Archive for June, 2008

Validating a Recovery Site

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

It is not unusual to wonder whether your planned recovery site(s) is/are in fact going to meet your needs at time of recovery.  While there is no way to ensure a given site will be accessible at time of need, Agility has a number of resources available to help give you peace of mind that the site(s) you have selected will be suitable for recovering your business.

The first step is to consult your Subscriber Manual or Agility contact regarding site size, location, and accessibility.  Once these items have been checked off, you can use Google Earth to allow Agility to remotely view your proposed site.  The basic version of this tool can be downloaded for free at http://earth.google.com/.  Once you have viewed the proposed site to confirm that the picture is accurate for the current site, simply e-mail a request to clientservices@agilityrecovery.com with the address(es) in question.  We can then confirm most site requirements based on this satellite photo.

If you are still unsure of site suitability or require a written validation of your site(s) for auditors or stakeholders we can arrange a physical site survey for you.  This service would incur a cost to have an Agility employee visit the site(s) in question to confirm accessibility for mobile office space, generator, and delivery trucks, as well as visibility for satellite communications.  To request a site survey or request additional information please send your request to clientservices@agilityrecovery.com.

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Posted in Space | 4 Comments »

Agility supporting members in Iowa, Montreal

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

Agility recovered critical operations at three Iowa businesses as a result of recent flooding and is currently involved in an unrelated recovery in Montreal:

  • A foodservice vendor in Cedar Falls, Iowa, lost its Internet access, a critical function of its front-office operation. Agility restored connectivity with a satellite dish within 24 hours of the disaster declaration.
  • An insurance agency in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received a generator and satellite connection from Agility within 24 hours of the disaster declaration.
  • In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a large financial sector of a Fortune 10 company required 100 laptop computers for use by employees displaced by the flooding. The laptops arrived onsite within 24 hours of the disaster declaration.
  • Unrelated to the flooding in Iowa, a Montreal-based insurance division of a global financial services company experienced severe damage from a tornado and hail storm. Agility-provided mobile office space, generator, satellite connectivity and technology is onsite. The company’s operations were restored on June 17.

In addition to the recoveries, Agility worked with 13 other Iowa businesses. These businesses were on “alert” status, meaning they experienced a threat to their operations but have not yet initiated an Agility recovery.

“We’re monitoring disaster activity throughout North America and are ready to deploy resources to members in need,” said Bob Boyd, Agility’s president and CEO. “Our promise is to deliver within 48 hours. I’m happy to say we’ve cut that timeframe in half and have had our members up-and-running when they needed us most.”

Posted in Recent Recoveries | No Comments »

Storm causes phone system failure-Agility is there

Friday, June 20th, 2008

Today we received an e-mail from an insurance agency out of Maryland, a St. Paul Travelers member.  Their phone system was “fried” in a storm last night and they were without the use of their phones. They contacted us and we provided them options, back and forth, working through what might be the best approach,  they eventually (by end of day today) were able to get the phone vendor to repair the system to a usable state and would not need our services, but we had several redirection to a voicemail options as well as the use of our satellite available.

I just got off the phone with Barbara, our contact and she could not have been more impressed with Agility. She signed up less than 2 months ago, has been through orientation, completed all her lists entry on MyAgility and was extremely complimentary of her experience with us.  She said things like: “Well, we sure know we went with the right company to recover us when we need it” and “Wow, you guys really make it easy on us” and  “I cant wait to take this back to the Travelers group where I heard about you all and tell them about my experience, thank you so much for being there for us.”

Posted in Connectivity | No Comments »

Phone Interuption

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

We received a call from a ReadySuite member earlier this week. He had just joined the member company the previous week and was in charge of recovery planning. He had no idea what Agility does for his business, as the people with this information had left the company weeks ago.

He seemed a little frantic, spoke very fast and was trying to understand what Agility does and what his ReadySuite membership entails. I gave him a brief overview and took him online to MyAgility.

Before he quickly got off the phone, I asked him to call back when he had a few minutes, so I could formally introduce him to the benefits of membership.

Well, he called me back a day later. He told me the company’s phone system was down for seven hours yesterday and his strategy to roll over his phones failed. They lost almost a full day of communication.

I told him how Agility could have helped with the phones (I am kicking myself for not originally asking if there was an emergency, didn’t cross my mind) and he was so ecstatic!

He said “we need to input our employees and vendors (in MyAgility) right away. The alert notification would have been perfect and we sure could have utilized the call redirection to receive our calls. Who knows how many callers received a busy signal yesterday?”

This member is set up on the next MyAgility Webinar and a custom consultation call next week. He will be much more prepared the next time there is a failure and will turn to Agility for immediate assistance.

Annual plan reviews are so important – turnover is inevitable and on-going communication with Agility is crucial to response and recovery times. What are some of the things you’re doing to address phones recovery needs?

Posted in Connectivity, Planning | No Comments »