HAEGERSTOWN, Md. — To expand its reach even further to assist credit unions with their business continuity planning, Ongoing Operations, LLC acquired Baltimore-based CU Recover on April 3.
CU Recover provides business continuity planning products for credit unions' business including impact analysis, business continuity plans and a maintenance facility that distributes workload and responsibility so that all critical employees are involved. Ongoing Operations said it intends to use the intellectual property and technology assets from the acquisition to provide CUs with improved plans and tools for both disaster recovery and business continuity, the CUSO said.
"CU Recover has been an outstanding product for many of Ongoing Operations clients," said Kirk Drake, CEO of Ongoing Operations. "By acquiring CU Recover, Ongoing Operations now owns the methodology, software, and solution for providing credit union focused business continuity plans for collaborative credit unions and will continue to enhance its unique credit union features."
Hugh R. Smallwood, former president/CEO of CU Recover, said the acquisition compliments Ongoing Operations' "revolutionary approach to business continuity." Smallwood, Sr. will continue to work with the CUSO in an advisory role while Smallwood Jr. will join the company as vice president of technology. Carrie Todd will become the CUSO's new vice president of collaboration, a role Drake said will help Ongoing Operations develop stronger relationships with credit unions and vendors. CU Recover's Baltimore facility will be closed, Drake said.
Ongoing Operations and CU Recover have built a solid alliance over the past few years and when the CUSO opened in February 2006, it signed on as a reseller. Drake said the CUSO had so much success with selling CU Recover's products, discussions began to bring the two entities together.
The relevancy of business continuity and disaster recovery has continually gained importance. Originally, Ongoing Operations was started to provide business continuity and disaster recovery services to credit unions located in the Washington, D.C. area. However, "increased regulatory pressures" along with a strong national interest in the Ongoing Operations services, have led the CUSO to expand nationally, Drake said. Interest has picked up so quickly that Ongoing Operations is scheduled to both open a second disaster recovery center in Portland and expand its 30,000 square-foot Haegerstown facility to a 250,000 square-foot operation in June. Drake said the CUSO also plans to hire up to four employees this year for a total of 11.
"The [disaster recovery center] provides replicated space for credit unions to relocate staff should a disaster occur as well as co-location space for technology based recovery solutions," Drake said. "This strategically located center ensures that participating credit unions will have access to their business-critical information systems in any circumstance."
Over the next month or so, Ongoing Operations will notify existing clients of the changes as well as build a road map to fully integrating CU Recover into its methodology, Drake said. The CUSO is also moving forward with its plan to create a client advisory panel for its credit unionclients to offer feedback on Ongoing Operations' product and service delivery. The panel is scheduled to meet for the first time in May. –msamaad@cutimes.com
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