- Introduction
- The Real Deal
- Recovery Underway
- Lessons Learned
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Recovery Underway
The head of IT business continuity teamed up with the manager of asset management to assess the situation and then initiated a variety of recovery activities. Telecommunications rerouted customer calls to a backup hot site across the country, and managers there made shift arrangements to accommodate the call overflow. IT operations team members located workspaces and equipment, and installed desktop computers with software and network connections. Fax machines, printers, and telephones were also made available to dislocated employees who required them. The IT help desk received and resolved numerous calls and issued frequent updates.
By 1 p.m., most affected employees were working in other buildings at the site where the original outage occurred. Remarkably, calls were rerouted back to this site after only 1-1/2 hours. The employee who first noticed the water seepage called his customer back and resolved a loan issue, as dozens of other employees performed similar tasks. By Friday morning, 103 of the 119 affected employees had returned to their work areas, with the remaining 16 transferred to another floor while restoration to the damaged area was occurring. All business functions were restored in less than 24 hours—an impressive achievement, considering the extent of damage. The rapid response and recovery coordinated by the IT business continuity team prevented hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars of lost labor and assured ongoing customer service.