LANSING – The
loss of connection to a mainframe computer knocked out computer systems at all
Department of State branch offices starting about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, leaving
those in line before the close of business at 5 p.m. having to return a
different day to complete their business.
The
connection was restored overnight, resolving the problem, Department of State
spokesperson Fred Woodhams said Wednesday. Offices opened normally Wednesday,
he said.
Last week,
on September 3, a broader outage hit computers for multiple state departments,
including the Department of State, and knocked out computer service for about
two hours in the late morning.
Woodhams
said the problems stemmed from the loss of connection to main computers and had
nothing to do with the Business Application Modernization system upgrades.
The
department recently moved to cancel the contract with HP, which has been
working for years to complete the BAM project to mixed success.
Woodhams
said customers who were unable to complete their business were given return
passes that allow them to get into the shorter return line at a later date
instead of having to start at the back of the regular line again.
“We do
apologize to customers that they were waiting last night and last week,”
he said.
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