Don’t Build a Fragile Operation: What True Continuity Looks Like
When most organizations talk about “business continuity,” they’re thinking big, cyberattacks, hurricanes, wildfires. But as David Bilodeau, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Pitney Bowes, pointed out in his recent User Conference session, disruption doesn’t always look like a natural disaster. Sometimes, it’s a broken inserter, a carrier delay, or the one person who knows your mailing workflow taking PTO.
The truth is, most mailing and shipping operations aren’t built for interruption. They’re built for routine. And that’s the problem.
When a single point of failure becomes your biggest risk
Every operation has one: the process, vendor, or person that keeps everything running, until it doesn’t. David shared how a state agency realized this the hard way. Their benefit notices were processed through a single mailroom in one location. When severe weather threatened temporary closures, which would result in backlogs, compliance risks, and frustrated constituents.
Their solution wasn’t to double down on more equipment. It was to think differently about redundancy and flexibility, outsourcing overflow to an on-demand print and mail service that could step in instantly.
By rethinking continuity as a service instead of a spare machine, they gained not just backup, but visibility and accountability.
(Related: How Mailstream On Demand helps you scale without disruption)
Redundancy isn’t waste. It’s resilience.
Too often, leaders view redundancy as inefficiency, a cost to be trimmed. But resilience pays for itself the first time something goes wrong.
As David explained, outsourced print and mail, cloud-based workflows, and multi-carrier shipping tools aren’t just insurance. They’re operational enablers, offering the ability to reroute volume, shift between carriers, or relocate production without missing a beat.
(Also read: Delivering Operational Savings Through Smarter Technology)
The takeaway
If your continuity plan still lives in a binder on a shelf, it’s time to modernize it. Resilience today is data-driven, cloud-enabled, and proactive. It’s not about surviving the unexpected, it’s about operating confidently through it.
Because in the world of shipping and mailing, “business as usual” isn’t a plan.