Vantis Life Ensures Business Continuity and Customer Service

Based in Windsor, Connecticut, Vantis Life Insurance Company provides families with affordable life insurance and annuity products.

Vantis Life prides itself on providing products to hardworking American families and supporting these products with attentive and personal customer service. But in 2011, an unusually early and heavy October snowstorm knocked out power in Windsor and surrounding areas for over a week, disrupting phone and online communications with its policy holders and more than 130 financial institutions throughout the United States. It was one of the worst outages in Connecticut's history.

Vantis Life was able to remain open through the generosity of its business neighbor, LIMRA International, a research and consulting firm. They had had a Cummins Power Generation backup power system installed by Tower Generator, the local authorized Cummins Power Generation dealer, just weeks before the storm hit. In the best spirit of neighborly support, LIMRA set up a temporary call center for Vantis Life so the insurance company could continue to provide service to its customers during the statewide power outage.

"We were pleased that we could help our neighbors during the natural catastrophe," said LIMRA CEO Bob Kerzner. "Our generator played an important role in keeping our own staff warm and safe, and allowed our organization to continue to provide valuable research and other services to our members throughout the world."

Thanks to LIMRA and the reliable performance of its standby generator system, Vantis Life realized the importance of having the power to maintain uninterrupted business operations during an emergency. Having experienced firsthand how well the generator system worked, Vantis Life decided to install its own complete standby power system, relying on LIMRA's endorsement of Cummins Power Generation.

“We’ve talked about adding an emergency power system since we purchased the building six years ago,” said Vantis Life EVP and COO Scott Smith. “The recent storm convinced us it was time to incorporate this vital safety feature into our corporate disaster recovery plan.”

By performing an over-the-weekend shutdown, the Tower Generator team met the challenge by working six-man crews over a 30-hour period. Using its own Cummins Power Generation rental generator, they provided the power needed for Vantis Life's key system to stay up and running for the duration of the shutdown. Extensive planning enabled the team to have power restored 12 hours ahead of schedule. The result was a seamless integration, so when Monday morning arrived, it was business as usual at Vantis Life.

Smith said, "Providing our customers with the high level of service they expect, and keeping our operations running smoothly, were the primary objectives in our installation of a generator. We chose Tower Generator and Cummins Power Generation because they specialize in standby generators and have a proven reputation for outstanding customer service. And, we also experienced firsthand how investing in your own power plant can dramatically affect the bottom line."

The project at Vantis Life took 27 days from groundbreaking to finish, but you can watch the entire project in just 3.5 minutes: