Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Print and Mail Services
PCI Group’s disaster recovery and business continuity print and mail services, ACTIV dR, is a unique approach to protect you from planned and unplanned disruptions. It differs from traditional disaster recovery strategies, which rely on a “cold-site” model. This structure has several drawbacks, including high costs and complexity to deploy when it’s needed most. This tactic also focuses only on catastrophic event management, as opposed to any type of scheduled or unscheduled downtime. A printing and mailing disaster recovery plan should be a part of your business continuity strategy.
PCI ACTIV dR works much differently and reduces the risk of being unable to continue producing print and mail on schedule. Our business continuity solution is always on and active as a “hot-site.” In this scenario, launching is fast and cost-effective. Our process workflow includes our facilities performing a small portion of your work regularly, rotating through your applications throughout the year. As a result, we can actively begin processing your jobs, from file transfer to mailing. This system also allows us to do periodic testing to ensure we’re up-to-date with any changes you’ve made in your transactional business communications.
The chart below illustrates the difference between PCI’s ACTIV dR solution and the traditional Disaster Recovery approach.
Comparing Traditional Disaster Recovery vs. PCI ACTIV dR
Traditional DR Approach |
PCI Group’s ACTIV dR |
|---|---|
| High annual fee to participate | No annual fee |
| Subscription costs | No subscription cost |
| Declaration costs | No declaration fee |
| Only covers disaster scenarios | Covers both planned and unplanned business disruptions including, peak demand periods, labor shortages, equipment failures, etc |
| Execution of declaration expenses, including travel, implementation, and testing | The program is always active, so there is no travel, implementation, or testing costs. |
| Standard run-time rates, click fees, and material costs | Competitive rates for materials and click fees |
| Redundant operations | Redundant operations (SC and TX) |
| Multiple manufacturing environments | All environments are the same, using the White Paper Factory and Lean Manufacturing. |
Your Trusted Partner for Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Print and Mail Services
PCI Group developed its program to be an essential partner to its customers, with many companies that currently have in-house operations using our services. The key to production continuing to run when you have a disruption is that we already know your jobs because we’re consistently generating a portion of your work. With this model, we are familiar with your workflows, processes, and files. It’s as simple as activating the services, and our teams move your jobs into production.
The Risk of “Cold-Sites”
Organizations put themselves in a position to have considerable challenges by depending solely on “cold-sites.” It’s not an instant handoff of work with this approach. You can fall behind on meeting dates for critical communications, some of which may be compliance-related. An increase in errors or mis-mailings could also occur since these locations are producing work for the first time. In addition, the exorbitant costs push your numbers way off budget.
4 Advantages of PCI ACTIV dR – Business Continuity Print and Mail Services
- Some of your monthly production is moving through PCI Group, so there’s no “onboarding” time to get up and running.
- All the excessive fees for most programs don’t apply, including subscription, declaration, or implementation.
- The solution protects you from more than rare disaster events, focusing on business continuity needs that can arise from many scenarios, such as power outages, worker shortages, cyber events, or equipment failure.
- Our services are an extension of your in-plant, delivering the same quality of work as you do.
Keeping Transactional Print and Mail Fully Operational
What happens if transactional customer communications don’t hit the mail stream at the right time? It’s an area of risk that is hard to mitigate without a flexible solution. These letters must reach their intended addressee on time, every time. It ensures you stay compliant with timeframes for certain documents or that customers receive invoices and billing statements at the correct interval to remit payment by the due date. Delays in getting out of these communications can cause customer dissatisfaction, reputational damage, and impact cash flow.
Any downtime creates harmful outcomes, and it’s why staying fully operational with a partner eliminates most of this risk. Since all we produce is transactional print and mail, you can have complete confidence in the quality, accuracy, and compliance of your print and mail.
Protecting Against Any Business Interruption
Disruption to your transactional print and mail production can happen for many reasons, with most being hard to predict or avoid. PCI ACTIV dR protects you against:
- Natural disasters
- Heightened states of emergency
- Utility disruptions
- Peak demand
- Planned or unplanned equipment outages
- Staff shortages
- Cyber events
ACTIV dR: The Better Way to Ensure Business Continuity for Print and Mail
Business continuity is complex and different for each organization. Its impact on print and mail can be costly in many ways. You can have greater assurance that you’ll remain operational by partnering with us. With our rigorous protocols and redundant operations, you can be confident that your critical communications keep moving.
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