Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

Are you like me and often find yourself feeling nostalgic for sharpened pencils, composition books and being able to raise your hand? Remember how great it felt when you were part of a rousing discussion about gender ideologies in “Emma?” Well now, if you are in the power protection business you can have a chance to “go back to school” in some form, thanks to Minuteman UPS/Para Systems (News - Alert).

Recently, Minuteman – a leading provider of power protection technologies— unveiled its On-Demand Training Center so those in the industry can start having those rousing discussions again, train on their own schedules and receive BICSI (News - Alert) Continuing Education Credits, which are oftentimes required for various certifications through the organization.

“Our primary goal is to provide BICSI members and non-members with a chance to learn about the importance of power protection in today’s connected business world,” Duston Nixon, marketing communications specialist for Minuteman, told TMCnet when asked about the mission of the program. “Our dependence on technology means that downtime is simply not an option for any organization, and this presentation provides the knowledge needed to build a fail-safe power protection program.”

“For many years we have attended BICSI’s national shows, and have worked closely with thousands of its members to build reliable power protection systems,” he added. “These people help us spread our message, and to be able to offer them credit required to obtain or maintain their certifications for taking our training is a perfect fit.”

And the need for such a presentation is more pressing than ever. A survey from Stratus Technologies (News - Alert) and ITIC Corporation recently found that more than half of the businesses (52 percent) do not know the potential financial impact of IT downtime and the impact it can have on their bottom line and reputation.

The survey also revealed that although 48 percent of companies currently calculate the cost of IT downtime, most of them still drastically underestimate the actual costs of outages, the ensuing remediation efforts, customer dissatisfaction, and the increased potential of litigation. For example, 35 percent of survey respondents believe that one-hour of downtime for their most business critical applications will cost their company $25,000 or less, which shows they are underestimating the adverse impact that IT downtime can have on their entire businesses.

The presentation offered by Minuteman will cover the basics of electricity, problems present in utility power, the types of power protection, and the tools for building trouble-free power protection systems. Other topics to be covered include four major components of electricity; simple cabinet/rack installation and common terms and definitions.

While Minuteman has offered an online training program for many years, it was only recently granted approval to award BICSI credit for it, according to Nixon. The program was officially launched at BICSI’s Winter Conference in Orlando this past February to “very favorable reviews from many attendees,” he said.

“Many companies across the industries BICSI covers offer certified training, and we are happy to join them with our own offering,” Nixon said. “BICSI members will find our training to be a concise and informative tool that they will be able to utilize in every telephone and network installation they take part in.”

For more on Minuteman’s BICSI program, click here.