FacilitySource Announces Enhanced Disaster Recovery Preparedness Program
Columbus, Ohio; Phoenix, Arizona; Racine, Wisconsin (PRWEB) September 24, 2013 -- With hurricane season beginning to ramp up in the southeastern U.S., FacilitySource, the world leader in facility maintenance management for geographically dispersed real estate portfolios, announced today an enhanced Disaster Recovery Preparedness Program designed to help retail brands prepare for and quickly recover from natural disasters and other crises.
The Disaster Recovery Preparedness Program, which has already proven to be an invaluable service to retailers with stores or restaurants in high-risk regions like the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts, includes several key features that help clients of FacilitySource minimize losses and get back to business as quickly and safely as possible after a significant weather event or other crisis.
As the program title indicates, preparedness is the first component of this program. “Long before an imminent disaster, FacilitySource works proactively with our client’s store, operations, communications and executive leaders to establish a written, coordinated plan of action to be implemented should a disaster like a hurricane, earthquake, tornado or flood occur at one or several of its retail locations,” said FacilitySource CEO, Bill Hayden.
When a storm or other serious event is developing in a particular region, FacilitySource tracks its path using sophisticated software and proactively notifies its retail clients of which stores are likely to be affected. Then just prior to and during the event, FacilitySource assembles specially-trained disaster planning project teams that monitor and react to the situation 24/7 until restoration efforts are well underway.
Throughout the disaster, FacilitySource acts as a hub of communication, coordinating efforts between the people in the field (including service providers, store associates and local government officials) and the retail brand’s corporate office. They provide real-time reporting throughout each day of the disaster, which includes key contact information, requests from corporate and the store managers, scheduled reopening updates, and critical information from service providers involved in the restoration.
After seeing very successful results for clients during Hurricane Sandy, FacilitySource has made further enhancements to this program including improved technology to gather and process information and data more quickly and increased staffing and training. “We have staffed up and cross-trained our support center associates in both the Columbus, Ohio and Phoenix, Arizona support centers to make sure we respond more effectively than ever before,” said Duane Smith, Vice President of Client Services. “We’re ready to handle whatever comes our way.”
At the heart of this enhanced program are three primary goals: ensuring the safety of the retailer’s store associates and customers, minimizing the retailer’s losses, and restoring damage as quickly as possible so the stores can get back to doing business. “Getting things back up and running is important for two reasons,” said Hayden. “Obviously, every day that a store is closed, it is losing revenue. But, even more importantly, the goods those stores sell are often critical to the recovery of the community at large, so the sooner we can get those stores open again, the sooner they can help their entire community heal.”
About FacilitySource
FacilitySource delivers customized facility management solutions to over 65,000 mall-based and non-mall-based retail and restaurant locations in the U.S. and internationally. With over $1B in annual spend management, FacilitySource provides its clients with knowledge from the industry’s largest facility maintenance platform, best-in-class service through an Elite Network of service providers, proprietary technology that gives real-time access to the client’s own facilities environment as well as to industry benchmarks, and a flexible approach that enables clients to optimize their brand, customer experience and facilities maintenance budgets. For more information, visit http://www.facilitysource.com.
Janie Linnick, Facility Source, http://www.facilitysource.com, 703.628.2473, [email protected]
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