Communication is the life-blood and muscle of transportation. Being so intensely reliant on the telephone, computer and fax machine, it is essential for a transportation company to protect its lines of communication against possible interruption. If a company has enacted a workable contingency, they're ahead of the game.
A lightning strike is rare. But it CAN, and does, happen. Just ask Ari Smith, President of Next Generation Logistics, Inc. (NGL) in Inverness, Illinois. With a background in mathematics and computer science, he established NGL in 1988 with a high-tech business model. His logistics management firm has grown and now provides consultation, outsourced transportation and logistics services worldwide.
The company uses state-of-the-art, customer-specific technology developed in their R&D facility. Their software is targeted to the food industry and the service-sensitive non-food industry. NGL also developed a load matching service specifically for food-carrying trucks, a global logistics operation and an online food mart. International Supply Line Express helps Americans located anywhere in the world to order good ole American cooking and have it delivered fast and safe.
As due diligence, NGL took all the necessary precautions against power outage. They had filters on electrical outlets, back-up batteries, power spike suppressors and power surge protectors on all computers individually and collectively. They even had a smart UPS back-up. When the UPS kicked in, the back-up automatically dialed Ari Smith's pager number, to let him know.
The telephone contingency plan uses remote call forwarding. If the office phone system is down, for whatever reason, all the main lines transfer automatically to the remote site without the calling customer ever knowing. Calls can even be forwarded to a car phone.
In the official corporate plan, calls are forwarded to Ari Smith's residence, where he installed a back-up server. With this arrangement, the company can continue to communicate, uninterrupted, regardless of the condition of either the phone system, or the corporate office building.
All these precautions were taken at the firm's last location in Des Plaines, "just in case." The contingency plan paid off in the late afternoon on Sunday, May 18, last year. A violent electrical storm battered Chicago. Thunder roared. Lightning flashed. One powerful bolt hit an antenna atop the Des Plaines office building where NGL was then located.
The direct strike traveled across the cables and into the radio. Even though the NGL phone system is only plugged into music while clients are on "hold," the other equipment became vulnerable. The power of the lightning fried the internal equipment in the PBX system, making it completely inoperable.
Without a contingency plan, the staff arriving at the office on Monday morning would have found themselves unable to conduct any business. A disruption in service for even one day would be devastating to customers and to NGL's reputation for excellence.
But Smith's emergency plan had been painstakingly devised. An optional feature had been added to the PBX system that would allow each of the company's fifteen telephones to be used as a single-line phone, when not connected to the PBX. Each phone would lose its sophistication and operate like a single-line residential phone, providing two-way communication and not much more, but it would work.
The single line conversion was provided by installing an RJ 11 jack on each phone, where the telephone line connects to the PBX system. Each of the eight phone lines serving NGL at that time had a jack.
When Smith found out what had happened, he spent Sunday night traveling from K Mart to K Mart, buying every 50-foot extension cord he could find. He strung more than 17 of them from set to set to get every phone in the office operable as a single-line unit. With imagination and forethought, NGL avoided disaster. The staff was inconvenienced for a while, but not the customers.
The PBS system was ruined. The repairman was not available for days. When he did come, he assessed that the system could not be fixed. Delivery of the new system took more than ten days. During these delays, Smith's jerry-rigged system held things together. It worked, and NGL never let 'em see them sweat - even if the staff did resort to running shoes. The bottom line is that the professionalism of the operation was not jeopardized by this emergency, due to foresight and planning on the part of NGL's leaders.
Power losses have been much more frequent in recent years. Air conditioning overloads are blamed in the summer; snow and ice storms in winter. With many states going through power deregulation, the customer can't be sure exactly what precautions are being taken, or what service will be provided in case of emergency. Canadian power customers still smart from the long time power was out due to heavy ice storm burden.
The moral of the story - Be sure you have a contingency plan. Review it at least annually. If you install a new system, be sure to create a new plan. Without one, you are at the mercy of Mother Nature - and Father Time. Not a comforting thought!
And by the way, if anyone needs some extension cords, cheap, we know a Windy City source.
Details - 800-298-6398 - www.nextgeneration.com
