LAKE CHARLES, La.-A small CU here escaped unscathed from Hurricane Ike by perfecting its recipe for disaster recovery: one laptop wired to the Internet, two cell phones, the online branch, an answering machine-and a secure data backup and recovery solution.
"I'm prepared for any type of disaster," said Jessica LaRocca, CEO at the $14-million Calcasieu Federal Employees CU.
The tools, and years of experience with devastating weather, helped the CU run at 100% during last month's storm, she said.
LaRocca has weathered Hurricanes Ike, Gustav, Rita and Katrina during the past three years, honing her business continuity plan to the point where, during Ike, all members experienced uninterrupted service, she said.
Consider too, that in those three years, CFECU has moved beyond share accounts to offer checking, online banking, bill pay, and as recently as two months ago, debit cards.
To deliver continuous service to members during Ike, the CU leaned on a short list of disaster recovery (DR) technologies and support from Jack Henry & Associates' Centurion Disaster Recovery services, as well as a tested DR plan.
The CU's network data backup solution, provided by Centurion, uses a secure online connection to "stream byte-level changes" in data to a remote storage vault, according to Eric Flick, director, Centurion Disaster Recovery.
The vaulting solution also creates a recovery snapshot of all information, and item and image processing, every 15 minutes, he said. Another snapshot is taken after business hours to create solid restoration points.
Even as Ike rolled in, LaRocca knew that her data was backing up to the Centurion remote site in real-time. As a precaution, she also made system-save tapes after wrapping up her daily processing, she said. LaRocca was now prepared to evacuate the CU and operate from one of Centurion's fully equipped recovery centers, or just to borrow an Internet connection from a distant CU, she said.
But LaRocca shifted gears a bit: she decided to run the credit union from her home, where she could be with her family, she said. After all, she still had electricity, and there was no danger of flooding. LaRocca grabbed her laptop and hooked up to the Internet at home, making sure to use a wired connection for "additional security," she said. Using one of her two cell phones from different providers, she called Centurion to get the Internet address, additional passwords and guidance she'd need to sign-in to the remote servers that held her encrypted, restored data.
"As long as she could get to the Internet, she was going to be able to run the credit union from anywhere," said Flick. "Once she has Internet access, we provide her with the link to a secure VPN tunnel to handle traffic between the laptop and the recovery center. We take great pride in being able to offer these best-of-suite solutions to our credit union clients."
Debit cards saved members during Ike, as they got cash from ATMs and placed holds on hotel rooms before the storm descended, said LaRocca, adding she was relieved to be able to continue processing debit transactions without a hiccup from her home. "Members were using debit cards like crazy. And processing them was such a problem for other financial institutions during Hurricane Rita."
The CU website and answering machine also came in handy during Ike, as members signed-in to pay bills, read updates and left messages requesting wire transfers, said LaRocca. LaRocca wasn't exiled for long. About one business day later, she was able to return to headquarters, where she restored current data to the CU's servers.
Feeling that her DR technology and plan were a success, LaRocca didn't spend too much time taking notes on lessons learned. She did decide that next time she'd be glad to have an electronic version of her accounting manual, just in case.
LaRocca said that when Calcasieu Federal Employees CU started adding a substantial number of services in 2005, she knew she needed help with the credit union DR program.
"I'm very proactive, and unless we started offering fewer services, I just couldn't do a good job myself" of running DR technologies and support, she said.
"During Hurricane Rita in 2005, I took down all the computers myself and then brought them up at another credit union for three weeks," explained LaRocca. "I could barely fit my family in the vehicle when we evacuated, much less all the credit union stuff I had to bring with me."
The CU runs on Symitar's Cruise core system and Passport.dc, Symitar's debit card transaction processing service. As a Jack Henry company, Symitar is able to offer Centurion to its core system customers. Centurion isn't out of reach for small CUs, LaRocca added. "Centurion is one of the least expensive services that Jack Henry offers."
Pricing for Centurion services is tier-based, tied to asset size, for credit unions running on Symitar Cruise, said Flick.
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For info on this story:
www.calfecu.org
www.centuriondr.com
www.symitar.com
