Emergency Preparedness

PCS has plans in place for both business continuity and disaster recovery. Business continuity plans minimize the effects of a short-length, high-likelihood service disruption such as electrical or communications failure and data corruption or loss. Disaster recovery is the plan of action in the event of a longer-term disruption such as fire, tornado, pandemic, or any loss of use of physical locations.

PCS plans ensure the continuity of critical operations, safeguard mechanisms and data, limit losses, and ultimately minimize disruptions that impact customer's service deadlines. Details include:

• Voice Communications - Plans enable us to switch inbound lines to another physical location in 15 minutes or less in case of phone system or phone line failure.
  
  
• Off-Site Processing - Agreements with other service organizations provide use of their facilities, equipment, and even personnel in the event a major disaster causes loss of one of our processing centers.
  
  
• Data Backups - Onsite and offsite data backups are processed daily and tested monthly. Dual backups are significant assurance of a swift restoration of network infrastructure in the event of a potentially catastrophic hardware or software failure.
  
  
• Electrical/Backup Power - An electrical failure would have significant impact on PCS and its primary functions of data storage and information transfer. At both operations centers (Broad River Road and North Woodrow Street), UPS units and generators enable continuation of processing with minimal disruption in the event of short-term power failure. Each generator has enough fuel for two to three days of operation and each is tested weekly.