Banks use IT to mitigate bird flu threat

Financial services organisations are being urged to improve their crisis management and disaster recovery plans to protect their businesses in case of an outbreak of bird flu.

And analysts are predicting that IT execs are "ideally placed" to help firms plan their response to any potential outbreak.

Last week HSBC predicted up to 50 per cent of its staff could go sick in the event of a pandemic and said it was preparing for staff to work from home, or via video link and teleconference facilities.

And later this month the Financial Services Authority (FSA) will publish a document that lists bird flu as one reason for firms to improve the crisis management and disaster recovery plans.

A spokeswoman for the FSA said: "We have included it in a document, which includes high risk areas. In the financial outlook it has emerged as a global risk. We aren't prescriptive of the steps they should take but we are saying they should consider [the impact of] an outbreak of bird flu on the company."

The threat of bird flu is still theoretical. The World Health Organisation (WHO) claims that if there was an outbreak of bird flu, the scale of infection could be greater than Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which infected 8,096 people and killed 774 in 2003.

But so far, the bird flu virus has not mutated into a form that can spread from person to person.

Analyst Gartner is urging businesses to prepare continuity programmes so they can react in the event of an outbreak.

Steve Bittenger, research director at Gartner, said: "Business continuity and IT leaders are ideally placed to plan for avian flu's threats.

"Organisations rely on IT to keep the business running, and they can leverage IT to ensure their business operations continue if travel and transportation restrictions, quarantines or problems with vendors or employees because of illness or fear occur."

So how could IT help to keep a company running?

Ritchie Jeune, group CEO for Evolution Security Systems, which works with banks in Hong Kong, said having small contingency teams already set up to work remotely is essential.

He said: "Part of disaster recovery is to have a working solution. You do that by creating mini companies so people can work together. You make sub-teams so you can still run your business. These groups will work from home. Basically, you are splitting your work force."

BT said it is seeing a rise in the number of organisations building home working into their business.

Correy Voo, BT's head of business technology solutions, said: "[HSBC's] 50 per cent is slightly on the exaggerated side. It's unlikely to hit that amount. There have been no cases in the UK.

"What we are seeing is more programmes for the adoption of home working. They are beginning to put things in place. We see a rise in demand for home working requirements after the 7 July [London bombings] but particularly when there are things like bird flu about."

Voo said some banks are moving the most important parts of their business elsewhere. One company, he said, is moving its call centres from Singapore to Mumbai in case of an outbreak.

He added: "They are trying to move the most critical services to another area. Specifically organisations that have an interest in Asia have issued guidelines and health practices to staff. One organisation has started to prepare employees to move from affected regions."