"In some instances the rulebook got thrown out the window. We had to make decisions to get on with it. There was no time to follow process. We had to concentrate on outcomes, which established much better teamwork."

Till manages a team of 80, around 30 of them core operations staff.

There was some luck. The council had just completed the migration of its server infrastructure to Computer Concepts' datacentre, when the September 4 earthquake struck.

"The February quake brought the same trials and tribulations," he says. "For us, it was again a huge volume issue.

"We normally work 9am to 5pm, but our staff then worked shifts. Normally, we didn't focus on mobility, but there was a need to do that."