Companies up and down the East Coast close due to the Nor’easters. What a huge waste of time, money, and customer satisfaction! But in this day and age it doesn’t have to be that way – especially for snow.
In 2013, Colorado experienced torrential rain storms resulting in horrific, devastating, destructive, and, unfortunately deadly flooding. Flood waters spread across almost 200 square miles over 17 counties, impacting millions of people and crippling thousands of businesses. An Essent customer in Colorado was in the path of the disaster, flooding their town and business for days on end. Not hours, but literally days. In spite of the disaster, the customer’s business systems were available the entire time and not a single byte of data was lost. Employees relocated to high ground and continued to operate. Snow is nothing compared to the destruction and lasting effects of flooding and mud slides. The customer’s physical offices might have been closed, but at the same time the business was open for business and survives today because of their planning and infrastructure.
Using Essent itself as an example: for every major storm during the winter of 2014, which is in range of becoming the snowiest winter on record in the Northeast, Essent was up and running. Even during Superstorm Sandy -- the deadly hurricane that slammed into the Mid-Atlantic region on October 29, 2012 -- traveling directly over the corporate headquarters of Essent and taking out power for days, Essent was up and running.
The secret to our success and our customers’ is based on a Business Continuity Plan and reliance on Essent technologies. Like our customers, we run our business in the Essent Commerce Cloud, making all of our business systems available to our staff and customers 24x7x365 regardless of the weather or the availability of our offices.
A Business Continuity Plan (BCP), and it’s close relative the Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP), defines how an organization will continue to operate during and in spite of disruptive and catastrophic events. In its simplest form a BCP is based on how people can continue to work in spite of an event. In its most sophisticated form a BCP defines how every process will be performed during different types of catastrophes like storms, floods, and fires.
For most of us a BCP doesn’t need to be complicated. With the power of the Internet and the advent of cloud computing, it’s easier than ever to protect your business information technology infrastructure and continue to make it available during a business-adverse event.
At Essent, our entire infrastructure lives in the Essent Commerce Cloud. Our business management software, web portal, email, and even phone system are all available to users regardless of their physical location or the environment around Essent offices. As long as users have a computer of some sort with Internet access (yes even tablets qualify) they can continue to work. Even in the event of widespread Internet and power outages like with Hurricane Sandy, Essent employees had a place with power and network access so they could continue to work.
The same goes for Essent customers – and everyone else for that matter. By taking some time to create a simple Business Continuity Plan, businesses can continue to operate. For Essent customers that includes the Compass Business Management System for CRM, Sales, and Accounting; SiteBuilder for informational and ecommerce websites; Exchange Hosting for email and calendaring synchronized with their mobile devices; Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony services; data backup; replacement equipment and even physical facilities to recover from a disaster.
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery isn’t just for Fortune 500 companies. Not with the availability of Essent technologies.
Hopefully your business never experiences the destruction a major storm can cause, but if it does there are actions you can take that make the difference between being open versus potentially being closed forever. Closing your business in this day and age for some snow just doesn’t make business sense. Allowing your employees to be safe and secure and at the same time keep your business safe and secure is a modern reality. Business Continuity is realistic and a cloud-based business is the proven solution. Essent makes it easy and affordable so you can weather whatever weather brings.