CNGA LooseLeaf August/September 2018

colorad o nga.org LooseLeaf  August/September 2018 11 of our files back up onsite and offsite. Last year, after we got the office ready, I took the onsite physical backups with me when I left.” Phones were forwarded to each of the staff ’s cell phones, and faxes were forwarded to an email fax service. They could work anywhere that internet access was available, whether it was individual home offices or public places. “Even if out-of-state customers weren’t able to get ahold of growers, we feel like we remained reachable,” he said. “Our customers could continue to download order forms from our website and plug in the quantities of plants they wanted. We plugged that into our system and purchase orders went out.” Morning Dew’s online inventory system is updated daily with “almost” real-time plant availability, and orders can be processed within five to seven minutes. If some unexpected problem would bring down that system, staff is ready to break out pen and paper to take orders and remain responsive to customers. “If our offices would have been annihilated, we had everything ready to replicate our network and files. We would have been out for maybe a day or two to get the new server up and running and files loaded and set up. It wouldn’t be inexpensive, but also we would not be in a spot where our business would come to a standstill.” “As an owner of a business, I need to be planning for emergencies to happen, whether it’s a lightning strike, a hacker or a hurricane. Those kinds of things will happen, so we’ve put a lot of effort and work into having contingency plans. It’s not cheap, but we have to do that because we care about our clients, our business and our employees,” he concluded. Photos courtesy of Morning Dew Tropical Plants

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