Making a positive difference to your community
5. A great place to work.
Unsurprisingly, Sainsbury’s BCM processes support their CR objectives.  It is part of the team’s objectives to make Local Authorities aware of Sainsbury’s DR and BC policy and how the Company can provide support for LA, voluntary organisations, emergency services and others at time of disaster or crisis.  Part of this is via in-store education as well as direct liaison with the agencies in question.

Influencing the business continuity industry

In the ten years since setting up a bespoke BC function, Sainsbury’s and Steve have become synonymous with BCM best practice.  Steve assisted wuth the creation of the business continuity user group for one of the first suppliers he worked with; today he is a Fellow of the BCI and Chairman of their Board.  The company regularly presents at such events as the BCI Symposium, Survive, Business Continuity Planning for Retailers and more.