Hurricane Preparedness for Business: Lessons Learned from Award-winning New Orleans Tech Company and HyperOffice
It’s Hurricane Season. Meteorologists forecast up to 16 named storms. Experts are warning small businesses to prepare an emergency plan that can save lives, company assets -- and the business. Kerry W. Kirby, president of 365 Connect LLC, www.about365.com, based in New Orleans, is better prepared this year. For more information, please visit www.hyperoffice.com.
New Orleans, LA (PRWEB) June 6, 2006 -- It’s Hurricane Season. Meteorologists forecast up to 16 named storms. Experts are warning small businesses to prepare an emergency plan that can save lives, company assets -- and the business.
Kerry W. Kirby, president of 365 Connect LLC, www.about365.com, based in New Orleans, is better prepared this year.
One month after Hurricane Katrina delivered the “wake up call” that knocked his business offline, Kirby took steps to protect and prepare 365 Connect from the next disaster.
First, Kirby deployed the company’s software platform to several data centers located across the U.S. This ensures 24x7 redundancy for the Internet-based products and services that 365 Connect provides nationwide to multifamily communities with more than 100 units. The platform includes online leasing and marketing tools for apartment managers, as well as self-service tools with which residents may schedule repairs, pay rent, buy insurance, reserve facilities, update a community calendar, and more.
Equally critical, Kirby created a way for 365 Connect to communicate and collaborate from anywhere, anytime, by adopting HyperOffice, www.hyperoffice.com, Web-based software tools that make it easier for small-business owners, employees, clients, business partners and suppliers to work together as a team, plan projects, share and edit documents, schedule meetings, and stay connected via email and any Web browser, from any computer, anywhere, anytime.
“The irony is, we’re a Web-based business,” said Kirby. “We were already looking to the Web for ways to ensure business continuity. We should have implemented something sooner, but I’ve seen hurricanes come and go. Never in my life have I seen anything like this. We were evacuated. We sat in traffic for 18 hours. People were scattered everywhere. The business sat downtown, 28 stories in the air. We could not get to it. The telephone infrastructure was ripped down. Three high-speed data lines were gone.”
Winner of the “2006 Innovator of the Year” award from New Orleans CityBusiness, 365 Connect worked with its clients to create a network of available housing for families displaced by Katrina -- even though Kirby and his seven employees were scattered, even though armed National Guard troops prohibited anyone from entering the high-rise offices of the company.
“I’ve watched other businesses struggle,” said Kirby. “We’re taking the data that is critical to the survival or our business and moving it into HyperOffice -- passcodes, billing records, contact lists, calendars, contracts, price lists. HyperOffice is how we now communicate and collaborate, and how we will work if we are gone for an extended period. No matter where we are, we can get our hands on our data. All we need is a browser and an Internet connection to recover from any disaster, even if that disaster closes the office for two months.”
To help companies plan for Hurricane Season, HyperOffice offers a 60-day free trial. Just call 1-800-434-5136 or send an email to sales @ hyperoffice.com and mention this code: PREPARE.
About 365 Connect
365 Connect was founded in 2003 by a team of multifamily housing professionals with extensive knowledge in real estate development, management and technology, 365 Connect is rapidly becoming a leader in web-based multifamily technology platforms, geared to provide resident interaction with community managers. 365 Connect specializes in servicing the multifamily industry with an array of web-based products that create management efficiency, resident retention and leasing integration.
About HyperOffice
HyperOffice Inc. is a leading provider of hosted software services for small and medium-sized businesses. The company offers a simple and affordable suite of intranet and extranet applications that provide new and growing businesses essential tools to collaborate, communicate, and manage information from any browser running on any platform. HyperOffice delivers to small businesses today the power and productivity of software that only the largest companies with mammoth IT budgets could afford -- business-class email without spam and viruses; document management with online storage, versioning, user rights and workflow; contact management, scheduling, project management, discussion groups, security, backup, and more, designed for growing companies -- companies with one to 500 employees, the companies that create more than half the new jobs in the US each year. HyperOffice is run by an experienced team that draws on their first-hand understanding of small business pressures and experience with communication & collaborative solutions. First launched in 1998, HyperOffice is used around the world by a growing number of innovative small businesses.
Contacts:
Kerry W. Kirby
President /CEO
365 Connect LLC
http://www.About365.com
media @ 365connect.com
1-866-548-3437
Farzin Arsanjani
HyperOffice Inc.
http://www.hyperoffice.com
farzin @ hyperoffice.com
301.255.0018 X107
Agency contact for HyperOffice:
Steve Leon
Technopolis® Communications Inc.
http://www.technopolis.com
sl @ technopolis.com
512-288-0950
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