Disaster-Proofing Operations: How to Protect Critical Processes with Automation

Increasing operational efficiency ranks as a top strategic priority for executives at banks and credit unions, so it’s little wonder that financial institutions (FIs) want to increase automation by an average of 20% across their operations.

By automating critical processes like ACH, file transfers, collections reports, and more, FIs can achieve significant productivity and efficiency improvements, freeing skilled staff to focus on strategic initiatives.

However, as disaster recovery takes center stage for many banks and credit unions, one key question can’t be ignored: what happens to your core processes in the event of a disaster? Many of them are automated, but are they protected by your institution’s disaster recovery plans?

We’ll explore how automation can not only help FIs achieve the efficiency gains they’re after, but also ensure vital operations remain resilient when disaster strikes.

The dual imperative: protecting and automating core processes

Many banks and credit unions have successfully automated routine tasks to save time, reduce human error, and free bandwidth for skilled staff. For example, one credit union automated 4,000 processes, including ACH, “Goodnight,” and OFAC, which were previously handled manually. As a result, the credit union reduced weekly data processing time by 40%, improved consistency in posting times, and eliminated weekend shifts.

While results like these undeniably spell success, they only speak to the first half of a strategy that should involve two parts. After automating critical operations, FIs must ask: what happens to these processes in the event of an outage?

Understanding disaster recovery in the age of automation

Disaster recovery simply refers to the methods and procedures for returning to full operation following a catastrophic interruption—whether that interruption results from a weather-related disaster, a cyber-attack, or something else, FIs can’t afford to leave business continuity plans vulnerable to error when the hourly cost of downtime exceeds $300,000 for 91% of organizations.

Fortunately, disaster recovery strategies have evolved significantly over the years. Historically, restoring IT infrastructures and data to minimize downtime after a catastrophic event involved a long list of disaster recovery steps, often executed manually. Today, disaster recovery plans can instead be automated, requiring little or no human intervention.

For financial institutions, modern disaster recovery is not just about bringing systems back online—it’s about ensuring that automated processes, which are often the lifeblood of day-to-day operations—are resilient and can be quickly restored in the event of a disaster to minimize downtime and prevent data loss.

How workload automation and orchestration helps protect critical operations

Workload automation and orchestration (WLA&O) solutions like OpCon take the manual work out of disaster recovery processes. They support:

• Automated failover: In the event of a disaster, WLA&O automatically trigger failover processes, ensuring that critical operations continue to run on backup systems with minimal interruption. This reduces downtime and helps maintain business continuity. For example, one credit union automated 95% of its failover process, which included 150 manual steps, to reduce failover time by 40% and protect the core database from possible corruption.
• Consistent execution: Automation ensures that processes are executed consistently, regardless of the circumstances. This consistency is crucial during a disaster, where human error can be exacerbated by stress and urgency.
• Monitoring and alerts: By monitoring and detecting issues that require a failover scenario, WLA&O can alert IT teams to respond quickly; alternatively, they can simply notify relevant team members of disaster recovery processes which have been automatically initiated.
• Simplified recovery processes: Automation simplifies the recovery process by eliminating the need for manual intervention. Automated workflows can be triggered to initiate the failover process, meaning critical operations can continue to run with minimal (or no) disruption.
• Scalability and flexibility: As financial institutions grow, and their operations become more complex, robust automation solutions can scale to meet their needs. This scalability ensures that disaster recovery plans remain effective even as the institution’s automation footprint expands. In fact, scalability was a key consideration for Jack Henry when they chose to automate their disaster recovery process with OpCon. After implementing automation to save 300+ man-hours per incident, they reduced RTO by 83%.

Advancing disaster recovery with cloud-based automation

The surest way to insulate against future unknowns is to leverage the power of cloud-based automation with built-in disaster recovery.

When your core processes are automated using a cloud-based solution, disaster recovery processes such as failover between data centers is further streamlined. For example, customers using OpCon in the cloud benefit from an environment hosted within Microsoft Azure, allowing for failover across data centers in three availability zones. When a failure is identified, recovery runs automatically, meaning an interruption may even go unnoticed.

As outages continue to make headlines, forward-thinking financial institutions understand the value automating critical processes with a cloud-based solution as a means of enhancing business continuity. Prior to investing in OpCon in the cloud, OUCU Financial recognized that, in the event of a disaster, they were vulnerable to data loss and significant branch downtime since their previous automation solution was hosted on-prem.

Now, after automating critical operations with a cloud-based solution, OUCU can easily ensure there’s no data loss or significant downtime if a branch experiences a disaster.

Streamline disaster recovery while advancing operational efficiency

For executives losing sleep over business continuity concerns, the role of automation in disaster recovery can’t be ignored. While many institutions focus on automating critical operations to enhance efficiency, it’s equally vital to ensure these processes are covered under disaster recovery plans.

Fortunately, this doesn’t have to be a daunting task. With the support of a robust automation solution—and more specifically, a cloud-based automation solution—financial institutions can capture the desired ROI from automating critical tasks and confidently face the future, assured that their operations will remain resilient.

To learn, get in touch with the automation experts at SMA Technologies.