What’s New: In Brief (October 21, 2009)

CatastroPhone has launched an emergency response telecommunication service platform that enables “nearly instant” restoration of business’ incoming telephone call handling and distribution when systems are damaged, destroyed or rendered inaccessible.
The venture is a collaboration between Fibernetics Corp and MMI, both of Waterloo, Ont.
In a disaster situation, subscribers to CatastroPhone visit or call the Emergency Response Centre hotline to activate the service. The service then directs business calls in accordance with the subscribers’ specifications: to employees’ mobile phones, homes, temporary office locations or voicemail boxes.
“The CatastroPhone service fills a significant void in telecommunications restoration that until now has escaped the telecommunications industry and left the insurance industry’s intermediaries, claims personnel and clients helpless in their greatest time of need.”

Lisa Parry Becker, vice-president of William B. Parry & Son, Ltd., has been elected as the 2010 chair of The Applied Systems Client Network (ASCnet), the user group for Applied Systems agency management technology.
Brian Bortosh, president of Top O’Michigan Insurance Agency, Inc., was elected vice chair.
The elected leaders assume their posts Jan. 1, 2010.