IncidentLog enables organizations to collate information from various sources around an organisation, providing one standardised method of logging information related to any event or incident. Having information all in one place, rather than in spreadsheets or on post it notes, simplifies reconciling information. It also ensures that nothing gets missed. The rules for log entries are in line with current best practice, and provide more accurate auditing and recording of actions. IncidentLog will be used by incident management teams and individuals to track actions and note developments during an incident and replaces the current manual log book processes.

Trevor Wheatley-Perry, MD of Vocal stated, “This development will have a massive impact for organisations by improving efficiency and saving time, all while providing a full audit trail of information, improving accountability measures.”

The launch of the new iModus IncidentLog comes in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic Games when many organisations are reviewing how they manage their communications and their incident management capabilities. To help organisations prepare for the Olympics, Vocal is offering IncidentLog at reduced rates. Any organisation interested in using IncidentLog can contact vocal on 0800 035 0081 or email sales@vocal.co.uk for full details of the IncidentLog offer.

Incident Log is part of the iModus suite of Incident Management solutions. More new projects will launched into the suite of incident management solution, including Incident Work Flow.

The standard has been specifically designed to ensure continued business functionality during the most unexpected circumstances. The new ISO 22301 business continuity standard applies to all types and sizes of organisations that wish to:

• establish, implement, maintain and improve a Business Continuity Management System
• assure conformity with the organization’s stated business continuity policy
• demonstrate conformity to others
• seek certification/registration of its BCMS by an accredited third party certification body
• make a self-determination and self-declaration of conformity with this International Standard

In the weeks to come, Vocal Ltd, a BS25999 accredited organisation, will be reviewing the new ISO 22301 standard and commenting on how it impacts the organisation’s business continuity management.

Related Topics:

Read more information about ISO 22301 and download a copy of the new standard from the BSI website.

Review Vocal’s Preparedness Statement for the London 2012 Olympic Games

ISO 22301 World

Vocal Assures 100% uptime for iModus during the Olympics

The Vocal Managed Services team will kick off operations today, with the launch of a new secure customer portal, and a new departmental structure, delivering a differentiated range of support services to meet the diverse needs of iModus customers, globally. Service levels are offered to meet customer needs for account support, administration, contact data management, training and system reporting. Intrinsic to the iModus managed service delivery is detailed monthly management information reporting for every iModus customer with a managed service agreement. These reports will provide the necessary information to assure customers of the 100% server uptime statement for iModus.

Managing Director Trevor Wheatley-Perry said, “After months of planning and preparation, I’m pleased to make our transition from a reactive Customer Support to a proactive Managed Services approach, effectively delivering a defined set of services depending on each customer’s Managed Service Agreement. Through our Managed Services contracts, we will provide our customers with the resources to manage the day to day activities, deliver against defined service level agreements, and through the transparency of monthly MI, offer the confidence of 100% iModus server uptime. These improvements have been driven by the demands of our increasing global customer base and the needs of our customers. In the run up to the Olympics, our customers are looking for reassurance that iModus will withstand the pressures that the Olympics will bring. iModus has always had 100% server uptime and connectivity, and our BCM arrangements will ensure this continues through the Olympic period.

As part of the change, Darrell Durrant has been promoted to head up the new Managed Services team. Darrell has been with Vocal for 5 years, winning and being shortlisted for “Employee of the Year” a number of times and is well known by many Vocal customers for his ability to “get things done” and delight customers. “The new Managed Services approach will enable us to support customers more proactively than ever, tailoring our services to their individual business requirements. Most importantly, through this transition, we have invested in staff training and development to ensure our focus is on first call resolution for our customers.” added Darrell Durrant, Operations Manager at Vocal.

All Vocal customers will be contacted directly during May 2012 with details of how the Managed Services Team will be working directly with their individual Account. Additionally we are working with a large number of our customers employing “Stress Testing” processes to help them plan and respond to situations as they arise during the Olympics.

Vocal supports over 1500 public and private sector organisations, globally. 24 x 7 technical support, telephone support, email support and access to an online help desk portal ensure that iModus users are supported, through any event.

For more information on the Vocal Managed Service visit http://www.vocal.co.uk/vocal-managed-services/.

Trevor Wheatley-Perry, Managing Director of Vocal explained, “iModus will be central to the delivery of critical messaging for the London Olympics and Vocal has invested great time and effort to ensure that the delivery of emergency notifications, is not impacted by the Games. We have undergone our due diligence. iModus will perform as expected and deliver the communications contingency that organisations will need throughout the Olympic Games.”

In light of the significant impact that the London 2012 Olympics with have on UK business, the Vocal Preparedness Statement sets out to explain:

• Information about Vocal Business Continuity Management
• An explanation of iModus Testing and preparations
• Work undertaken to prepare Vocal staff
• A description of customer support services that will be provided to iModus customers

“Vocal’s Preparedness Statement for the London 2012 Olympic drives home the importance of having effective BCM arrangements in place, particularly set against the background of such large scale events like the Olympic Games that will cause disruptions.

“Issuing a Preparedness Statement instills confidence in your customers and other key stakeholders and provides evidence of your organisational capability to continue to deliver key business functions in the face of both minor and major disruptions.

“Vocal’s Statement highlights the applicability of BCM to all parts of the business, including supply chain, IT, customer support and travel disruption and constitutes an excellent example of best practice in business continuity.” Commented Lyndon Bird FBCI, Technical Development Director at the BCI.

Vocal is BS25999 accredited and Business Continuity plans are regularly reviewed by a third party to ensure validity and conformity to the standards. The Vocal Business Continuity Plan ensures that the organisation is prepared to deal with the impact of any event, including the Olympics and Paralympics.

UK organisations are being encouraged prepare for travel disruption and the communications problems that will result from the Games, potentially leading to significant losses, if not managed properly. During the Vancouver 2010 winter Olympics, BT estimated that one in three companies struggles with their communications network capacity, because of the Games. This led to complications and costs for business. The UK suffered economic losses estimated at about £1.2bn per day in the severe weather period leading up to Christmas of 2010 which was caused by a breakdown in the transport system, failure of supply chains and extreme pressure placed upon bandwidth capacity as workers attempted to carry on from home, the same scenario that faces London businesses during the Olympics.

Related Items:

Request a copy of the Vocal  Preparedness Statement for the London 2012 Olympic Games

Learn more about iModus

Trevor Wheatley-Perry, Managing Director commented about being shortlisted, “Companies need a method for simplifying the management of their business continuity plans. Many of our customers already have well developed plans, but they were struggling to find a straight forward solution that simplified keeping their documents up to date and seamlessly integrated contact information. They also needed a solution that assisted with engaging other business units and stakeholders. PlanManagement became the solution. We are proud to be recognised for its innovation and ability to make something complex, simple. This is the second year running that Plan Management has been shortlisted for this award and underlining our position as a trusted and leading innovator within this sector”

PlanManagement was developed to simplify the management of business continuity plans – not just to build them – in an easy to use application. It is an affordable solution that overcomes all of the challenges presented by static business continuity plans and documents. There are no unnecessary features, prescriptive templates which may not fit an organisation’s requirements or cumbersome step by step processes that slow down building plans in a system. A dashboard enables administrators to see the progress of plans in development, review dates and plan details. Plan Management seamlessly integrates with all other iModus notification solutions delivering a unique one stop approach to business continuity management processes.

Plan Management is a scalable solution in both size and cost ensuring that any business from a small business through to a global organisation with complex plans can benefit from the system.

Winners will be announced at the Business Continuity Awards Gala Dinner, a black tie event, taking place on 30th May 2012 at the Hilton on Park Lane, London, W1, UK. For more information on this year’s CIR awards visit the awards page.

This is the second year running that Vocal have been shortlisted for this award. Vocal has also been shortlisted for 2 other categories; iModus for Most Innovative Solution of the Year and PlanManagement for Business Continuity Management Planning Software of the Year.

Trevor Wheatley-Perry, Managing Director stated, “We are proud to be shortlisted for these awards. It’s fantastic to be recognised for our contributions to the industry. We have a portfolio of leading, award winning solutions, backed by some fantastic people working at Vocal. Being shortlisted, brings a great sense of achievement to everyone at Vocal.”

At the heart of Vocal is the organisation’s goal to create innovative business continuity and communication solutions by addressing specific customer needs. The company undertook a number of key projects in 2011, developing bespoke solutions for a variety of Public and private sector organisations.

Winners will be announced at the Business Continuity Awards Gala Dinner, a black tie event, taking place on 30th May 2012 at the Hilton on Park Lane, London, W1, UK. For more information on this year’s CIR awards visit the awards page.

iModus 2.0 , the upgraded version of the award winning iModus system was launched to critical acclaim last year. iModus is used globally by over 1500 clients across both the corporate and public sectors.

Trevor Wheatley-Perry, Managing Director of Vocal stated, “We are proud to be shortlisted for iModus this year.  It’s recognition from the industry of the capability that iModus has to deliver the solutions required to meet the demands of business continuity functions within any organisation.  It also confirms our commitment to develop innovative solutions, driven by the needs of our customers and the business continuity industry.”

iModus is used by organisations globally, to support their emergency notifications strategies, achieving industry leading contact ability rates. Global deployment enables iModus customers to gain transparency across their business continuity and communication functions. Vocal is the first emergency notification provider to introduce innovative locate technology and business continuity planning management. The use of this technology, integrated with the notification system, enables organisations to save precious time, identifying vulnerable staff and responding quickly, in order to keep them safe and deliver the support they need.

Vocal has been shortlisted for three CIR awards this year, making it the fifth consecutive year that the company has won or been shortlisted for one of the key awards within the business continuity industry. The company has also been shortlisted for Specialist Company of the Year and Business Continuity Management Planning Software of the Year.

Winners will be announced at the Business Continuity Awards Gala Dinner, a black tie event, taking place on 30th May 2012 at the Hilton on Park Lane, London, W1, UK. For more information on this year’s CIR awards visit the awards page.

Nonetheless, this anniversary will form an obvious point for attacks to avenge “Sheikh Osama” worldwide. Operations may be planned and are most likely to be successful in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and possibly Nigeria. While we consider that formal jihadist networks are consistently struggling to deliver effect in the West, due to the considerable capability of the security forces (as has been exemplified in recent arrests), lone wolves remain a constant threat that is harder to predict or counter.

In Denmark, the fact that the suspects were reportedly in possession of automatic weapons and a sizeable quantity of ammunition serves as a reminder of the potential threat from such tactics. Indeed, the trial of other jihadists accused of planning a similar assault is currently underway (which may well have been anther influencer on the timing of any plot). The success of active shooters in recent incidents, most notably in Norway and the south of France, will we assess continue to promote interest in this method. However, improvised explosive devices also remain popular, based on recent evidence, especially in countries such as the UK where ammunition is harder to come by.

Given all of the above, we suggest that security staff should maintain an increased state of vigilance around possible target areas over the period of the anniversary. Crowded places such as shopping centres and transport hubs are always at particularly risk from lone wolves. Those travelling abroad meanwhile should be aware of the increased risk of attacks over this period, particularly in the countries identified above, and take suitable precautions where appropriate.

Source: CSARN research team www.CSARN.org
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Police were called just before noon after computer equipment and office furniture was thrown from the fifth floor of an office building.  Witnesses claimed a man had a bomb. Others said he had gas canisters.

Visit the BBC website for the full story.