2010 Snowpocalypse
Operations Survey

Did your Office Close?
5%
9%
86%
Yes
No
Not Applicable

“The storm hit during our annual
meeting...two of our platform presenters
were snowed in in DC, and we used Skype
to video them in. We were very happy with
how well it worked and how cost-effective
it was.”
Anonymous Respondent

How Long Were You Closed?
Average: 3.4 Days
Median: 4.1 Days
Mode: 4.5 Days

“Loss of power at individual homes that
limited ability to connect with AMS, email,
etc., [was a challenge]. Also many
employees have children and they could
not keep up with regular services with the
realities of parenting. Even those without
children had to deal with shoveling and
other emergencies which took them away
from being able to work remotely.”
Anonymous Respondent

How well did external facing
services operate during the storm?
30
22.5
15
7.5
0
1 2 3 4 5
Completely No Perceptible
Shut Down Change

“[Our biggest challenge was] trying to
instruct staff who had never worked
remotely before on how to access our
network.”
Anonymous Respondent

How important was the Internet and
related technology in maintaining
your service levels?
60
45
30
15
0
1 2 3 4 5
Low High

“The majority of staff can telecommute
which includes full access to email as well as
electronic files on the main server/shared
drive. This is made possible through remote
hosted services provided by [IT and AMS
service providers]. This operational model
is also a routine part of our corporate
culture so the physical disruption created by
the snow was not a barrier to business as
usual and productivity.”
Anonymous Respondent

Survey conducted by High Context
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Contact Us
C. David Gammel, CAE Wes Trochlil
President President
High Context Consulting Effective Database Management
+1 (410) 742-9088 +1 (540) 338-9404
david@highcontext.com wes@effectivedatabase.com
www.highcontext.com www.effectivedatabase.com
Twitter: @davidgammel Twitter: @westrochlil
Photo Credits
All photos were acquired from Flickr.com and are available under the Creative Commons
Commercial Use License. We thank the following photographers for making their work
available: Jay Tamboll; Sarah Sampsell; Carly & Art; thisisbossi; Angela N.; and Jim Brickett.