Who's answering the phone during the Olympics ?

A study by Resilient Networks shows that about half of London bosses believe that calls to their company's phones during the Olympics will be answered if their employees are away from their desks. But only 15 per cent of their employees believe that inbound calls will be picked up or diverted.

Despite the fact that the loss of telecommunications is damaging to operational effectiveness, the research reveals an alarming misunderstanding between bosses and their employees about the plans actually in place to protect call handling. Nearly half (47 per cent) of IT decision makers believe that their employees are able divert calls when they are away from or denied access to their normal place of work.

However, contrary to this, 75 per cent of employees in London do not believe this to be the case; in fact only 15 per cent believe they have the ability to divert incoming calls themselves remotely. In addition to this half of all business continuity plans do not even cover inbound call handing for when staff can't get to the office.

In terms of the level of disruption expected, the research revealed that 57 per cent of businesses believe travel disruptions in the capital will have the biggest impact on operational efficiency and over half of London based workers who were surveyed said they also anticipate delays and will be unable to travel due to public transport, resulting in home working or irregular hours. While a quarter of businesses expect staff to call in sick during the Games, only three per cent of staff admit this will be the case.

"An alarming percentage of businesses risk losing contact with their customers, partners, suppliers and employees if they do not make the appropriate provisions before London 2012 kicks off," said Andrew Bale, CEO of Resilient Networks. "These results highlight the importance of telecommunications to businesses and yet they show that they are not communicating clearly internally and do not have the right infrastructure in place to withstand the scale of disruption anticipated. How do businesses intend to ensure 'business as usual' if something as simple as a phone call is not reaching the right person at the right time?"

The research also examined how employees handle incoming calls when they are away from their desk currently. A third of London based workers relying only on voicemail to manage calls remotely. Only eight per cent make use of a call forwarding function. A further third rely on a company or personal mobile – which begs the question will callers know the mobile numbers of all those they need to contact in your business and will mobile networks suffer from congestion as they have done before during major disruptions.

"Voice continuity is an essential part of ensuring a business can operate day to day. Afterall it's hardly business as usual if your consumers can't reach the right person at the right time to assist them. Businesses need to ensure they have covered all bases before the Olympics to avoid any downtime, they should communicate all procedures to staff to avoid the disconnect we have seen reported and play out scenarios before it's too late," concluded Bale.

The Resilient Networks report gives a full overview of all the findings from the report as well as offering practical tips on what to look out for when updating or structuring a business continuity plan.