Agility Recovery Announced Among 100 U.S. Businesses as British Airways' 'Business Opportunity Grant' Recipients

CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Agility Recovery Solutions, a premier business continuity and disaster recovery company, has been announced as one of 100 winners of British Airways' "Business Opportunity Grants" program. The award provides recipients with free airfare to anywhere in the world where British Airways flies plus valuable services to help support businesses and maximize travel experiences.

Agility Recovery Solutions specializes in providing comprehensive, turnkey business continuity solutions to small and midsized businesses across North America. To handle the traditional disaster recovery industry roadblocks of scale, cost and complexity, Agility developed ReadySuite, a solution delivering the critical assets necessary for businesses to remain operational during disasters or interruptions. According to a recent study commissioned by Agility Recovery Solutions, an overwhelming 90 percent of small to mid-size businesses are woefully unprepared for a business interruption or disaster.

"With over 5,000 customers across North America, this grant provides an efficient way to conduct meaningful face to face consultations with our clients," said Agility CEO Bob Boyd. "Disaster recovery is more than bits and bytes. It's very personal. It is about recovering people, communities, and businesses. Our philosophy about recovery synchs up perfectly with British Airways' philosophy about face to face interactions."

Agility Recovery Solutions is one of three North Carolina-based companies awarded the 2010 British Airways "Business Opportunity Grant".

"Business Opportunity Grants" is part of British Airways' "Face to Face" program, a multi-phased campaign that aims to drive forward small and medium sized businesses by focusing on face to face connections as a crucial driver of business growth. The program offers these companies a variety of support including the opportunity to travel overseas and conduct face to face business meetings that will result in new projects, deeper partnerships and revenue for U.S. cities.

For its "Business Opportunity Grants" program, British Airways hand selected the winning companies primarily based on how a year's worth of business travel and face to face meetings, along with other valuable business support, would positively impact each business, its growth and ability to meet objectives for 2010.  The grant includes airfare for 10 roundtrip Club World business class flights, five free global shipments with British Airways World Cargo, $1,000 toward hotel accommodations at Courtyard by Marriott, five Regus Businessworld Gold Cards offering access to its business lounges worldwide, a Canon MX860 Printer, and three face to face business introductions through ExeConnect.

"We congratulate our 100 'Business Opportunity Grant' winners and look forward to supporting them grow their business and explore new opportunities," said Simon Talling-Smith, Executive Vice President, Americas, British Airways.  "We gave away over 1,000 seats in phase one of our Face to Face program and were pleased to hear that the results of the Harvard Business Review were correct - face to face meetings is key in building long-term relationships and sealing the deal."  

British Airways commissioned a survey of Harvard Business Review readers to gauge perceptions within the international business community about the importance of face to face meetings.  The study aimed to uncover the impact that virtual meetings have had on business growth and relationship building.  Results from the survey of over 2,300 Harvard Business Review readers concluded that 95 percent of businesspeople said they believe that face to face meetings are the key to success in building long term relationships, and 89 percent agree face to face meetings are essential for "sealing the deal."

About Agility Recovery Solutions

Agility Recovery Solutions, a former division of GE, has over 20 years of disaster recovery and business continuity experience. Since 1989, Agility has provided comprehensive, packaged recovery solutions, consulting services and testing options to businesses across North America. Agility revolutionized the disaster recovery and business continuity industries by developing a simple, cost-effective and easy-to-use recovery solution called ReadySuite.

SOURCE Agility Recovery Solutions