Telecommunications continuity and critical infrastructure protection were key focal points in the September/October 27, 2003 issue of CPM Magazine. And in examining the telecommunications sector in particular, CPM found that while telecomm is perhaps the most valuable technology asset in business and government today, when organizational continuity is being considered, it is often overlooked. Meanwhile, interoperability issues, emerging technologies, and a rise in demand for multimedia functions are putting telecomm infrastructures in grave danger.

Company Overview The Crisis Tool Group is a Canadian Partnership. The principle partners, Karen Rutherford and Gerry Meyer, have combined over 60 years of insurance and risk management experience spanning the entire spectrum of Canadian business. Gerry Meyer FCIP, has over 40 years in the general insurance industry throughout Western Canada in both an underwriting and brokering capacity. Outside of the insurance world, he has completed the course of studies required by the Alberta Arbitration and Mediation Society, holds that society's certificate in Principled Negotiation and participates in the mediation of court, commercial and insurance related disputes. Karen Rutherford owned her own brokerage firm for 20 years. Risk management experiences were gained while managing high-risk adventure tourism liability coverage for 10 years. With clients in all sectors of the economy, she gained insight into the commonalities of business and the results that can follow a significant business interruption. (It is easy to convince any broker who has witnessed a large loss in his portfolio that his client could have benefited from some preplanning.) Using the risk management approach to help her clients build specific Recovery Plans in turn helped Karen create a valuable framework for clients to reuse in the future. Following two years of project-specific work with provincial, national and international companies building recovery plans, Gerry and Karen elected to create a tool that would allow businesses to work through a Recovery Plan without the help of a consultant Extensive beta product testing was conducted in the field with brokers' offices and their key clients well prior to the official release. The result is The Crisis Tool, whose typical users are businesses in the small to midsize category that don't have the benefit of a full time risk manager. The Crisis Tool is a real-world, useable solution to disaster preparation and recovery. Don't wait for a crisis-protect your business today. Please contact us for further information.