Scotiabank: Organizing Remote Work for a Business to Minimize Disruption

Scotiabank 

Organizing remote work for a business of any size requires a strategy. This story shares what Scotiabank has done to overcome the unexpected challenge.

Scotiabank has grown from a small financial institution focused on Trans-Atlantic trade to become one of Canada’s biggest banks and the country’s most international. Their assets number in the hundreds of billions, and their reach is truly global. Leading up to the G20 Summit in Toronto, they identified several threats to their continuity on the ground. The Summit was to be held at The Metro Toronto Convention Centre, located only a few blocks from Scotiabank’s headquarters and primary back-office personnel.

Challenge 

When leaders from the world’s twenty largest economies meet in one city, thousands of people are going to follow them. Members of the press, local officials, security teams, and even protesters were expected to descend on Toronto. Scotiabank leadership predicted that the planned protests around the Convention Centre and the security team’s response would result in serious continuity issues in their office. After the Summit, it was revealed that the effort was the largest and most expensive security operation in Canadian history at the time.

Solution 

By working with Agility and declaring a disaster before the Summit, Scotiabank could request and ship QuickShip laptop computers and scanner devices to employees to enable remote work for their business. Each laptop ensured a secure and private connection, and everyone was able to connect to their internal network and continue normal operations remotely.

Results 

Scotiabank avoided any loss of income for themselves and clients that would have occurred by shutting down operations during the protests. They were able to guarantee their clients reliable service as if they were all working in the office. By working with Agility, Scotiabank avoided a crisis for their business, employees, and customers.

We knew that the G20 Summit in Toronto had the potential to interrupt our business, but we thought Agility might take some convincing. Not only were they happy to help, but they’ve actually done this kind of recovery before.

Ali Tarbhai, Scotiabank’s Business Continuity Team