Stories

Our success comes from our clients' real-life experiences.

First State Bank, Fairfax, OK

Labor Day weekend of 2009 seemed liked the perfect weekend to install a new roof at First State Bank of Fairfax. Unfortunately, a thunderstorm, four more days of rain, and roof drains that were not properly draining resulted in massive amounts of water inside the bank.

Marty Hansen, President at First State Bank realized on the first morning of the storm that this was going to be a disaster-type circumstance. "We knew we had a problem, and that it was going to impede us from being open at our main office for awhile. It’s definitely one of the worst feelings you can have as a banker." Fortunately for First State Bank, a few months prior to the storm they had chosen BankOnIT’s Cloud Computing & Virtualized Server offering which allowed the bank to host its data at BankOnIT with complete disaster recovery capabilities.

"We contacted BankOnIT immediately. They were onsite within hours and kept our branch location up and running. We lost a lot of computers in the flood, but BankOnIT had additional workstations for staff from the main bank setup at our branch location by the next morning." Hansen continued, "Technology-wise, we did nothing and had to do nothing; BankOnIT had us up and running, completely operational without any real effort on our part."

"We had to totally gut the building and start over, so to be fully operational so fast was a dream come true. Eventually, we were able to make some temporary repairs and with BankOnIT’s help had the drive-in open at the main bank to serve customers once the rain stopped. We even had some customers that we helped in the parking lot outside of the bank."

BankOnIT also helped First State Bank when plans began to renovate the damaged facility. Hansen said, "We were in a building that was 28 years old and not designed for today’s technology. BankOnIT assisted with planning for the building’s technology needs so that we were able to upgrade as we renovated. They guided us through the process and helped us make good decisions about the building’s technology needs."

"I've been a banker for over 35 years and have encountered minor catastrophes during that time, but never anything like this. BankOnIT gave us the support we needed to get things done. I don’t know of anyone else who could have given us that level of support. I am a believer."