|
by Regina Brassil
In the past, when recovery plans included only mainframe
technology and limited personnel, traveling to a remote facility
in the event of a problem made sense. In general, with the advent
of LAN technology in an organization, local recovery has become
more attractive. There are really two aspects to the growth of local
recovery as an option:
The Human Side: The events of September 2001
illustrated clearly that in times of major crisis, people are simply
averse to traveling away from their homes and families. At a recent
BCP event in New York City, the overriding topic was that of the
fear of employees should the disaster be in any way tied to suspected
terrorist activities. It was clearly stated over and over that employees
would likely be too fearful to travel anywhere near a possible affected
area or possible target. Not only do we need to address the fear,
but the very real possibility that planes may be grounded, and travel
may not even be an option. Studies have cited that under normal
circumstances, employees will travel varying amounts of distance
in order to assist with a business recovery, but all agree that
this distance cannot be much more than an hour additional commute
time. In other words, people want to go home at night. Therefore
businesses must develop different, more acceptable recovery solutions
to minimize the attrition that can occur when employees are asked
to relocate, even temporarily, in a time of crisis.
The Business Side: Organizations need to consider
factors including the logistics of moving hundreds of users after
a disaster event; the costs involved with transportation, lodging
and food for personnel when offsite, and the problems of attrition
when personnel are asked to travel to a remote location for an unspecified
amount of time.
So what are companies doing to
avoid this?
First, it is important to admit that not every resource is critical;
this applies to hardware technology, software or human capital.
A recovery planner should understand the critical needs of your
recovery and address those first and foremost. When dealing with
a disaster, organizations do well to remember the objective of a
recovery strategy: to survive until it is possible to restore normal
operations.
Second, plan for telecommuting, as not all resources
may be required on day one. Various functions can be performed remotely,
reducing the need for not only physical resources but also human.
And finally, look at which business units and functions
can be held off possibly 24, 48 or even 72 hours, which, if planned,
would enable you to implement a secondary strategy for recovery.
Technical Considerations
Due to the complex nature of PBX systems, automatic call distribution
and switching networks, voice-intensive operations have been relegated
to only one or two options. These two options are the commercial
hotsite or the internal solution of re-routing calls to other satellite
locations.
A hotsite solution offers certain technical advantages.
A hotsite is a fixed, hardened facility that allows for the pre-staging
and wiring of a recovery effort. At the time of a disaster, a customer
need only relocate personnel and back up data to the hotsite, where
technology and telecommunication capability awaits them. Once at
the hotsite, the customer has the option of either taking their
own calls, or outsourcing that capability to the vendor.
The problem with call center recovery in a hotsite
arises when organizations need to consider the human element, that
is, those considerations (travel, cost, attrition) that may be associated
with the solution Also, as awareness increases in this marketplace,
concerns over the capacity of hotsites and the amount of customers
they can handle has become an issue.
When organizations routinely had multiple call centers
with overflow capability, they often were able to re-route calls
within their own systems effectively. However, in today's business
environment, call centers are often operating at near capacity,
with very little room for overflow. Also, organizations have specialized
agent capability to the point that often these calls cannot be effectively
re-routed; a sales person, for instance, cannot easily handle a
technical assistance call.
The inherent problems with both these solutions resulted
in organizations having to accept severely reduced capability to
process calls.
Local Recovery as an Alternative
In response to the growing concerns of fixed-facility personnel
recovery, disaster recovery vendors have developed mobile office
space that is ergonomic, technologically robust, and provides a
true local solution. Local solutions allow call centers to recover
their own trained agents close to home, and allow for a maximum
number of these agents to participate in the recovery, thus maximizing
the throughput of possible calls.
Mobile units, which are designed to provide full business
recovery, including facility space, technology, power and telecommunications,
can be connected in one of two ways: 1) Terrestrially or 2) Via
satellite.
Terrestrially, a mobile unit can connect into a pre-existing
data and voice connection, known as a "hitching post", at a pre-designated
recovery location. This allows both the voice and data aspects of
a recovery solution to be completely pre-staged, similar to a hotsite
scenario. In a data recovery scenario this option works well - typically
there is only a need to establish a single link back to the corporate
network. This connection is often as simple as a fiber link into
the building where the recovery is taking place; whether that is
a branch office, corporate facility or third party site.
When planning for a limited "line by line" voice recovery,
this option is also quite viable. However, when planning for an
ACD environment that requires dozens or hundreds of lines, the limitations
of a hitching post solution become evident. This solution creates
a need to plan for an ACD capability at an alternate location, either
by increasing capacity at that alternate site, or investing in a
new system for disaster recovery purposes only.
Although mobile units attached to hitching posts address
the issue of providing functional local recovery, the need to invest
in ACD/DR hardware or accept drastically reduced functionality is
a daunting issue. Also, hitching posts often limit geographic flexibility,
as they tether a 'mobile' solution to pre-arranged locations that
are not easily or quickly altered in time of disaster. If the hitching
post is also affected by the regional problem, the disaster solution
is compromised.
Telecommunications and Call
Center Recovery via Satellite
As discussed, the reliance on the telecommunications infrastructure
has caused concern when dealing with disaster scenarios. Any local
solution was possibly compromised if the solution relied on the
same terrestrial infrastructure that may have been affected by the
disaster.
The obvious solution would be to free the solution
from a terrestrial infrastructure completely, but limitations on
the amount of satellite bandwidth available for such applications
were a concern. The sheer amount of bandwidth required to effectively
recover voice operations was too costly, even under a shared risk
model.
However, rapidly advancing voice compression technologies
and specialized "over satellite" ACD packages have allowed for companies
to enter into completely wireless arrangements after a disaster,
at much the same cost as a terrestrial solution. It is now possible
for organizations to develop a completely local and flexible solution
that provides voice and data connectivity. Using easily deployed
transportable earth stations (satellite dishes), DR vendors can
establish T1 voice/data IP-based links over satellite back to a
teleport facility that is geographically removed from the disaster
area.
While pre-arranged recovery sites are still preferred
for planning purposes, the flexibility exists to alter the recovery
site as needs dictate. Literally with only a few minutes notice
diverse data networking requirements can be accommodated at the
vendor's teleport, including internet access, and a variety of pre-arranged
WAN connections, such as VPN and frame relay. By using VoIP a DR
vendor is also able to present voice traffic over the link.
Conclusion
In today's world, it is rare that a company does not operate in
some form of ACD functionality. Although the most common scenario
which comes to mind is a typical call center, office environments
without call centers have also adopted various forms of ACD routing
capability - dialing a name from a directory for instance.
The sharp increase in the demand for end user recovery
reflects the change in business that makes ACD so important to reconstruct
after a disaster. When a company is recovering hundreds of end users,
they are doing so because those skills and job functions are critical
to the overall profitability of the company.
With this being said, it is ever more important that
there are a variety of solutions available to help an organization
recover their call center. In addition to the re-routing of calls
to an internal solution site, the commercial hotsite or mobile solution
with a hitching post, there is now the financially feasible alternative
of a mobile site making use of satellite connectivity.
To summarize, when recovering telecommunications capability,
organizations can utilize any one of the following options, or a
combination of these:
- Utilizing their own network or internal site to duplicate a
network and/or re-route calls within their operation - Requires
an organization to have redundant personnel and call overflow
handling capability. Positives include utilization of internal
resources, cost savings and low training requirements.
- Contract with a hotsite vendor to re-establish telecommunications
networks into pre-wired external facilities - Requires an organization
to either send personnel to the site to handle calls, or to contract
with the vendor for interim call handling capabilities. Positives
include almost immediate call handling capability, albeit generally
reduced function.
- Contract to have wireless communications (i.e. satellite) brought
on site to re-establish call handling capability. Requires that
the company not need the call capability recovered until satellite
set-up has been delivered, generally 24-48 hours; they may be
required to put an interim plan in place. Positives include utilizing
own trained personnel after a disaster, recovery even with compromised
infrastructure, and personnel remaining local.
About the Author
Regina Brassil has been involved in the Disaster
Recovery /Business Continuity industry since 1989. Her career has
focused on the development and marketing of mobile, onsite and wireless
recovery solutions. A frequent industry speaker, Regina is considered
a knowledge leader in the mobile recovery industry. She can be contacted
at (941) 504-0664 or regina.brassil@agilityrecovery.com
|
