“Outsourcing the management of this to Daisy has meant we can focus on our business priorities, secure in the knowledge that we have the systems in place to support us in any event.”
– Annika Bergstrand-Henry, Head of Facilities at Pan Macmillan
Headquartered in London, Pan Macmillan is one of the largest general book publishers in the UK. They form part of Macmillan Publishers International Limited, which operates in over 70 countries globally. You might recognise some of their brands which include: Mantle, Pan, Kingfisher, Two Hoots, Bluebird, Campbell Books and Macmillan Children’s Books.
The Challenge
Pan Macmillan wanted to ensure they were able to keep track of recovery requirements and recovery plans in the most simple and efficient way possible. They also wanted to address any knowledge gaps in relation to business continuity and gain a collective understanding of what departments would need in order to keep the business running in the event of a major incident.
The Solution
Pan Macmillan partnered with Daisy and we provided a BC management expert to help them record business continuity information in a structured way. This is saved securely on Daisy’s multi award-winning BC planning software tool: Shadow-Planner.
Since then, Pan Macmillan has been able to more efficiently manage their BC strategy, by recording their requirements in a business impact analysis (BIA); defining strategies and maintaining a crisis management and business continuity plan.
Our service includes a programme of yearly activities that work towards continual improvement of BC at Pan Macmillan. With this specialist support, Shadow-Planner allows them to:
- Capture all BIA information, set objectives and manage the BC planning, all in one secure and version-controlled repository.
- Simplify consolidation of recovery priorities set out in the BIA.
- Maintain and update employee contact details for incident notification as part of the planning process.
- Keep track of all business recovery requirements and use all assets to maximum effect.
- Maintain a crisis management and business continuity plan, which is exercised with the senior leadership team.
- Deliver plans and contact groups to users through the award-winning mobile app. Each user is able to specify which elements of the plan that are relevant to them so that notifications are tailored to the individual.
The Result
By outsourcing their BC management to Daisy, the team at Pan Macmillan was able to reallocate the time they saved towards delivering against other business-critical objectives. It gave them confidence that their system was being managed by experts, and they saved money that would otherwise have been spent on recruiting extra staff or providing further training to their existing colleagues.
The value of the service was proven at the start of the first COVID19 lockdown in March 2020. While other organisations were scrambling to buy laptops and start home working, Pan Macmillan had already made great strides in changing the way they worked as a business and had a strategy in place for not being able to work at the office. Every employee already had a laptop and work phone and was ready for remote working, and there was a clear understanding of what specialist equipment was in the office, and how to work around the loss of access.
Pan Macmillan was well prepared and organised to work from home when the pandemic hit. This shows how a well-maintained BC management system helps an organisation to look ahead to develop its resilience and prepare for threats.
Having originally started working with Pan Macmillan to support their BC management back in 2016, they have been so pleased with the results that we still support them on this today and for years to come.
