"Bouncing Biz Back from Flood, Fire, Theft and, ugh! .... computer crashes."

How many miles would you drive with your ‘check engine’ light on before you took it in for service? If your home alarm announced an intruder at 3am, would you just fluff your pillow and roll over?
Your computer doesn’t have a ‘check engine’ light. Its alarm only sounds after the crime has been committed. At that point, you’re staring at a monitor that’s issuing bizarre messages that you don’t understand.
In my travels, I am truly amazed at how many business owners don’t really understand their company’s computer network. They depend on it to run their business; but they give little thought to how this critical business tool is managed and maintained.
Some business owners feel it is fiscally prudent to eliminate IT personnel when the economy slumps. Besides, Chuck in accounting knows a little about computers. Chances are that Chuck’s business role is to manage purchasing or scheduling. He doesn’t have time to conduct a computer maintenance program. And if there’s a crisis with the network or systems, not only is the entire company affected, but Chuck is no longer available to “do his job.” Is this really saving your business money?
Hiring an IT professional to do maintenance or repairs can be expensive for sure, but you know what they say about an ounce of prevention…
Consider the costs and potential savings of network maintenance:

• Backups: In the middle of a hard drive crisis or natural disaster, the last thing you want to learn is that your backups are corrupt (or haven’t worked at all). I use a business coach, Robin Robins and one thing she says is your contacts are your life-blood. Keep them safe. If you don’t routinely do a test restore or manually verify what is being backed up, chances are the backups may not contain all the files you need to completely restore business critical data. Backup media, stored in the same building as your network, is not very useful to you if there is a disaster (fire, flood, or explosion).


• Downtime: How long can your network be down before affects your ability to “do business”? The majority of the time, the answer is 2 hours MAX. A network engineer can get you back up and running in that time frame. It might take Chuck 4 to 8 hours. While Chuck is working, your business is not only at a standstill – unable to take and ship orders – but you have your entire labor force sitting idle. And don’t forget the work Chuck is supposed to be doing. The cost to the company can be significant. Many times, regular maintenance could have prevented the problem.


• Viruses, Hackers, and Spyware, Oh My! Even if you don’t perform ANY maintenance at all, at a bare minimum, you need someone watching your network to make sure your basic protective systems against viruses, hackers, and data loss are all working. Of course, those need to be checked regularly. The financial impact of any of these disasters is an all too sobering fact.


• Clogged Network $$$: If a network system is not maintained it will eventually get “bogged down”; and users see degraded performance. Let’s do some quick math:

20 workers experience a 10% slowdown in network performance. The average salary is $30,000.00/yr.
Annually, the total salary for these 20 is $600,000.00.
A 10% slowdown then represents $60,000.00 in productivity loss.
These figures represent a real money loss, simply because the company did not maintain their network properly.
Business owners take the day-to-day operation of networks and computers for granted. The smart ones invest a little bit of time and money to keep their network maintained and the data secure.
Speaking of data security and backup issues, for 2009, MSS is offering a new product called MSS DataVault™. It is a business continuity and disaster recovery solution that provides our clients automated, secure off-site backup that removes the worry about losing priceless data from natural or ‘man made’ disasters.

While there is little doubt that it’s a good time for businesses to tighten their proverbial belts; beware of cutting back on services where the impact of a problem will cost way more than what you “saved”.

Val Aubry co-founded Main Street Software, Inc. (MSS) in 1984 utilizing her success in the personal computer and accounting fields to grow the business. MSS’s current focus is on the Microsoft Windows NT network platform and small to mid-sized accounting solutions, with an emphasis on Manufacturing & Job Costing. The experience of her staff (75 percent have been with the company for over 15 years) combined with the company’s dedication to their clients is a testament to Val’s commitment to excellence. You can reach her at Val@mssinc.com for more information.