Email archiving

Did you know you have a legal obligation to retain emails with commercially sensitive content for 7 years? What do you do at the moment? Would you be interested in a service that automates and simplifies this so that you have secure backed up files in case you need them?

Hosted applications

Wired Workplace, through the SYDC, is going to launch a range of subscription based application services targeted at businesses, initially in South Yorkshire. The idea is that using hosting reduces cost of ownership and provides a more secure and efficient environment for applications than doing it yourself. Does this appeal? Which applications? Have you any previous experience of hosted application services or SaaS (software as a service)? Can you rate the following as key factors?

• Ease of implementation
• Ease of use
• Performance
• Range of applications
• Quality of support
• Cost

visit www.wiredworkplace.net/hosting.php for more about the hosting services that we offer!

Green data centres

What's the level of interest in green data centres and what do they have to have to be useful? Carbon neutral status or better? Can you improve your carbon footprint by moving servers out of the office into a data centre. What's best practice in eco-efficient data centres?

Data centre progress

Having taken possession of the new data centre just over a week ago work progresses apace on fitting out the first floor. Air con is complete, UPS and generator have been delivered and most of the electrical work is near complete. The racks are being delivered today and we should be up and running by the end of the month as targeted.

Recovering after disaster strikes!

When you were doing your business continuity plan did you allow for the toilets backing up and six inches of smelly sludge over everything? Did you figure that even if you were not badly affected you still wouldn’t be allowed back in to the building for up to a week? Did you realise that the basement would be flooded for three weeks and even if you pumped it out it would fill up again?

Just some of the questions you might have asked BEFORE the recent flooding in South Yorkshire. Now it might just be too late.

Steve Wragg, Chair of ICT Yorkshire, reckons 40% of businesses affected by the floods could take a year to recover, and one in five will fail.

IT will not be at the root of all those business failures but in a previous survey the London Chamber concluded that 70% of businesses that had a significant data loss were likely to fail within 18 months.

IT is at the centre of so many businesses nowadays with online trading over the Internet one of the fastest growing sectors. And with increased pressure from regulation to protect your customers’ data, the job of securing and protecting that data is becoming even more critical.

“We knew there was a flood warning, but when the police came round and said that they strongly recommended we evacuate, we knew it was probably time to go. We put everything that was on the floor up on the desks and headed out as fast as we could. As the last person left the office, he saw the River Don burst its banks and the water started pouring across the car park.”

This was the scene at Helen of Troy’s offices on Brightside Lane on the afternoon of June 25th, as recalled by international marketing manager Andrew Deane. The next morning, staff returned to survey the damage.

“Our office is a corner building, so the river had come in at speed and then swirled around. Furniture had been washed up against the doors and we had to push it out the way in order to get in. Inside, we could see that the water had risen over the tops of the desks and everything was covered in two inches of mud and debris.”

Helen of Troy is a global company and a leading manufacturer of personal care and well-being products. Its UK operation was established in Sheffield in 1995 and has expanded to international offices in France, Brazil, Shenzen and Hong Kong. Its product lines include licensed brands such as Vidal Sassoon, Scholl and Toni & Guy. The company now employs 40 people in Sheffield and has a total global turnover of $635 million.

The Sheffield offices act as the heart of the international operation and are also linked to the head office in the United States. The company’s IT and telephone systems are therefore crucial to the running of the business.

“Luckily, all but two of our servers survived the water and our backup tapes were also functional. This meant that we had everything except the previous week’s work. However, what we didn’t have was somewhere for people to work and the ability to connect with the outside world. The Sheffield office is the distribution hub for the international offices so we needed to get our sales order processing systems functioning quickly. Our top priority was to find premises and get an office up and running as fast as possible.”

The company turned to The Quadrant on the Parkway Business Park, which provides managed office space for a variety of businesses. “We had heard that The Quadrant had space so we set up a meeting for first thing in the morning and took first refusal on everything they had available. With prices for office space going up by the minute, we quickly decided that The Quadrant offered the best combination of quality accommodation and good value. And, importantly, they had an IT partner who could move quickly to set up broadband connections for our phones and computers.”

The Quadrant’s communications and IT partner is The Wired Workplace, which provides the centre’s tenants with the choice of a full range of information and communication technology services.

“The Wired Workplace experts were in touch with us within hours and they worked closely with our IT manager to make sure they could meet our specifications. We had a fully functioning IT system within a day and our sales order processing was operational by Thursday evening.”

The staff of Helen of Troy are now settled in The Quadrant, where they will stay until the Brightside Lane offices are refurbished. Meanwhile, managers have had time to reflect on some of the lessons learned from their experience.

Andrew Deane says, “One of the key questions I would ask now is, ‘How much paper do you really need to keep in your business?’. Once water gets to it, the recovery process is expensive and slow. I would say, think before you file it and, if you really need it, reassess again six months down the track. There are plenty of approved electronic document systems available, so store it electronically if you can.

“The other thing I would say is never underestimate your team – it is incredible what people are capable of doing when the situation demands it. An event like this shows the best side of people and you get to see the impact of a group team effort.”

Many people back up their data but have you checked whether you can recover it from the copy?

“In our experience most people never check that their backups work or test their ability to recover their data from those backups. Coupled with a large number keeping the backups on site, your backup is quite likely to be useless. Even if the backup is in a safe its not much use to you if you cant get onsite” said Steve Wragg

While larger businesses and the public sector may have detailed plans, smaller businesses mostly don’t.
When the floods hit Business Link’s offices in both Sheffield and Rotherham one of the key issues was keeping staff informed of progress.

“People need to know whether they should report to another office or work from home. Is there somewhere else where they can get access to basic office facilities? Where can you hold meetings? Can phone calls be re-routed to mobiles? These were all basic queries that needed answering and the information circulated to staff,” said Steve

A disaster like the floods gets plenty of media attention but every day businesses have broken pipes and fires. Equipment fails and people lose things. Laptops and mobile phones get stolen from the back seats and boots of cars.

Have you got an emergency or business continuity plan? Have you ever done a risk assessment? What does your insurance really cover you for?

What have you learnt from other people’s expensive experiences?