Have office, will travel
Disaster-recovery company offers mobile office space
By Ferdie DeVega, for the Tallahassee Democrat
August 6, 2006

Two months before this hurricane season began, Rogers Gunter Vaughn Insurance in Tallahassee developed a plan to stay in business even if a storm damages its building.

"When someone doesn't have a house, we don't have the luxury of saying we're in the same boat," said Sam Rogers Jr., chief financial officer of the insurance agency, which contracted with Charlotte, NC-based Agility Recovery Solutions.

Within 48 hours, the company will provide trailers for insurance agencies and other businesses to use if their home office is hit by a storm and they cannot use their equipment.

"The trailer comes with 10 computers, four satellite phones, a fax line and five internet hookups," Rogers said.  "We can take our backup data and put it into their computer system and continue to serve our clients."

Providing emergency service for the company's 13,000 customers is critical in times of a large natural disaster, he said.

Customers can upload information about damage to their homes or businesses, and it can then be transferred to a claims adjuster who will use the information when inspecting damaged structures, Rogers said.

Many companies might have a disaster-recovery plan for their data, but there are other important factors business owners and managers should consider before a natural disaster occurs, said Bob Boyd, president of Agility Recovery Solutions, which was founded 17 years ago.

"They might not necessarily know where their workers are going to go," he said.  "Where are your people -  the people  who make your business function - going to work?"

Boyd said the disaster-recovery industry typically has focused on servicing the Fortune 1000 companies, including banks and insurance companies that are required to have data-recovery capability.

Since he joined Agility in 2004, he said, his focus has been "to bring the service to businesses that traditionally haven't had the ability to afford these services."

There is a yearly contract, and the cost begins at $250 per month, Boyd said.

The company provides two sizes for the mobile offices:  a 12-foot-by-70-foot single-wide trailer for 18 people and a 24-foot-by-70-foot double-wide trailer for 50 people, he said.  "All (office) components needed to function are inside it."

Most clients need office space for between 50 and 100 people, he said.

After hurricanes Katrina and Wilma last year, Agility Recovery Solutions provided mobile offices to a total of 42 companies from Beaumont, Texas, to Miami.

Nearly two years ago, Agility began targeting three markets:  insurance agencies, banks and credit unions, and Certified Public Accountants.  Last quarter, it added 400 new clients, including medical facilities and retail and manufacturing companies, Boyd said.

He noted that Agility has signed up nearly 100 members of the Florida Association of Insurance Agents.

Rogers, of Rogers Gunter Vaughn Insurance, said that in addition to storms, the trailer could be used if the business's office is damaged by fire or rendered inoperable  by some other event.  "We've been lucky so far; we haven't had to use it," he said.

The Pensacola law firm of Beggs & Lane contracted with Agility in June for a double-wide trailer with nearly 50 work spaces and office equipment if a disaster occurs, said the firm's administrator, Ron Martin.  It also will receive a generator for its building, he said.

"(Hurricane) Ivan hit us two years ago.  We just got back into our building last August.  We had to totally rebuild," Martin said, nothing that employees had to relocate to five different sites.  "I wanted to have a backup plan if we had another disaster like Ivan and be there for taxpayers."