Second Line Saves GraVoc a Day of Business

As described in the last GraVoc news item, the company’s website was temporarily out of service, as a car hit a utility pole a few blocks from GraVoc’s Peabody, MA offices. The accident resulted in GraVoc’s T1 line going out of service thirty minutes into what was scheduled to be a busy day of business, including Microsoft Dynamics AX training for a client.

GraVoc was able to continue business largely interrupted, however, as the business also utilizes a broadband connection that did not run through the affected utility pole. GraVoc’s systems were switched from the T1 connection to the broadband connection, and instead of delaying the training and being unable to access the Internet, GraVoc was able to continue with minimal interruption and very little lost time.

The GraVoc.com website was dependent on the T1 line and was therefore out of commission for slightly longer.

In terms of business continuity planning, GraVoc was prepared to deal with the event of the traffic accident and had workaround procedures in place to continue operations while the T1 line was disabled. While many businesses focus more on blizzards, hurricanes, fires, or earthquakes in business continuity planning, smaller and more likely events such as this accident can disrupt business just as much. A similar incident took place at a client business less than two weeks ago.

This event also reinforces the importance of having a secondary line of communication between a business’s offices and the outside world. Without the broadband line, GraVoc would have sacrificed almost a full day of business operations. Like its clients, GraVoc does not have time available to fret about communication systems being out of commission. Thanks to business continuity preparedness, GraVoc was able to salvage a productive day without a main communication line.

Among a wide range of services, GraVoc Associates, Inc. specializes in helping clients design business continuity plans so that procedures are in place to resume business as quickly as possible following a disaster. Based in Peabody, MA, GraVoc is celebrating fifteen years of serving small businesses in the Boston area and beyond with information system implementation, technological services, information security, and financial consulting. For more information, please visit GraVoc.com (which is back up and running) or call the GraVoc offices at 978-538-9055.