Feel the Power

Although there are many lessons from the August 14 blackout about the power and limitations of technology (and human beings), there doesn't seem to be much to criticize about financial services organizations' (including insurance companies) abilities to cope with the power outage. It quickly became clear that most companies' post-9/11, beefed-up disaster recovery plans worked as intended. There were gaps in the availability of New York City ATMs, and in many instances support staffers were stranded and couldn't get to recovery sites, but exchanges, trading desks and call centers managed to stay in operation.

Still, the blackout brought home that sometimes low-tech saves the day. Flashlights, transistor radios, cars, buses, ferries and pizza ovens worked (at least until batteries or fuel ran out); elevators, air conditioners, cell phones and LaGuardia Airport didn't. Companies that had invested in their own generators and had developed and tested comprehensive business continuity plans were, for the most part, able to keep running; where the plans were haphazard, poorly communicated and optimistic, things came to a halt.

The massive, multi-state/country power failure also demonstrated the inter-connectedness of today's business environment-and not in a good way. It appears the real obstacles to achieving the benefits of the business value chain may be the fact that you could very well be linked to an entity that is under-equipped, poorly staffed and badly managed.

PS: If you saw the pictures of the thousands and thousands of (relatively) patient souls who waited hours to get on a ferry from New York City to New Jersey, those two tiny, tired, sweaty-looking dots at the bottom of the screen were I&T managing editor Greg MacSweeney and me. But the only casualties at my home were three burned-out surge protectors, which I guess is how things are supposed to work.

Katherine Burger is Editorial Director of Bank Systems & Technology and Insurance & Technology, members of UBM TechWeb's InformationWeek Financial Services. She assumed leadership of Bank Systems & Technology in 2003 and of Insurance & Technology in 1991. In addition to ... View Full Bio