Media Advisory: April 29, 2010

BWC Web site outage planned for this weekend

COLUMBUS – The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) Web site, ohiobwc.com, will be unavailable this weekend as staff implements the final step of a two-year Web site server replacement project. All BWC Web services will be unavailable beginning at 6 p.m., Friday, April 30. The site is scheduled to be operational by 7 a.m., Monday, May 3.

During the outage, BWC plans to upgrade a number of its systems and applications, taking advantage of new technology and improving the site’s speed and performance. In addition, the current MCO (managed care organization) extranet will be updated and available beginning Monday morning at http://sites.ohiobwc.com

The two-year server replacement project began on May 1, 2008. To date, IT staff has logged more than 17,000 hours on the project, which has included replacement of end-of-life servers, as well as upgrades to server operating systems and more than 40 system applications. In addition, firewall and alert software have been upgraded to enhance security and monitoring, and increased the site’s ability to handle additional traffic.

This outage has been planned to take place with as little interruption as possible to customer services.

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