Posted by Todd Ellebruch on Thu, Mar 04, 2010 @ 03:01 PM
On Thursday, March 11, 2010, Carrara Companies will hold two CE courses at Motorists on the topics of disaster recovery and dehumidification/drying. Both courses will be held in the Plaza Dining Room.
Disaster Recovery: This class explores loss prevention. How can agents or brokers help themselves and their insureds by minimizing risk? Briefly looks into developing a disaster plan. (3 CE credits, 8:30 to 11:30 a.m.)
Dehumidification / Drying: This subject discusses the importance of dehumidification. Why is it necessary? Reviews water damage and how it affects the home or business. (3 CE credits, 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.)
While these courses are geared toward agents, associates are welcome to attend with supervisor approval. To register, please contact Deborah Kenney in Training and Development.
Posted by Todd Ellebruch on Thu, Mar 04, 2010 @ 02:32 PM
The Grange Academy has partnered with Carrara Companies to offer CE classes on Fire Damage Recovery and Water Damage Recovery. Each class is 3 hours in duration with a free continental breakfast and catered lunch being provided. These classes are being offered as a full-day session. Due to our partnering with Carrara we can offer these CE classes at a reduced rate. The cost for the one day session is: $25 for agents and $18.75 for Senior Partners.
These classes will be delivered by the Carrara Companies which was founded in 1996, providing commercial and residential cleaning and restoration services throughout Ohio. Each of the classes will offer valuable information on damage and recovery to property and electronic hardware/data following water and/or fire damage. This will help you provide improved service to your clients when a loss does occur.
For more information, feel free to download the flyer here.
To register, visit: http://www.grangeagent.com/
Posted by Todd Ellebruch on Thu, Mar 04, 2010 @ 09:28 AM
By now, we all know of the risks of what smoking does to our health. But can cigarette smoke really be unhealthy for our contents, especially our electronics? You bet. Like our bodies, electronic devices generate heat and need air to breathe, and in doing so create an environment in which dust can collect in and on the circuitry. Unlike regular dust though, dust from cigarette smoke contains three things which can kill electronics: moisture, nicotine, and tar.
Moisture can condense on the circuit boards, allowing the dust and other elements to gather and stick to it. There is also the possibility of excessive moisture causing corrosion of the metal components on the boards themselves. The nicotine and tar co-mix to basically encrust on the interior components, causing fans to clog and heat sinks to fill with this material. This can cause overheating, and essentially kill the electronic.
Another danger is data loss. The small particles which travel in cigarette smoke, can seep into a hard drive, and cause damage to the platters which hold the information. If those platters become damaged, there is a greater potential the data contained on those disks becomes corrupted, lost, and sometimes unrecoverable.
Finally, cigarette smoke causes a discoloration of the material. The sticky tar and nicotine will cause the color of the material to turn burnt-yellow. Even during restoration, if the build-up is significant, they will always be some measure of discoloration due to the chemical reaction caused between the elements.
The best thing to do is obviously quit smoking. If however, this is not an option, regular maintenance and staying clear of your electronics while smoking will give them a longer life.
Posted by Jim Dunphy on Tue, Mar 02, 2010 @ 09:39 AM
Disaster Recovery, a topic many of us have heard of, yet few wish to think about. Management execs and business owners alike would agree that this investment in time and resources may or may not pay off. It is a gamble on a gamble at best. Why plan for the improbable?
It is reported that even in this post Katrina era, fewer than 50% of businesses today have a Disaster Recovery Plan and of those that do, less than half have tested their plan. In today’s challenging economic climate why put forth the effort in time and resources to prepare for something unlikely to happen to you or your business? Time is money.
A recent Gartner Group study found that 70% of companies that suffer a major disaster, without a valid recovery plan in place, fail within the next year and only 10% who survive make a full recovery. Companies without a plan have slower recovery times that are more costly resulting in lost customers, revenue and shareholder confidence.
Experts agree that businesses hit by disaster are stunned into reality as seconds turn to minutes and minutes to hours as they find themselves unprepared to deal with a disastrous event in the workplace. At the end of the day, you may never need it – yet, the evidence is clear that having a Disaster Recovery Plan in place will assist your business to:
- Save lives & minimize property damage
- Contact EMS vendors to assist with immediate recovery & restoration efforts
- Quickly resume mission-critical functions and minimize business interruption
- Restore service and customer confidence
- Minimize overall financial impact
Now is the time to plan for disaster – this is not only prudent business decision but can make the difference in surviving the’ unthinkable’. Having a viable Disaster Recovery plan is an absolute must in the world of business today.