Businesses Learn How to Weather the Storm

Neil Holme is president of Impact Business Technology, a company that manages IT support, from virus and spam protection and firewalls to maintaining servers. But in late August Impact was struggling to provide any service at all. Hurricane Irene had toppled trees, ripped down electrical lines and knocked out power to most of the region.

"We were totally in the dark," Holme told an audience of business owners and professionals at a joint luncheon of the Monroe and Newtown chambers of commerce at The Inn At Newtown Thursday afternoon.

Impact was not totally unprepared. For instance, it had a back up generator. However, Holme learned it wasn't enough.

"Well, our lights were on. Our computers were humming — and we couldn't do anything because our Internet and phones were out," he recalled.

Customers in regions with power had no sympathy for the plight of businesses in Connecticut's hardest hit areas, according to Holme.

"People called asking, 'Why can't I have my computers fixed?'" he said. "They didn't care. They'll go somewhere else."

Holme decided to use the negative experience to make his business stronger.

"We thought we needed to find a better plan," he said. "I started to plan and lo and behold a snowstorm hit us."

The October storm, dubbed by some as "Storm Alfred", sapped power to many throughout the state, some for over a week.

Holme eventually completed his emergency back up plan. On Thursday he shared what he learned in a presentation entitled "Disaster Prevention and Recovery: Doing Business During a Blackout."

Rather than waiting for Connecticut Light & Power to restore their electricity and for the phone company to fix their lines, Holme said businesses can take matters into their own hands.

A Hot Spot

A back up generator will keep the lights on and computers running, but what about accessing the Internet?

Holme said he has a service that can turn his cell phone into a Wi-Fi hot spot, providing Internet service to all of the computers in the room. The service costs him $250 to set up, then $50 a month.

Another option is wireless Internet cards, small devices that can be clicked onto the side of a laptop, according to Holme. It captures a cellular signal.

"It will be slow, but it's better than nothing," he said.

"Now we have Internet service and email, but what if our phones are still out?" Holme asked.

When phone service is lost, Holme said some phone companies allow customers to access their account online and forward calls to a different number (possibly to a cell phone or a land line in an area with power). When that number is busy, he said those calls can be forwarded to a secondary number.

"I use Charter Cable," Holme said. "It's very easy to do."

In more extreme events, he said a smart phone can power your laptop for around $10 a month. AT&T allows you to use data and voice at the same time and Verizon does not, according to Holme.

"I can't imagine a business without email nowadays," he said.

A lot of businesses use G-mail or Yahoo and others use their own servers, according to Holme. He recommends hiring what is known as a cloud service provider.

"What happens when you lose files after a tree falls on your business and your computer is damaged?" Holme asked, adding losing files and customer data could be a crippling event.

Most businesses maintain a backup system, but Holme said that is for disaster recovery. "I'm here to help you avoid having to resort to it," he said. "What if a cloud could help you to be able to take your laptop to a hotel and be in business?"

A cloud service provider saves emails, files and data offsite in real-time and all of the information is accessible via the Internet, Holme said.

Lee Hossler, chairman of the Monroe Economic Development Commission, asked how to assess which data service is best for one's business.

Holme said to look for a tier one service, companies like Cervalis, Global Crossing and Peer 1. "You want them to be SAS70 certified," he said.

Other considerations are security, redundancy, the up-time guarantee and cost.

Nothing is Perfect

During a question and answer session, Alfred Fressola a patent attorney with the Monroe firm Ware, Fressola, Van Der Sluys & Adolphson LLP, noted how a business could still be severely affected by a bad storm.

"If your cell tower nearby isn't operating, you're still out of business," he said. "There were cell areas out."

If your email and data is accessible through a cloud service, Holme said you could work from anywhere.

"When you have a law firm of 25 people, it's hard," Fressola said. "In a lot of office buildings there is no generator where you can turn everything on."

Holme said, "Yes, you may lose some paralegals and some admans, but you can get key people to areas with service."

"Without your support people, it's very difficult to do some things," Fressola said, adding his firm prepares documents.

If the attorneys do all of the preparation themselves, Fressola said it slows down productivity.

"You're point is well taken," Holme said. "If you do a lot of these things, it won't throw a monkey wrench in your entire business."

In the past year, Fairfield County has been hit by a blizzard, a hurricane and even an earthquake. Holme said there is no better time than the present for businesses to come up with an emergency plan for the next major storm.

"We know it's going to happen," he said of the next storm, adding with a smile, "The more money you spend preparing for it, the further away the storm is."

Nevertheless, Holme said businesses would not be hit as hard when there's a plan to say, "Here's what happens when the lights go out."