Purpose
Reliability of Information Systems is very important to Student Service Workstation Technology (SSTA-WT). When it comes to outages, some things are beyond our control. During a sizable outage, it is necessary to get as much information to the right people as soon as possible. For that reason, we have an outage communication plan. The System Outage Communication Plan is a guide on how we will get outage information out quickly and efficiently. It identifies audiences, communication channels, messages, and standards to be utilized by SSTA-WT in the cases of unplanned infrastructure outages.

Basically, in the event of a major or lengthy outage, SSTA-WT will notify the appropriate person(s) via telephone voicemail, email, or our help desk phone system's "system status" option in a timely manner.

Scope
This plan establishes the overall outage communications approach for Student Services Technology & Assessment to our supported community regarding an unplanned outage. This plan is intended to supplement any formal outage communication plans by ITaP or other service providers to SSTA-WT supported areas.

Audience
This document is intended for all customer areas supported by SSTA-WT. Any individual outage notification may be intended for all customers or a targeted set of affected customers.

Outage Defined
Outage communication is considered if an interruption has been identified by SSTA-WT and confirmed by ITaP for 15 minutes or more without a resolution.

Outage Communication Details
Below are four categories of Unplanned Outages

• For Unplanned Outages that affect a part of, or all SSTA-WT customers
  • Example Outages:
  • Mail Server issues causing interrupted email service
  • Data Server issues causing data access problems
  • Virus issues causing computer system failure or malfunction
  • Specific Application issues causing loss of production
  • Cabling issue causing widespread outage
  • Communiqué Targeted Audience
  • Departmental Computing Coordinators

  Note: We depend upon the DCC to disseminate this information to the appropriate individuals within their departmental areas as they deem appropriate.

  • Communication Channels Utilized
  • "System Status" Option Message – Helpdesk Continues to Take Calls
  • This is the first communication channel that will be implemented by SSTA-WT for ALL outages.
  • Customers calling SSTA-WT helpdesk (44357) may choose option 1 to listen to a Status Message. This message will contain as much information that is known about the outage.
  • Date and time of outage
  • Outage description
  • Estimate recovery time
  • Computing Coordinator Notification
  • This communication channel will be implemented for outages which do not appear to have a timely resolution.
  • If the email system is unaffected by the outage, an email will be sent to the Departmental Computing Coordinator Mail List.
  • If the email system is affected by the outage, a voicemail will be recorded for the Departmental Computing Coordinators and sent via an SSTA maintained Voice Mail Distribution List.
  • No Helpdesk Calls Taken – Message Only Available
  • This communication channel will be implemented when the outage is prompting an unmanageable number of helpdesk calls. System Status and Computing Coordinator Notification communication channels will always accompany this method.
  • Occasionally, offering only a voicemail message for customers is in the best interest of our supported users to allow SSTA-WT staff to focus on resolving or reducing the impact of the problem. In this case, the helpdesk phone system greets all callers to the help desk with a message indicating a system outage.
  • SSTA-WT Staff Responsibility
  • The SSTA-WT Helpdesk Staff Person in charge of the Inbox at the time of the outage is responsible for initiating this Unplanned Outage communication plan.
  • This SSTA-WT person is also responsible for logging the outage in the "CIF – System Outages" Notes file located within the Zonehelp Mailbox
  • Fields to be recorded: Date, Start Time, Stop Time, CIF Used?, System Status Msg Recorded?, Description of Outage
• For Unplanned Outages that affect the Entire Campus
• The same communication detail above will be followed with the additional step of emailing the Student Services Department Heads provided email service is available.
• For Unplanned Outages that affect a Single Business Unit
• SSTA-WT will target telephone and email communication specifically to the Computing Coordinator of the affected Department.
• For Unplanned Outages that affect a Targeted User Base (application specific: i.e. Ariba)
• SSTA-WT does not maintain contact lists for application specific customers. We expect users to subscribe to ITaP Infrastructure's Outage Notification System.
• SSTA-WT will utilize our help desk phone system's "system status" option and Coordinator Notification Channels with known outage information.