Spotlight on $avings: UniFund Disaster Recovery in Action

A Letter from Ayer-Shirley RSD 

The October snowstorm and extended power outage required the Ayer Shirley School District to implement its disaster recovery plan with UniFund.  With no electricity at our schools on Monday morning, we had payroll week deadlines accumulating fast.  With the duration of the blackout unknown, there was no way to know when we would be able to run payroll.  Also, we wanted to avoid a work backlog if payroll was delayed. 

We called UniFund immediately on Monday morning to make arrangements.  On Tuesday morning, per UniFund's instructions, two staff unplugged our server and brought it to their Nashua headquarters.  This allowed us to work directly with our files and have two staff persons work on payroll at the same time.  By 6pm all payroll steps were complete as if we had been in the Business Office.

On Wednesday morning with power restored we reconnected our UniFund server to our network and resumed regular operations.  All staff was paid on Thursday, as scheduled.  This provided planned paychecks which for many staff were needed due to unexpected storm expenses. 

The Business Office work schedule restarted as if there were no snow storm and power loss.  This maintained our accounts payable/finance work schedule and support of the school district in our other areas of responsibility --- facilities, food service and transportation.  

Evan T. Katz
Director of Finance
Ayer Shirley Regional School District

We're glad that when put to the test, the UniFund Disaster Recovery program worked for Ayer Shirley RSD. Thanks to Mr. Katz for agreeing to share this experience with the UniFund community. 

This Spotlight was published in the January, 2012 edition of uniNews.
Also in this edition: January, 2012: NH Retirement Reporting Changes for 2012