laura zink marx executive director, nj 2-1-1 partnership

Laura Zink MarxExecutive Director, NJ 2-1-1 Partnership

CRM Disaster Recovery:Lessons Learned from Superstorm Sandy

NJ 2-1-1 Role in a Disaster

• NJ 2-1-1 is a statewide system utilizing the three digit dialing code 2-1-1, available 24/7, 365 days a year, free and confidential.

• NJ 2-1-1 consists of one call center and 58 staff

• Headquartered in Whippany, New Jersey

• NJ 2-1-1 disaster services include:• Public Information Portal for Response and

Recovery Information and Services • Addictions Hotline• UVIS: Uniform Victim Identification System

Challenges: Handling Call Surge

• Needed secure, cloud software capable of handling tens of thousands of calls during major disasters without interruption

• Needed ability to quickly add staff and outsource calls to partners during periods of high volume

• Needed automated messages to relay critical information to callers

Handling Call Surge

Must Haves

– Ability to transfer calls to back-up locations, crisis centers and to contact 9-1-1

– Ability to stay “live” as the state’s suspicious reporting tips line comes through the 2-1-1 portal

– Expandability: add licenses for new agents within hours

– To be positioned as “the” portal of disaster information & services for the public, even if we did not physically answer the calls

How We Met Our Goals

Percentage or Timer Routing

Work at Home, Off Site

Flexibility of AA & IVR

Supporting Technologies

• Five9 Cloud Contact Center Software

• Premise Based (redundancy): Telecom (IP Office), Referral and Resource House Installed on our servers, hard copies

• Phone App: Resource House

• Communication Delivery: T-1s and FIOS that have back up capability

• Utilities: Our Achilles Heal (no back-up generator)

Results

• Answered over 100,000 calls since Sandy hit the Jersey shore, while resuming normal operations within 10 days

• Stayed operational throughout the hurricane and in the following weeks

• Offered operational options for the state & FEMA to drive information to callers and to set realistic expectations

• We handled the big question – call surge

• Proved the NJ 2-1-1 is a vital tool in disaster response and recovery, plans in place to include NJ 2-1-1 in the state emergency operations plan

moving forward.

Questions? Laura Zink Marxlmarx@nj211.org

973-929-3704