Don't let your business learn it the hard way!
In our work with businesses of all sizes, there is one scenario that is unfortunately common. Often when we first hear from a business, they are coming to us with an emergency. They have just had a major crash or malfunction and their important data is unreachable and may be lost.
Your business’ core data – is – your business!
As business owners ourselves, we know about the long hard struggle of building a business. Over the course of that hard work, you have collected critical customer information, from contact data, to account details, to financial information, records, and more. This treasure trove is what you need to continue basic business operations, what you will be able to use in future marketing efforts, and so on. It represents a carefully culled and priceless list of who is interested in your services. For all practical purposes, this information IS your business!
Far too many businesses go on day to day, not realizing how endangered their data is. They are so busy tending to the immediate fires that they don’t see the precipice they so tenuously operate upon.
But the truth is, there are innumerable ways in which, if you aren’t properly prepared, your business could be severely impacted by an unexpected catastrophe – be it from within your own computer system, or due to external circumstances such as fires, hurricanes, or sabotage. Unfortunately, many businesses don’t come to us until it’s too late. For example, we have literally seen one large business have to turn to its clients and ask them what they owed on an honor system. Others have had to rebuild their contacts from the ground up. This kind of damage cannot be overstated.
DSTech Risk Management Services
When a business owner decides they want to grow in the most
responsible and wise manner possible, they will make a commitment to
look beyond the day to day immediate concerns, toward a longer term view
for growth and success. In such a case, DStech has a disaster
preparedness process we can employ. Here’s how it works…
1) We Identify Your Critical Data
Our first step is a careful survey of your company’s critical data. This is not as simple as it would seem. Very often, the people working in a business haven’t fully recognized which pieces of data are critical (but sure notice once they are gone). This can include more than the obvious (such as customer and transaction records). Things like shortcuts, email folders, and other data files are often forgotten when we ask companies to tell us what is important. This is not to mention the fact that many of these files would not be recognized by non-technical people. We take the initiative with our own experienced survey of your business for your peace of mind.2) We Design Your Custom Backup System
Every business is different and every business requires unique considerations in its backup needs. We will not ‘oversell’ a business with tools that are beyond its needs, nor do we ‘undersell’ a business by leaving them with a system that doesn’t protect them properly. There are many options with regard to hardware, how it works, how it’s connected to your system, and its proper settings. We identify your critical machines and figure out the proper frequencies and methods of backup needed. All of this is modified based on your company’s typical operations and schedule.3) We Practice the Shut-Down and Recovery Process with You
There are so many times that a business thought they had a backup system, only to discover that when it came time to restore their lost data, they weren’t able to. Sometimes this is due to lost passwords, sometimes it is due to a hardware malfunction, and other times it is due to the system not performing as it should. We practice recovering your data on the systems we install, first to make sure the process actually works, and second, to make sure you and your staff know what needs to be done in a crisis, or just before a looming crisis, such as shutting down properly when preparing for a hurricane. We can create ‘grab and go’ systems that you can take in an evacuation, and in cases where it is necessary, arrange even offsite kinds of backup systems.4) The Real Truth: Backup Systems Need Monitoring
Not all IT companies will tell you this, but in fact, backup systems are dependent upon a certain maintained set of connections. Very often, a business can break its backup system without realizing it. Sometimes an employee moves a critical folder, or certain files get renamed, etc. Even without making any mistakes, changing conditions in a computer network (such as regular necessary software patches) can interfere with a professional-level backup system. For this reason, as a matter of business ethics, we do not sell or install backup systems without a monitoring service. This monthly service includes our regular attention to your network. Here we not only make sure that everything is functioning, but we run a system of tests and actually try to recover your data from backed up files on a regular basis. Like an insurance policy, this kind of monitoring is well worth it.5) The Cost of Our Package is Also Scaled to Your Business
In everything we do, our aim is always to help our client businesses be more successful. If a company isn’t better off spending money with us, we don’t want you to do it. Instead, we look at ourselves as your partner in business. When we recommend a path forward, we are looking at whether your bottom line will be better off with that plan. For that reason, we aim to make this package affordable for whatever level of business you have, and make it a cost that is justified based on the benefit to your profitability in the long term.
But the most important thing you can know is who we are and how we do business.