in this issue Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning Land Air Embraces Customer Training CLI Welcomes Eastern Connection and Segerdahl Graphics SaaS Corner Tip of the Month Calendar of Events

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Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning

By Brian Bowman, Sr. Solution Engineer, Progress Software Corporation

In today's world, all businesses, small or large, cannot afford to be without a business continuity plan (BCP). Disaster recovery planning (DRP) is a smaller part of an overall business continuity process and deals with your critical business applications. Business continuity planning is just as important. Business continuity involves three aspects - people, process, and technology. Taking care to plan for all of these aspects will ensure your success when a disaster strikes.

Taking care of the people within a company during a disaster is hard to do. It is a critical part of a successful business continuity plan. Having the application up and running is not effective if there is no-one to run the application or answer the phones. Having employees who are worried about where they will sleep or where their family is affects the company as well. These employees could be functioning at 30 or 40 percent of their capacity when the company needs them the most. All of these aspects are important to consider when building a business continuity solution.

The process is as important as the people. It starts with a Business Impact Analysis (BIA). The business impact investigation process will examine your business environment, processes, and applications. It will also provide you with an understanding of what is most important when it comes to recovery priorities. This information will lay the foundation for building a BC plan that will meet the business' needs. Three important outcomes from a BCP are Recovery Time Objective (RTO), Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and application priority.

Recovery time defines how soon you need to recover. Recovery point defines how much data you can afford to lose. For example, if you need an application to be up and running within 15 minutes then the RTO is 15 minutes. If you can only afford to lose 5 minutes worth of data then your RPO is five minutes. Application priority helps you determine what applications need to be available sooner rather than later.

The technology aspect of business continuity is really the disaster recovery plan for IT. It is the easiest to solve. First, you need to identify what processes and resources are critical. The BIA has provided most of this for you. Next, you should consider the different solutions based on your business needs. Progress and Carrier Logistics provide several different levels and options with respect to your Carrier Logistics applications. OpenEdge Replication gives you the ability to replicate your database, your most important technology asset, ensuring that you can recover the data you need to run your business. It is important to consider what the business needs. These should correspond to the results of the BIA.

Whether you are a small business or a large business, disaster recovery planning is critical to keeping your business running during and after a disaster. Progress and CLI are available to help you determine what is important, which options are available to you, and implement the correct solution to meet your business needs.

For additional information on OpenEdge Replication and other disaster recovery options please contact Craig Lis at Carrier Logistics at clis@carrierlogistics.com .

Click here for the Progress website

	Land Air Embraces Customer Training
CLI has always emphasized the importance of training. It's an unfortunate but proven fact that most people only utilize a small percentage of the available technology no matter what the system or product. A commitment to training can help rectify this problem. Long-time CLI client Land Air of New England, a leading LTL and Truckload carrier in the Northeast with service throughout North America, understands this as well. They have launched a training program for their customers so that they can take advantage of all of the functionality available in the FACTS web module. Land Air clearly understands that a satisfied, well-trained customer translates into long-term business commitment. CLI sat down with Jennie Barnao, Corporate Education Coordinator for Land Air to find out just what they are doing. CLI: Why do you think it is important for Land Air to train their customers? Jennie: It is all about meeting customer needs. Giving them what they want, how and when they want it. Training leads to greater understanding, satisfaction, and efficiency. It is important to stay ahead of the curve to continue to be their first and best choice. CLI: In what areas are you providing training? Jennie: We will be training our customers on the features and tools that are available to them on our website. We will be showing customers how to obtain a rate quote, schedule a pick-up, view accounting invoices and balances, as well as how to track and trace a shipment. CLI: How are you conducting the training? What training vehicles are you using? Jennie: The training will be held online. We use a web conferencing program that allows us to present the information to our customers. Prior to the meeting they receive an email invitation with the training link, just before the training begins they sign in and then they are able to view whatever application I am sharing. CLI: How did you inform your customers about the training? Jennie: We sent an email to all customers that have an active email address in our system informing them that we would be conducting a training session. CLI: Have you just launched this or have you been doing it for awhile? If so how long? Jennie: This is the first time we have offered anything like this to our customers. We trained all of our team members on the functions of our website using this format and we received very positive feedback from them. We then decided that offering it to our customers should be our next step. CLI: How has the response been? Jennie: The response has been very positive. We were able to schedule three training sessions with multiple customers on each session. Other companies have called to tell us it is a great idea and that they are now thinking about conducting an online training session. We are very pleased with the response. CLI: Any advice to other companies that may want to launch a training program? Jennie: My advice would be to take time to research and find out what your customers need and how you can serve them better. Click here for Land Air's website »

	CLI Welcomes Eastern Connection and Segerdahl Graphics
CLI is pleased to announce that Eastern Connection and Segerdahl Graphics have chosen to install the FACTS system at their facilities. Eastern Connection, the largest regional parcel carrier on the East Coast, is headquartered in Woburn, MA. Celebrating their 25th anniversary, Eastern Connection prides itself on being more flexible and personalized than the national giants, with their customer service available every day around the clock. They also match and exceed the nationals' track record for reliability. Thanks to their proven ground transport system they consistently deliver as promised...with a 98.7% on-time record that they believe is the best in the Package Delivery business. And with the FACTS system in place, things can only get even better. Welcome Eastern Connection. Segerdahl Graphics is an example of a CLI client that is not primarily a transportation company. They liked the functionality and ease of use of the CLI web module and decided they could benefit from using it for the distribution division of their business. Segerdahl Graphics provides graphic solutions that include digital photography, direct to plate pre-media, sheet-fed printing with in-line UV and aqueous coating, and imaging and mailing services. The company also provides conventional photography of close-ups or landscapes, and shots of automobiles, executives, and animals; binding and mailing services; Web development; and digital asset management that archive the art documents and digital images. The company was founded in 2002 and is based in Wheeling, IL. Welcome Segerdahl.

	SaaS Corner
Software as a Service or SaaS refers to a hosted environment that is the latest rage in the software industry. For over a year now, CLI has offered its total freight management system in this version under the name FACTS-ondemand. In fact CLI was prominently featured in an article in Transport Topics published a few months back. If you missed it, please click the link below. Basically a hosted system is web-based. The system does not reside in-house but at a third-party provider. CLI chose OpSource to host their application as their reputation is one of the best in the industry. To learn more about OpSource click here. CLI would like to welcome some of our newest SaaS clients: 88 Logistics City of Industry, CA C2C Logistics Laguna Niguel, CA Fortigo Freight Brampton, ON Transportation on Demand Chino, CA For further details on the FACTS-ondemand system contact Craig Lis at Carrier Logistics at clis@carrierlogistics.com or visit the website. Click for the SaaS Article »

	Tip of the Month
Backup Call Report Losing data can be a critical blow to any organization. Backing up your system is a must. To that end, CLI recommends that a Backup Call Report is periodically run to retain a usable file listing all current pickups and deliveries. This report can be exported or e-mailed and can be used as a reference if there is a system failure. Starting Backup Call Report The Backup Call Report runs as one of your Background Jobs. To start, access option # 92 from the ob menu. First view the status of jobs that are currently running by selecting option number 3 from the Background Job Control Menu. You will want to make sure that when you complete the process you continue the run of any existing background jobs. Then select option 1 to Start/Change Background Jobs, where a list will display of available jobs to run. Arrow key down to the Backup Call Report and press Enter to view the parameters for the report. The time between runs is the first field and defaults to a standard of every 30 minutes. You can choose to run the report for a single terminal or all (*) terminals and for (P)ickups, (D)eliveries, or (B)oth. The next three fields allow you to define which stops to include based on their status (Routed, Dispatched, and Confirmed). If you want to have a printed version output on every run, select 'Y' and then choose the printer for the report. If you do not choose to receive a printed copy, the report will always export a file to the SDATA folder called bkupcall.rpt that can be retrieved by your IT personnel if necessary. Any questions? Contact the CLI Help Desk at helpdesk@carrierlogistics.com

	Calendar of Events
Date Program Location Oct 4-7 American Trucking Associations (ATA) Management Conference and Exhibition New Orleans, LA Oct 6-8 Parcel Forum 08 Chicago, IL Oct 20-22 SMC3 Loss Prevention Conference Atlanta, GA Nov 7-9 CamExpo 2008 Québec, QC Nov 14-19 National Industrial Transportation League (NITLeague) 101st Annual Meeting and TransComp Fort Lauderdale, FL Nov 20-21 Ontario Trucking Association 82nd Annual Convention Toronto, ON Jan 20-21 SMC3 2009 Winter Conference Atlanta, GA Feb 22-24 American Trucking Association (ATA) Winter Leadership Meeting Arlington, VA

Quick Links

Carrier Logistics Website

Progress Software Corporation