How prepared is your organization when facing inclement weather conditions? CU*NorthWest, a CUSO located in Washington state, recently found out when high winds forced the teams to spring their plan into action. With the help of fellow CUSO partners in the cuasterisk.com network, CU*NorthWest was able to prepare for any necessary call support backup. Due to the high wind advisory, the management team at the CUSO decided to close the office and notify clients of alternative methods for reaching support.

Since primary core-processing systems are located in a datacenter in South Dakota, critical operations were not affected. However, CU*NorthWest has also invested in a redundant high-availability system located in Michigan in the event of an emergency. By the time the storm in Washington had passed, the CU*NorthWest office location survived without damage and without disruption of critical services.

Planning for the worst and expecting the best helped prepare CUSO for what could have been a more serious disruption. Knowing that critical functions and operations were being taken care by partners outside of the path of the storm allowed management to focus on safety and well-being of staff and their families. And CU*Northwest reciprocates that relationship with its CUSO partners by serving as a backup in the event that other areas are affected. Greg Smith, CU*NorthWest CEO said, “Having a network of partners invested in each other’s success is invaluable. Collaboration, be it between credit unions or CUSOs, helps drive costs down and encourages best in breed systems and strategies.”