Business Continuity Case Study Prepared for Disaster DATAMARK’s worldwide teams deliver business continuity during the 2015 South Indian Floods. Background: The Skies Open As it had for years, the northeast monsoon season arrived in early November in Chennai, a metropolis of 7 million on the southeastern coast of India. Residents of the city, home to a bustling business process outsourcing sector--including a DATAMARK BPO delivery center--prepared to deal with the rains as they always had. But this 2015 season was different. Driven by a powerful El Niño phenomenon, the rains came, the winds blew, and the storms would not relent. Twenty-four hour rain totals reached the double digits. In low-lying areas, flood waters began to rise ominously. For November, Chennai received 41.3 inches of rainfall, the most since 1918. And the heavy rains kept coming. On December 2, with floodwaters engulfing much of the city, Chennai was declared a disaster area. © DATAMARK, Inc. www.datamark.net Planning and Preparation At DATAMARK’s Chennai facility, managers had been monitoring the unusual weather since early November. They made preparations to implement a business continuity plan, and—if necessary—a full disaster “We knew the recover plan. flooding was The Chennai delivery center is staffed by hundreds of employees, responsible for a variety of outsourced business processes, including the going to be processing of digitally scanned transportation documents for international getting worse, couriers and trucking companies. and that it would The daily processing of thousands of bills of lading, commercial invoices and other documents is critical for DATAMARK’s transportation and affect business logistics clients. Delays or interruptions in processing will directly translate operations in to delays in shipments of packages and freight across the globe. Chennai,” Avila By late November, it became obvious to DATAMARK’s worldwide operations team that the city was experiencing an unprecedented said. “Our teams disaster, said Raul Avila, DATAMARK’s U.S.-based Global Relationship in India, Mexico Leader. Avila coordinated with U.S., India and Mexico operations teams as the disaster unfolded. and in El Paso, Texas--began to “We knew the flooding was going to be getting worse, and that it would affect business operations in Chennai,” Avila said. “Our teams in India, work together to Mexico and in El Paso, Texas--began to work together to respond.” respond.” DATAMARK was fortunate that its facility, located on higher ground in Central Chennai, remained out of the reach of flood waters. However, the operations team faced some major issues: •Many employees lived in flooded neighborhoods and were having difficulty traveling to and from work. •Electricity service within the city was beginning to fail. •Cellular phone service within the city was beginning to fail. The Response Approximately one week before Chennai was officially declared a disaster area, the operations team began implementing its business continuity plan by shifting some document processing work to a DATAMARK facility in Pune, India--a city on the Western side of the country, unaffected by the weather system. The team also began adjusting shift schedules at all DATAMARK facilities to ensure sufficient process support throughout the day. Staffers were given the opportunity to earn overtime pay as well. © DATAMARK, Inc. www.datamark.net The flooding began to affect Chennai’s electrical and communications distribution lines, but DATAMARK was prepared. Facility managers fired up diesel generators to keep the Chennai delivery center powered with electricity. Over protected T1 fiber optic lines, DATAMARK continued transmission of document images and maintained communications between management teams in the U.S., India and Mexico. By having a tested business At the peak of the floods in Chennai, the management team worked to stay in contact with document processing staff and coordinated bus continuity and services to transport employees who were available to work. disaster recovery Returning to Normal plan in place, During the crisis, DATAMARK remained in constant communication with its DATAMARK was clients. Management teams continually relayed information about where able to maintain and when document processing would be completed. DATAMARK also kept its clients apprised of any possible short-term backlogs and how its production quickly they would be resolved. commitment to By having a tested business continuity and disaster recovery plan in place, clients during one DATAMARK was able to maintain its production commitment to clients during one of India’s worst natural disasters. Indian officials have of India’s worst estimated monetary damages from the 2015 South India Floods in a range natural disasters. from $7 billion to $15 billion. More than 500 people lost their lives and an estimated 1.8 million were displaced. By mid-December, the monsoons came to an end and the flood waters receded. Within a few days, DATAMARK’s India team had begun to return to its pre-disaster staffing levels and processing volumes. “While many other companies in the city had to shut down completely, we were able to shift our processing volumes back to Chennai and return to normal productivity within a week,” Avila said. © DATAMARK, Inc. www.datamark.net Recognizing Special Efforts and Helping Others “Helping Each During the worst of the floods, many DATAMARK staffers went to great lengths to travel to and from the facility to work their scheduled shifts. Other With What Many stayed to work overtime as well. At one point, managers stayed at They Have” the facility for 24 hours straight to arrange transportation, coordinate shifts and to ensure the business continuity plan functioned smoothly. DATAMARK training and For these extraordinary efforts, DATAMARK gave special recognition and quality manager Vijay M. compensation to many staffers. At DATAMARK’s U.S. and Mexico facilities, swam through neck-deep employees raised thousands of dollars that were used to purchase relief water and trekked for packets of food and household items for Chennai employees affected by miles across the soaked the floods. land on a three-day journey to find his family “It was remarkable to witness the dedication of our employees during during the 2015 Chennai these very, very difficult days in the city of Chennai,” Avila said. “The floods. entire company came together to offer them support and recognition for going above and beyond for our clients.” Read his story on DATAMARK’s Outsourcing Insights blog at: http://bit.ly/1KDAF9C About DATAMARK DATAMARK, Inc. is a leading business process outsourcing company specializing in all levels of outsourced business services, including high-volume digital mailroom management, document processing, process improvement consulting and multichannel contact center services. If you have questions or need assistance in developing your organization’s case for outsourcing or business process improvement, DATAMARK’s business process outsourcing specialists are available for a complimentary initial consultation. Contact us at: www.datamark.net Toll-free: 800.477.1944 Info: [email protected] © DATAMARK, Inc. www.datamark.net .