Why do you want IT?

If you have been unfortunate enough to see some of our other occasional witters on this site, the following will be something of a theme….

Have you ever considered whether the use of computing in your organisation has genuinely been driven by business needs? Or possibly by a combination which includes a perceived need to keep up with the pace of competitors. Why is it no longer possible to even raise a delivery note without computing? Carbon paper and a biro used to suffice.

Those with a long memory will recall that our lives would be irrevocably changed by the introduction of desktop computing. Not so long ago, the suggestion that we would all have a machine on our desks both at home and at work was treated with some scepticism and…….well, it has happened.

The computer is now accepted as a tool; most tools actually have an involvement in making things, yet the computer has seemingly become indispensable without necessarily fulfilling the criteria. It would be fair to say that even work-based machines have been both toy and tool in respect of internet surf time.

Recent data from the Office of National Statistics indicate that e commerce and internet utilisation continues to grow at an astounding rate. Internet sales grew last year by 30% to £163 billion and representing nearly 8% of all (non financial sector) sales. Furthermore, more than 60% of all public authority/government department interaction is conducted via the internet.

All this from zero just a few years ago……….

Inevitably, this presents all manner of commercial challenges; not least the ability to keep track of the ensuing transactional data and protect its storage. Despite utilising the latest technology, many companies do not have the resources or equipment to safely store an ever expanding volume of information.

Our remote backup, which we have now successfully operated for three years is specifically aimed at SME organisations wishing to protect valuable data and, more importantly, allow retrieval in the event of an emergency.

From the experience that we have gleaned from remote backup, we have now introduced a disaster recovery service, the purpose of which is to minimise the impact and costs associated with server loss or destruction. This service provides businesses with the security of knowledge that, should their business server be out of commission (e.g. for lengthy downtime due to hardware failure, destruction, theft), their organisation can continue to operate without major disruption. See our Server Disaster Recovery page for more information.

Of course, if you are reading this note, you are already on our website and aware that we can provide a number of web related services including maintenance support.