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Thomas Cook implements business continuity technology
Thomas Cook Group plc is one of the world's leading leisure travel groups with over 19 million customers, 30,000 employees, a fleet of 97 aircraft, a network of over 3,000 owned or franchised travel stores and a number of hotels and resort properties. In the UK, the Group has over 16,000 employees and a fleet of 46 aircraft that operate from 11 Regional bases
Travel companies need to be sure that they have very robust plans in place for any eventuality or crisis. Potential crises for travel companies such as hotel fires, terrorist attacks or aviation incidents can have a significant impact on their business, customers and employees. Thomas Cook already had plans in place for all these eventualities, but needed to ensure a robust communication infrastructure that would enable instant communication with their incident teams.
Thomas Cook needed a solution that would be simple to use and reliable. The company also needed that solution to be easily managed and updated with new starters and leavers' details. Previously Thomas Cook used a manual cascade process where the Duty Officer would contact 4 – 5 personnel informing them of the incident, consequently these personnel would each contact 4 – 5 personnel and so on. However, this meant that if one person was missed out or didn't answer, then a proportion of people could easily be left out. Thomas Cook found that this existing process was inefficient and they needed a solution that would ensure that all relevant employees had received the message.
It is also important that Thomas Cook is able to quickly mobilise their incident teams for any situation. If staff are needed to deal with a situation, then Thomas Cook need to know if they are available and how long it would take them to arrive. Thomas Cook also needed somewhere they can store all the emergency contact numbers for each of their employees.
Not only does Thomas Cook consider internal communications key, but the company has an ongoing commitment to its customers. The company has to make sure that the customer services team could cope with a large number of customers requesting information regarding any specific incidents. The last thing that the company wants is for their communication systems to become jammed and crash, or there not to be enough resources to man the phones. Thomas Cook found in the past that upto 80% of these calls were not relevant to the incident at hand. Thomas Cook needed a solution that would filter the calls ensuring that the urgent calls were put through.
Thomas Cook wanted a service that would ultimately fulfil the criteria of providing a robust communications infrastructure that enabled them to deal with any crisis contact their employees rapidly in an easy and reliable manner, as well as address customers concerns during an incident.
F24 delivered Thomas Cook a process that integrated the latest technology into their crisis management plans so that they can easily communicate and manage employees and customers during a crisis with minimal fuss. Using F24's crisis communication service, FACT24, a highly secure telecommunications solution to notify and communicate with employees and customers was set up. The Crisis Management team at Thomas Cook is now able to communicate with all their relevant employees effectively, efficiently and reliably at the touch of a button.
The FACT24 Service uses an automated cascade process to trigger voice, text or fax notification messages quickly and rapidly to the relevant Thomas Cook employees. If the employee is unavailable or cannot be reached after multiple attempts, the service automatically calls their designated deputies. All employees contacted are asked to acknowledge their receipt of the contact by confirming their availability and their expected time of arrival (ETA) to the scene or office via their telephone keypad.
In addition, FACT24 supplies Thomas Cook with ongoing reports on the status of action taken. Initial interim reports are already delivered to the Crisis Management Team while fax, e-mail or text notification and online monitoring is also possible. The personnel responsible can therefore check at a glance who has already been contacted and the ETAs of specific employees at the scene. The web log also enables clients to conduct a final analysis of the communication process as a whole. Being able to find out where employees are and when they will be on the scene is critical in helping the Crisis Management Team manage the crisis.
An information hotline will also be set up to play a recorded message of relevant information for customers. The Crisis Management Team can update this message at any time. If further information is needed, calls can then be passed on to appropriate staff members. The line will filter the calls without using up additional resources, prioritises urgent calls and eases pressure on the team.
The service is based on multiple redundant structures for highest availability, ensuring that it will work even if normal networks fail and can notify thousands of people within minutes regardless of location. Additionally, Thomas Cook has the ability to draw all key stakeholders in to a conference call.
F24 made sure that they worked hand in hand with Thomas Cook providing them with a dedicated point of contact that would assist them with the management of incidents and help with the infrastructure, issues and updating technology. Thomas Cook and F24 carried out regular checks to test the system to ensure that it works smoothly and all employees are familiar. All employees are sent a notification message during the test and asked to respond.
Thomas Cook needed a provider that they could rely on to work together with them during any incident to communicate easily and quickly with all their employees yet put their customer's minds at peace. F24 fitted these criteria and gave Thomas Cook the confidence to ensure their crisis management and Business Continuity planning was solid.
Bob Boyce, Director of UK Operations for Thomas Cook says, "'The first hour of an incident is crucial. It is imperative that we make contact with the staff within the organisation as quickly as possible to inform them of the incident and to instruct them that our Emergency Procedures are being invoked. Confirmation that the message has got through is also crucial to the immediate requirement of the Procedures.
"F24 has provided an invaluable service that took out the complexity of communicating quickly and easily with our employees and customers during crises. I am very impressed with the technology, expertise and professionalism from F24. By working closely with F24, we know that if we have an incident, we have the best infrastructure in place to communicate with the right people instantly. We look forward to rolling out the service across more of our key markets."
F24 is a market leading provider of business continuity and crisis communication solutions. Founded in Munich in 2000, F24 today supports over 200 companies and public sector organisations around the world. Its clients operate across all the major market sectors including: energy & industry, health & pharmaceutical, transport & logistics, trade, commerce, banks & insurance, IT & telecommunications and public sector.
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For more information about F24 please go to www.f24.com.
