FPL Group, Inc.

The Issue

Many of FPL Group’s facilities are located near the coast, most notably FPL Utility, which is located in one of the most high-risk states along the hurricane belt. FPL must therefore maintain a high level of storm preparedness, which they achieve by constantly investing in and strengthening their infrastructure to withstand severe weather.

Executives recognized that the communication technology used during an incident needed to be more robust. Several incidents, including a problem with the transmission grid, occurred and key emergency responders and company leaders found it difficult to communicate effectively. FPL responded by developing an initiative to research and identify a state-of-the-art technology that promoted business continuity and supported effective communication processes to integrate into its system.

The utility needed a solution that provided personnel with the ability to communicate and coordinate plans in real time when unforeseen incidents arose, such as problems with the power grids, high-level IT problems, cyber attacks, facility issues or equipment failures.

FPL also required an application with a robust platform that could execute the delivery of tens of thousands of alerts in minutes and could enable two-way communications between employees. “We needed a communications platform that could send out messages in a quick and automated fashion. We chose OnSolve Critical Communications because of the solution’s accessibility and reliability,” said Brian Hanrahan, Director of Business Continuity, FPL.

Key Offerings

OnSolve Critical Communications expedites the flow of information through FPL’s workforce in a reliable and secure manner, which closely aligns the product with FPL’s core belief in utilizing technology to gain efficiency.

OnSolve Critical Communication is scalable and provides members of FPL’s emergency management team and executives across the organization with the option to instantaneously communicate with each other through a bridged conference call that individuals can join in one click from any location.

Key individuals will utilize the software to efficiently strategize and execute an emergency response plan within minutes.

OnSolve enhances FPL’s Accounting for Employees Process through dynamic group generation capabilities and two-way communication functionality. FPL uses the two-way communication feature to send out thousands of alerts to its employees after a hurricane, requiring workers to report on their status. The voice and text responses are returned to a central location where employees responsible for tracking employee status can review and generate reports.

Putting the Product to the Test

During the same year that FPL became a customer of OnSolve, the company andits subsidiaries’ communities were hit by the Iowa Floods, Hurricane Gustav, Tropical Storm Fay and Hurricane Ike.

The FPL HR Director who was responsible for accounting for employees in an emergency utilized OnSolve Critical Communications during all four incidents. During the Iowa Floods, management sent out alerts to FPL Group nuclear power plant employees asking them to use the product’s two-way messaging functionality to indicate whether they were safe and if they needed help. During the hurricanes and the tropical storm, FPL used the service for travel safety alerts, storm updates and instructions for reporting to work.

The Result

OnSolve enabled the instantaneous delivery of thousands of alerts multiple times over a period of several days. The service was easy touse, fast and reliable under the most extenuating circumstances.

“What we like most about the service is that the system is accessible through the web. To the best of my knowledge the system has never been down. It’s reliable,” said Brian Hanrahan.

FPL’s commitment to maintaining a comprehensive infrastructure and to providing quality products has led to unmatchable results. The company consistently outperforms national averages for service reliability.