Business continuity problems affect Post Offices' busiest day

13 December 2011

Posted by Samuel Couratin

The importance of effective business continuity management has been highlighted by recent disruptions caused to Post Office operations.

Activities were affected at locations across the UK by a series of computer glitches on the busiest day of the year for mail yesterday (December 12th).

With 131 million items expected to go through the system in a single day, the two 30-minute failures led to considerable difficulties throughout the postal network, including queues at many branches as people rushed to send off festive gifts and cards.

The Post Office has stated that normal service has now been resumed across its 11,800 branches and has apologized to customers using its website, which has also suffered from glitches making it run slower than usual and stated it is "working hard to fix these problems".

Consumer Focus stated that the technology problems had left it "extremely concerned", with Andy Burrows, the Head of Post Offices & Essential Community Services for the body, stating it marks the second national failure of systems within the past six months.

He added: "This will have caused major disruption for consumers at the busiest time of the year for the Post Office. People rely upon the Post Office not just for mail services but also to access cash and much needed pensions and benefits."

Business continuity problems have also led to Intel issuing a statement that its revenues for the fourth quarter of 2011 will be below expectations because of shortages of hard disk drives.

Many companies with effective crisis management strategies in place will have used them as Thailand experienced its worst monsoon season in a generation, affecting global supply chains as many of the factories manufacturing hard disk drives are based in the country.

The natural disaster led to widespread disruption for many technology firms and Intel has stated it expects to generate revenue of $13.7 billion (£8.8 billion) for the last three months of the year, down from a previously projected $14.7 billion.

Shortages of components are expected to continue into the first quarter of 2012, recovering by the end of the first half of the year.