Comments for OurAgility

Comment on Curious on what other CU’s are doing for their disaster recovery by Adam

Adam — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:02:03 +0000

The most common question I hear from Credit Unions is “how can I ensure my compliance?” The primary answer is by having a written plan that accounts for your critical business functions (usually core processing services and phone connectivity). You then need to have annual hands-on tests of that plan to validate your CU’s ability to recover those critical systems at a defined recovery site after a disaster. Agility can help to make plan development and testing easy and effective to help you achieve compliance. And even more importantly, Agility can take you BEYOND compliance to the real end goal: continuity planning that provides a means for you to support your members and employees no matter what.

Comment on Strange Disasters? by admin

admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:30:28 +0000

Some of the disasters that Agility has responded to over the last year or so include:

Power outages Communication/Internet failures Construction Wind damage Air Conditioning malfunction Lightening strikes Fires Pipe bursts Concerns over poor air quality H1N1 (Swine Flu) outbreak I would recommend taking a look at the videos on our website. Within the last two months, we recovered a business struck by a burst sewer pipe. Hope that helps to provide some insight! Matt Agility Recovery http://www.agilityrecovery.com http://www.ouragility.com http://twitter.com/AgilityRecovery

Comment on Curious on what other CU’s are doing for their disaster recovery by newmick

newmick — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:26:53 +0000

If you have multiple service centers consider daily transaction allowances for disbursements from check cashing, account withdraws, along with ATM card limits, wires – if you even allow them, etc. Plans are not just getting your employees, systems and facility back in order but what does your membership see/feel while you’re down – how can you continue their service with minimal disruption.

Comment on Are the computers up to date? by lgtar

lgtar — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:08:00 +0000

Though it would be nice to have a flat monitor what it really matters is the memory and processor of the PCs. I agree that the mobile facility are nices.

Comment on Short-term Phone Outage by mercurymed

mercurymed — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:41:31 +0000

We have not had our phones go out recently but we are using GotVMail. It is inexpenseive and allows you more flexibility in setting up your phone redirection ahead of time. It is very user friendly and has plenty of features.

Comment on Short-term Phone Outage by erinb

erinb — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:28:51 +0000

Great question, and one that concerns a common occurrence. Many organizations will just wait out a phone or electricity failure for a matter of hours. But these hours could collectively mean thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

There are a few options to consider in the event of telephone system outage. You can redirect your inbound phone lines to Agility’s direct inward dial (DID) numbers (provided to members at time of need). Once redirected to our DIDs, we can point the numbers to another office, a customized voice mailbox, cell phone, etc. We can also setup a custom auto attendant for members to use as a long-term solution via satellite in your existing office or a mobile office. As always, I find members thoroughly benefit from phone redirection when they map out a plan ahead of time. Best of all, it can be setup for short- or long-term use.

Take a few minutes to review the voice services information in your MyAgility account. The resources should help as you define and build out a telephone redirection strategy.

What types of plans do other members have in place for phone redirection?

Comment on Putting all my info together into a plan by Mark Norton

Mark Norton — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:05:26 +0000

During the recoveries resulting from January’s ice storm, I worked with a member located in one of the worst hit areas of Kentucky. The city and surrounding areas were literally “dead zones” with absolutely no inbound or outbound communications. My contact had the presence of mind to drive outside of the hard hit area and login to her MyAgility account from her cell phone. She quickly sent out an alert notification messages to me, a listed vendor and other critical contacts.

We subsequently used the alert notification system to coordinate the recovery for the city, which is an Agility member. The recovery enabled the city to further coordinate local recovery efforts that focused on the safety of residents.

I encourage everyone to build out their MyAgility profile and include their Agility associate continuity planner as a vendor. So, when communication is impaired, you have taken the most proactive approach to ensure you will be able to coordinate the recovery of your operations.

Comment on Sample Plan by C_Kinney

C_Kinney — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:01:41 +0000

If you're looking for a guide or sample business continuity plan, you might want to start by checking out Ready.gov. You'll find some basic guidelines to get you started on the process.

You can also check out Disaster Recovery Journal (DRJ) for several guides and sample plans.

Does anyone else have other resources available for business continuity planning? Perhaps something you utilized during the program planning process? Please share!

Comment on Audit Testing? by bpritchard

bpritchard — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:27:58 +0000

I’m currently working with a credit union in Massachusetts that’s planning a disaster recovery test to fulfill an audit. Their last audit revealed no disaster recovery test since the credit union changed core processors 18 months prior. The auditor stipulated that the credit union has six months to plan and execute a recovery exercise that includes establishing alternate connectivity to the core processor and remote data center, and recovering all on-site servers that store information related to financial transactions.

We’re currently guiding the IT team through the test planning process step by step. We are also working closely with the credit union’s core processor and data center in order to engineer and test VPN connections and phone solutions prior to the actual test exercise, which is scheduled for September at our test center in Atlanta.

When the test team convenes for the disaster recovery “dress rehearsal,” they will start with recovering critical systems and servers from back-up media. Later, they will restore phone and Internet connections via satellite and reestablish connectivity with the core processor and data center.

By going through the testing process, the credit union has access to all the support needed to fulfill audit requirements and recover after potential interruptions. Have you had similar experiences with auditors? Do you have questions/comments on “best practices” in terms of testing compliance?

Comment on Validating a Recovery Site by Cliff

Cliff — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:44:30 +0000

We are located in the middle of a major metropolitan city so there are no parking lots to use. We contacted several of our larger and long-term clients and have just concluded an agreement with one of them to use part of their parking lot. We modified a Lease of Premises agreement to memorialize what started with a handshake.