Case Study: Vodafone UK Uses Business Continuity As A Competitive Advantage

In the highly competitive and regulated industry of mobile communications, business continuity preparedness is critical to ensuring the continuous availability of the wireless services and to bringing new services to market as quickly as possible. Vodafone UK already had a solid approach to business continuity preparedness and ongoing management, but the company wanted to assess itself relative to industry best practices as well as determine a way it could more quickly comply with requests from customers and regulatory authorities for proof of preparedness. Vodafone UK decided to certify to the new British Standards Institution's certification for business continuity management, BS 25999. As a result of certification, Vodafone UK has taken a much more holistic approach to ensuring the continuity of a critical wireless service. And as the first mobile operator to be certified, it has gained a competitive advantage with customers such as financial institutions that need assurances from key partners of their preparedness.