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Employees Rescue Flooded Forms Companies
IMR, Jan. 20, 1997
Employees at Ross Barker's companies in Reno, Nev., didn't ring in the new year with noisemakers, confetti and football. Instead, they sandbagged, rescued computer equipment and set up temporary offices in their homes to keep business running despite one of the worst floods in recent local memory.
It all started New Year's Day, when Barker and his employees raced to the offices to see what they could save before floodwater rose too high. Although they managed to move the computers out of harm's way, there was little they could do in the warehouse before they were forced to evacuate. Barker, a former DMIA president, enlisted his workers' help in finding a way to keep the businesses open.
First, Barker forwarded as many phone lines as possible to employees' houses. He also purchased five cellular phones so employees could communicate with each other during the crisis and so phone lines in their homes could remain open for customers. By Jan. 2, the software support department for Forms Management Data Systems and Financial Purchasing Management Systems was operating out of Barker's home. A few days later, the computer network for Barker Business Systems, a distributorship, was moved to an employee's house. Computers from the graphics department were moved to another employee's home.
Managers held daily 7 a.m. meetings to address critical issues. In addition, the companies' fax machine was installed in the home of an employee, who delivered incoming faxes three times daily. Barker rented fax machines so employees could send outgoing faxes. Meanwhile, one worker had to evacuate her house because of the flood. Thanks to the efforts of her co-workers, who sandbagged the house, it escaped damage. Barker also had to rush to the hospital when his wife Susan underwent emergency gallbladder surgery. She is recovering nicely.
Although many items in Barker Business Systems' warehouse were destroyed, the companies continued to serve customers, and the distributorship did not miss a delivery. Barker says manufacturers Sterling Business Forms, Wisco Envelope and Star Forms responded to his crisis quickly. In addition, Irv Michlin of Transkrit Corp. called Barker at home following the flooding and told him Barker Business Systems could ship its new inventory there. Officials moved its existing, undamaged inventory to space in The Printing Factory, a nearby commercial printer.
Barker planned to relocate the companies into temporary quarters in a nearby building by Jan. 12. "It's amazing how quickly you can get up and running again," he says. "We didn't miss a beat." Barker jokes that his next challenge will be to entice employees to come out of their houses and return to an office.
Barker wasn't the only distributor battling the floods. In nearby Sparks, Nev., officials at Intraform Inc. got a call from police on Jan. 1 to assess the rising water. Officials removed all the computers, sent back-ups of files to another office and began sandbagging outside the building. Unfortunately, water seeped over the top of the sandbags, damaging carpeting and some furniture. The next day, Doug Clary, president of the distributorship, was one of the first people from the Reno area to call the Federal Emergency Management Agency to request a low-interest loan. The company was out of its office for a few days.
Clary says all the firm's inventory was stored in two local public warehouses that were not damaged. Although it's hard to prepare for a natural disaster, he recommends business owners have a contingency plan. For example, Intraform's office manager backs up the computer system each night and takes the back-up home, just in case. Clary advises other business owners to do the same. "It's easy to be lazy," he says. "But it doesn't take long to back up a computer. It's very cheap insurance."
Two large manufacturing firms, Poser West Sparks and Transkrit Corp., were spared from flood damage. However, the floods did give Larry Jackson, general manager of the Poser plant, a harried moment. Jackson went to the plant on New Year's Day to prepare for water damage, says Doug Drendell, sales and marketing manager for Poser West Envelope. When Jackson got ready to leave, there was so much water in the area, rescuers had to send a boat to pick him up.