Last Updated: 3/12/02
The following information is provided in the event the ITU Field Services LAN/Desktop Support Services and/or George Mason University suffers a disaster which requires a plan of action for going forward with our mission to provide ITU LAN/Desktop support to the University community.
Definitions:
Business Continuity Plan – (Also known as Contingency Planning) determines how a unit or business will keep functioning until its normal facilities are restored after a disruptive event. This encompasses how employees will be contacted, where they will go, and how they will keep doing their jobs.
Disaster Recovery Plan – is the restoration of LAN/Desktop support services after an event has disrupted those services.
Appendix A: ITU Field Services LAN/Desktop Support Services Information
Appendix B: Voice Mail Directions, Section A & B
- Arlington Campus Engineers
- Prince William Campus Engineers
- Fairfax Departmentally Based Engineers
- Fairfax Core Engineers
Types of Events and Procedures:
* If the LAN/Desktop Support Services located in Thompson Hall Basement, were unusable due to fire, flood, or another situation, but the rest of the University was able to function:
1-4 Hours: Calls placed for Desktop support would be redirected and picked-up at Enterprise Hall (x3-3486). The Field Services Departmentally Based Engineers Manager will be the focal point for call distribution until the Field Services Core Engineer Manager arrives at Enterprise Hall. The two managers will make an assessment of the problem and proceed with backup plans. These plans would include notification of all main campus Field Services Engineers, notifying both the Arlington and Prince William Campus Field Service Managers of the seriousness of the problem and the possible need for support, both in manpower, parts replenishment and/or storage requirements.
Parts that can be salvaged from Thompson Hall will be moved into temporary storage in the DoIT vans and truck. An inventory will be completed on the salvaged parts. This inventory will be compared to the inventory database backup on the Field Services Managers Desktops at Enterprise Hall, Arlington or Prince William Campus Field Service locations. Orders for replacement parts will be placed on an as needed basis until such time as we return to normalcy.
4 Hours-1 Day: Set up additional workstations in Enterprise Hall, Arlington and Prince William Field Service locations to support the Core and Departmentally Based Engineers with open & close calls. The Logistics Manager will be ordering and receiving parts from the Prince William Campus until such time as adequate space is obtained on the main campus to support Desktop Services. Arlington Field Services can be used as a backup as needed.
More Than 1 Day: If space is unavailable at the Fairfax Campus for Core Engineers, we can have them share phones and Desktops with the Departmentally Based Engineers here on campus. Logistics support will be handled from Prince William until such time as adequate space is located in Fairfax.
* If The Departmentally Based Engineers are displaced due to fire, flood, or another situation, but the rest of the University was able to function:
4 Hours-1 Day: Set up additional workstations in Thompson Hall to support the Departmentally Based Engineers with open & close calls.
More Than 2 Day: If space is unavailable at Fairfax Campus for Departmentally Based Engineers, we can have them share phones and Desktops with the Core Engineers at Thompson Hall until such space is identified.
* If The Core and Departmentally Based Field Service Engineers are displaced due to fire, flood, or another major disaster, but the Arlington and Prince William Campus’ of the University are able to function:
1-4 Hours: Calls placed for Desktop support would be redirected and picked-up at Prince William Campus (x 3-8412). The Field Services Prince William Field Engineer’s Manager will be the focal point for call distribution until the Fairfax Main Campus Field Services Engineer Manager or Managers arrives at Prince William. The managers will make an assessment of the problem(s) and proceed with backup plans. These plans would include notification of all Main Campus Field Services Engineers, in addition to notifying the Arlington Engineering Managers of the seriousness of the problem and the possible need for support.
4 Hours-1 Day: Set up additional workstations at Prince William to support the Main Campus Field Service Engineers with open & close calls. Parts to support Main Campus Engineers would be available from limited stock at Prince William and Arlington. Orders will placed from Prince William for parts to support those systems that are up and running. Parts will either be delivered to the nearest location possible. If it is deemed to be appropriate a parts shuttle service from Prince William and/or Arlington to the Main Campus would be instituted for the duration of the disaster.
More Than 1 Day: If space is unavailable at the Main Campus for Field Service Engineers, we can have them share phones and Desktops with the Prince William Campus Engineers until such space is identified and made available.
* If The Arlington Field Service Engineers are displaced due to fire, flood, or another situation, but the rest of the University was able to function:
4 Hours-1 Day: Set up additional workstations in Thompson Hall to support the Arlington Engineers with open & close calls. Parts to support Arlington would be available from the main parts storage area in Thompson Hall. If it is deemed to be appropriate a parts shuttle service from the main parts area to Arlington would be instituted for the duration of the disaster.
More Than 1 Day: If space is unavailable at the Arlington Campus for Field Service Engineers, we can have them share phones and Desktops with the Core Engineers at Thompson Hall until such space is identified and made available.
* If The Prince William Campus Field Service Engineers are displaced due to fire, flood, or another situation, but the rest of the University was able to function:
4 Hours-1 Day: Set up additional workstations in Thompson Hall to support the Prince William Campus Field Service Engineers with open & close calls. Parts to support Prince William would be available from the main parts storage area in Thompson Hall. If it is deemed to be appropriate a parts shuttle service from the main parts area to Prince William Campus would be instituted for the duration of the disaster.
More Than 1 Day: If space is unavailable at the Prince William Campus for Field Service Engineers, we can have them share phones and Desktops with the Core Engineers at Thompson Hall until such space is identified and made available.
* Inclement Weather at one or all George Mason Campuses:
Desktop Support Services are not classified as a critical function and all personnel will adhere to the University announcements regarding inclement weather. In addition, if the University decides to open late, all personnel in all locations will make an effort to arrive at the scheduled time. However, all personnel must judge weather or not, their being on the highways will constitute a safety hazard to themselves or others. If they so decide it is not safe to travel, they must call their manager’s office and leave a message stating a safety concern and also call their manager’s home or cell number in an effort to speak personally to the manager to state the safety concern if they feel they cannot make it in to their assigned workplace.
* In the Event that Magic or the Support Center is un-operable:
The following information is taken from the Support Center’s Disaster Recovery Plan. Please refer to the Plan for additional information.
“If the Support Center location in Thompson Hall Room 131 was unusable due to fire, flood, or another situation, but the rest of the University was able to function:
1-2 Hours: Forward the ACD queue to another phone. Only one person would be able to answer the phone during this time. The supervisor or manager will determine suitable work space (with access to computer and phone), and will then assign an agent to answer this phone.
2 Hours-2 Days: If phones are usable, request that Prince William staff log into the Fairfax and Arlington ACD queues. (Directions for logging into different queues can be obtained from the supervisor of IT Services at Prince William Campus.) Then request Telecom Admin group to reprogram 2616 phones and use these in another location in Thompson Hall. This would require a rewire in a telephone closet so SC staff can work in another area. After phones are set up, inform Prince William that they can log out of Fairfax and Arlington queues.
Or
If phones are not usable, request that another area that has ACD phones already set up (such as Information Services, Admissions, Registrar, Financial Aid) allow us to borrow phones and space for a short time (This would alleviate any reprogramming. The analyst would just need to log into our queues from their phones.) (Checking with Pam for contact list of ACD administrators who may wish to reciprocate.)
The day after the event, assign staff to report to the Prince William Campus to continue operations until recovered from disaster (if it is determined that the outage will last more than 2 days).
More Than 2 Days: If no space is available at Fairfax Campus for a long-term stay, move the Support Center to Prince William Campus for phone support temporarily. Three phones are located at this campus, and Fairfax Support Center staff can log into any of the queues from that location. The Support Center staff should be able to perform most of its functions from this campus.
* If the call-tracking database, Magic, is unusable due to damage in Computer Operations area:
The Support Center uses email to report problems as the first option in the event that Magic is unavailable. This way we have an electronic copy of problems and can later input them into the database.
In the event that email is not available, the Support Center will use the telephone to contact other groups in regards to problems they need to resolve. A handwritten copy of each call will be kept in the event we can later put these into the database.”
Communications Plan:
The ITU Desktop Field Support Services departments can disseminate information in the following ways to alert the Field Services Engineers as to the magnitude a disaster affecting their ability to provide service and support to the rest of the University depending on the type(s) of outage:
Telephone tree:
Send voice mail message to all departmental technology coordinators (voice mail group 1008672—see Appendix B: Section B)
Send University Announcement voice mail message to all faculty/staff and/or all dorm students (contact Mason Mail Administrator Carolyn Combs x3-3500)
Send email:
Send University Announcement via email to all faculty/staff and/or all students (contact Email Group, Tracy Holt x 3-3356 or Lisa Carr x 3-3429)
Send email to departmental technology coordinators (listproc named memo-tech; email can be sent by Kathy Gillette x3-8672, Lisa Carr x3-3429, or Tracy Holt x3-3356)
Disaster Recovery Plan
Desktop Support Services having offices and parts storage across the three campuses, in addition to having a parts data base that is detailed with a complete description of the part, the location, the vendor’s complete address and phone number and cost will enable us to recover quickly from a disaster. The database (read only) will reside on all managers’ laptops and will be secured with a password. Finding space, replacement equipment and furniture will be the biggest obstacle to Desktop Support Services in the affected location.
Location: Field Services Core Engineers - Thompson Hall, Room 14
Field Services Departmentally Based Engineers – Enterprise Hall, Room 419
Field Services Arlington Engineers – 300 Arlington 1
Field Services Prince William Engineers – 324 PW1
Essential Staff:
Joe Hutchison – Director LAN/Desktop Support Services
Chuck Sterling – Sr. Manager Field Services
Laura LeVine – Field Services Manager, Core
Michael Bellinghoven – Field Services Manager, DBE
Demetrius Winston – Field Services Manager, Arlington
Steven Broaddus – Field Services Manager, PWC
Tom Deike – Manager. Logistics
Appendix B
Section A
Send Voice Mail to Technical Coordinators
1. Access your voice mailboxes
2. Press two to send a message
3. Record your message and press #
4. At the prompt for a mailbox number, enter 1008672.
Change Voice Mail Message on Status Line (x38870, press 3)
Voice mail box # 1002000, password 1002000.
Press option 3, 1, 2
Record the message and press #, then * to exit.