KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. - You can do about anything online thesedays, including preparing for those times when you're not. That'sthe idea behind PLANet for Credit Unions, which bills itself as theindustry's only credit union-specific, Web-enabledbusiness-continuity planning (BCP) software that meets both FFIECand NCUA regulations. PLANet is from Strohl Systems of King ofPrussia, Pa., which, building on its flagship Living DisasterRecovery Planning System, began working on a solution just forcommunity financial institutions in 1999 and released it 18 monthslater. About 150 credit unions are now using PLANet, according toMichael Jennings, vice president of consulting at Strohl Systems,who says it's the company's fastest-growing product. Others havenoticed, too. PLANet recently won the CUNA Technology Council'sfirst Best of Show Award at the Future Forum in Reno, Nev., and italso has a fan in Barbara Goodsaid, disaster recovery coordinatorat $760 million Municipal Employees Credit Union in Baltimore. "Wehad a disaster-recovery plan that had been put together in 1998 and1999 with the assistance of the Blair Technology Group, but decidedwe should update it after 9/11. The folks at Blair (a StrohlSystems partner and re-seller) suggested we take a look at thePLANet system. We did and decided that it fit our needs," Goodsaidsays. "It's pretty straight-forward to use, and having it hostedonline makes a lot of sense. And it eliminates a lot of work whenwe have to change something or add a new product," she says. Evenjust updating employee contact information can be daunting if donemanually. PLANet takes care of that by automatically changing allreferences to a phone number anytime it's changed in any section ofthe plan. Goodsaid cites that kind of functionality, plus knowingthere's a backup to her 77,000-member credit union's continuityplan accessible from anywhere there's an Internet connection, as acouple benefits of the PLANet solution. Making what could bedifficult easy is the idea behind PLANet, Jennings says. "Not manycommunity financial institutions have in-house BCP expertise orknowledge," the Strohl Systems vice president says. "PLANetprovides the necessary expertise through the use of industry bestpractices and expert-developed recovery scripts, which arecustomizable, step-by-step instructions for dealing with virtuallyany disruption to a business-critical function or business unit."The company also turns to its customers for input. "We work veryclosely with our users to improve functionality," Jennings says."We take their recommendations seriously - our latest versionreflects that fact. We incorporated several user suggestions,including enhanced importing capabilities and a `Manage MyResources' function that enables administrators to manage theirentire plan from one simple home page." The company also keeps upwith NCUA and FFIEC requirements for business-continuity planningand makes changes as needed. "Since PLANet is an ASP product,updates can be made easily," Jennings says. "And as new regulationsand requirements are introduced, PLANet is updated to reflect thosechanges with no need for users to install new software. Employing asolution that does not further tax an IT department is an addedbonus. It transfers the burden of managing, updating and backing upthe software to the service provider." As for the cost of thesolution, Jennings says it's based on asset size, and as for thereturn on investment, he says: "Financial institutions must have aplan, so their choice is to either use a tool such as PLANet, whichis specifically designed for business-continuity planning, or use astatic word-processing tool. "PLANet uses a relational database andcomes with a built-in planning methodology, 58 recovery scripts, 50roles and responsibilities for team members, and flexible importingfunctions. "These features alone can reduce the time spent buildingand maintaining a plan by more than 70%. Overall, organizations cansave $30,000 in the first year by using PLANet instead of anin-house program. And they can save more than $5,000 a year bysuing PLANet to maintain that plan." MECU hasn't had to use thepreparations kept current in its recovery plan, Goodsaid says, butit hasn't sat idle, either. "Luckily, there has really been noopportunity to bring the plan into action, although we have visitedit on a couple of occasions when severe storms were expected in thearea, and when the country has gone on Code Red because ofterrorism concerns," she says. -

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