Think for a second about how much responsibility – and potential liability – is involved for a company that handles payroll for 1500 employees weekly.

Then consider that some of these employees serve multiple clients and draw multiple checks. Oh, and they’re home health care workers, providing vital services to highly vulnerable clients. It is also your job to maintain their schedules, ensuring that every client receives necessary services at exactly the right time.

Now consider what happens when you lose your power—not just for a few minutes or a few hours, but for days at a time.

You can guess the likely result: Every computer, server, network device – even the phone system – stops cold. No computers, no databases, no printers means no checks and no schedules. The potential impact to clients, could mean missed blood tests, wellness checks, meals, medications, and doctors appointments—and potentially catastrophic consequences.

This isn’t a hypothetical scenario. This happened to Bower Management Services, one of our longest-standing and most valued clients, and its ExpertCare and SERPEO subsidiaries. When an electrical substation in Troy blew up, 10,000 homes and businesses were left in the dark. Business went on as usual for ExpertCare though: payroll was met, and all appointments were made. The “likely result” never happened. Why? Because Bower Companies planned ahead. Bower management knew what the consequences would be if there was a major disruption, such as a flood, fire, or power outage – and they worked with Red Level to structure their business to accommodate it if it ever happened. A little more than a year before the Troy substation failure, Bower ditched its in-house IT infrastructure and migrated to Mi-Cloud.

When the outage happened, Bower’s essential data and apps remained fully accessible and functional. Mi-Cloud’s “work from anywhere” capability let the companies’ employees work from remote offices, from home, from coffee shops, or wherever they needed to be – and the work got done. Even though the companies’ offices were dark and shuttered, ExpertCare and SERPEO nailed every essential deadline: Quality of care was maintained seamlessly and everyone got paid. Just as importantly, the companies dodged the tremendous legal and financial liability an interruption in services would have created.

Meanwhile, a few thousand other companies in the affected area – factories, doctors’ offices, gas stations and offices – weren’t so lucky. While insurance may have offset some of their losses, it didn’t eliminate the hassle, prevent damage to the brands, or compensate for missed opportunities.

Besides providing outstanding services, ExpertCare and SERPEO have succeeded as a result of planning ahead, making the changes to their operations and infrastructure that ensured their ability not only to survive but thrive. Learn more about BaaS, DRaaS, and cloud services execution and plan in the full case study.