Credit Union Disaster Recovery Connectivity

Connector – Backup Connectivity to Third Parties

Ongoing Operations provides secure community cloud, disaster recovery, and Credit Union technology solutions. As the leading Disaster Recovery & Cloud CUSO, we have the unique ability to drive down costs and allow most Credit Unions to afford technology equivalent to large banks. This page provides an overview of Ongoing Operations’ Connector – Credit Union Disaster Recovery Connectivity Solution

Information you'll want
Why Do I Need It?	You offer credit cards, debit cards, ATMs, Online Banking, or any modern financial transaction services
What Are The Likely Outcomes?	OGO will provide network connectivity to your OGO hot site and saves most Credit Unions 50% compared to doing it themselves.
Why OGO?	OGO is the only provider that can provide fully managed and rerouted connectivity for a CU.

What are Credit Union third parties?

Credit union third party connections are critical connections that nearly all Credit Unions have. These include online banking, credit card providers, ATM switch providers, shared branching, the Federal Reserve, and others. Credit unions today maintain permanent connections with these providers in order to deliver critical financial products to their members. For most Credit Unions, recovering this infrastructure in a disaster is one of their biggest challenges.

Platform	Connectivity Choices	Performance
GEO Redundant Multiple Carriers Hardware Redundant Locally Redundant NCUA Compliant	Online Banking Providers Credit Card Providers ATM/Debit Card Providers Other SAAS Solutions Shared Branching	Managed Failover Annual DR Testing Segregated Data Auto Failover Options 24/7 Support

How do third-party connections affect your Credit Union?

Third party connections are critical to maintaining member service and providing access to funds. Top examples include:

Credit Card Switch (either real-time or batch) – Enables Credit Unions to manage their card portfolios, perform authorizations, issue new cards, etc. (examples include PSCU, TMG, Visa DPS, etc.)
Debit Card Switch (either real-time or batch) – Enables Credit Unions to manage their debit card plastics, perform balance checks, etc. (examples include CO-OP, Star, MAC etc.)
ATM Switch (either real-time or batch) – Enables Credit Unions to manage their ATM cards (examples include CO-OP, Star, Mac, Cirrus, Fifth-Third bank, etc.)
Online Banking (real-time) – Whether it is Harland, Digital Insight, Fiserv, or Open Solutions – Credit Unions have permanent connections to their online banking providers. Without connectivity, members cannot check balances, review history, make payments, or use online banking.
Federal Reserve (Fedweb or Fedline Advantage) – This connection is used to download share draft, ACH, and wire files. Without it a Credit Union can very quickly increase its fraud risk and frustrate members.
Shared Branch (CO-OP or FSCC) – a lifeline in disaster situations as members can go to other Credit Unions for services. Not having a connection through the Shared Branch network will reduce available transaction sets and enforce limits to prevent member fraud. This can be especially frustrating during a disaster event when members need access to cash.

Here is a list of all of our current connections.

CMC Flex	Galaxy	First Data (Star)	CSCU
Co-op (DR & Production)	Pemco	ELAN
CUSC	PSCU	Fiserv EFT
Digital Insight	Meridian Link	Alkami
Efunds	Summit Information Systems	FSCC
Fedline Connection	USERS	Certergy FIS
Fidelity	Vantiv	Fiserv XP (Troy)

What Does Ongoing Operations provide?

Ongoing Operations’ Connector solution provides connectivity to virtually all third-party providers in the industry. These connections are maintained permanently and tested daily or weekly in most cases. As part of the solution, Ongoing Operations enables Credit Unions to failover and reroute any connected third party through the Ongoing Operations network. The solution is a fixed price monthly fee that allows the Credit Union to route as many or as few third-party connections as they like through Ongoing Operations.

Impact of Connector Connector enables the Credit Union to recover key connectivity quickly – often within minutes or hours. This allows the Credit Union to provide critical services to its membership while simultaneously reducing offline fraud risk during an event.

What is different about Ongoing Operations’ solution?

OGO has the expertise to assist in implementation, mitigation, etc.
We can connect to your existing Credit Union network
The price for all Credit Unions is lowered through CUSO aggregation
Connector works with existing OGO Telecom Solutions
Connector integrates with existing OGO Disaster Recovery Solutions
OGO has intimate knowledge of credit union technology needs

How is it installed? OGO will ask your Credit Union to complete a questionnaire, which will include the following:

Authorization to work with your third-party provider
Critical VPN configuration information
Failover Process instructions
Other configuration information needed to route transactions back to the Credit Union

When can a Credit Union use the service? There are many uses for this service outside of disaster events. Some examples include:

Relocating all of your processing to your Hot-site
When connectivity to a single third-party fails (any time)
A major disaster situation

What are the challenges? Deciding to failover to the Connector is a big decision. It will take significant coordination from the Credit Union, Ongoing Operations, and the third party. Once done – you should plan on staying in that failover mode for some period of time (more than a day or two).

When shouldn’t a Credit Union select Ongoing Operations’ Connector solution?

You want to control all aspects of the solution
You want to handle your own Disaster Recovery Connectivity
You can afford to have active-active third-party connections

Learn MoreTop Five Questions about Connector DR