Cloning
Gerry called up yesterday:
"John (the guy from the computer shop) is at our office. He has a few questions for which I have no answers. Can you speak to him? Jeff (the full time bookkeeper) is on vacation in Florida. Vern (the part time replacement) doesn't know anything about our system."
John:
"The hard drive died. I've replaced it but wasn't able to get anything off the old drive. I'm trying to get Gerry up and running quickly. Do you know what system, network, and application software were on the machine? Do you know where they keep the CDs, key codes, and data backup? Do you know who was authorized to access the specific applications and data files?"
Could this happen to you? You bet! Viruses, worms, pop-ups, power surges are everyday occurrences. All can lead to system software corruption and pose a more likely threat than plain old hardware failures.
"But I have the latest anti-virus, pop-up and firewall software installed."
We agree. You should have them and keep them current. Just don't count on them being infallible.
"So what can I do?"
Consider cloning your hard drive. Imagine having a second physical drive, identical to the one in your system, sitting in your drawer. In the unfortunate event your system goes down, merely swap the drives, restore the most recent data backup, and you're back in business. All in under half an hour.
"So what do I need to do this?"
All you need is a physical hard drive, usually the same size or larger than the original, and cloning software such as Norton Ghost. Total cost - approximately $200.
At CBM, we are always here to help you with your problems. We subscribe to the belief that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This is one of those ounces.
Great idea? We thought you would agree. Talk to you soon!
Paper Shredders
So responsibility for implementing the privacy legislation has fallen on your shoulders. You've tamed the beast to ten or so sections and realize that disposal of confidential information by placing it on the curb on garbage day will no longer suffice. What to do?
Paper shredders are the obvious solution. But what to look for?
Size matters. Look for throats wide enough to take your largest paper, 10 inches being a good start. Cutting speed refers to the speed at which the machine can shred paper in feet per minute and must be combined with capacity specs to be meaningful. Look for capacities in excess of 10 sheets at a time. Strip cut or cross cut? Strip cut creates strips the length of your paper in various widths. Cross cutting cuts the strips into short pieces. Want to save on garbage bags and trips to the curb? Cross cut machines create on average one-tenth the volume of a strip cut machine (they create small pieces of paper rather than long strips that don't compact easily). We have found that the "Destroy It" cross cut, mid-sized office model serves us well.
Your budget may limit your decision, but remember that clearing paper jams, emptying the garbage bags, scrapping or hauling undersized machines to the repair depot are costs that can quickly overshadow the sweetness of the lower initial acquisition cost.
Happy shredding!
Strategic Alliances
We at CBM have a great depth of knowledge and experience, but we do not profess to be specialists in every field. However, we do nurture strategic alliances with specialists in most fields. The computer field is no exception.
In the area of Accounting software, we are business partners with Sage - Simply Accounting, Intuit - QuickBooks, and have extensive knowledge of Mind Your Own Business (MYOB) software, an excellent program.
We do not sell hardware or operating systems. For that, we rely on our excellent relationship with the owners and staff of Hamilton's longest running, independently owned computer shop, who have been supplying and guiding us for almost twenty years.
You may question why we don't just go to the big box stores in our area or the on-line stores on the Internet. Simple. Should the need for instant service arise, we know it will be provided. Should a quick phone call on a specific problem be all that's required, we know there will be someone there with an answer. We support local businesses and the talented people they employ.
Paperless Office
When last visiting Erik and Anne Marie, colleagues of mine, they asked me whether it was time for them to go paperless in their office the way we did in ours.
Anne Marie said, "We'll save the cost of paper, toner cartridges, laser printers. We'll save trips to the printers, time punching and binding pages into files, and the inevitable filing and retrieval time. Anything previously stored away in filing cabinets will be readily available at our fingertips whether in the office, on the road, or at home. We believe that the productivity and efficiency gains will be noticeable and should help maintain our competitive position in the marketplace. We can regain valuable space currently occupied by filing cabinets."
Erik added, "We've already got a Windows based computer network and scanner. We know how to create and store PDF files. I figure we might need a few more bits and pieces of hardware, maybe some software, and it shouldn't be more than a few hours to get it all up and running."
"Maybe," I smiled.
The most important consideration in deciding whether or not to go paperless is neither the hardware nor the software. Rather, it's the willingness and technical abilities of your entire office to make radical changes to the way it works. Traditionally, files are created using various software applications and then printed and bound into files. From there, they proceed through the various review stages, often being passed back to the preparer for correction or modification. Taking away paper may prove to be too much of a drastic change in mindset of your employees.
Want an easy solution? Create a full paper file, bind it, review it, finalize it. Get a good quality, rotary scanner capable of at least 25 pages per minute. We got a Fujitsu and don't regret it. Scan the finished product. Shred the paper file. Now you're paperless! Cheating? Possibly, but depending on your goals, this works and requires no changes to your procedures or re-training of staff.
Ok, let's assume you are technically competent and willing to teach the old dogs some new tricks.
Electronic files have many similarities to paper files. You need to create a file, add, delete, re-order, reference and review pages. Finally, you can save the file in a permanent archive. One critical difference is that a paper file can be read hundreds of years from now. Will the electronic file be readable one, two, five, 10 or more years from now? Not likely! (See many DOS programs out there?) So how do you protect against this? You need an internationally recognized, widely used file format. PDF (Portable Document Format) comes to mind. PDF files can be created directly by many application software packages or independently by stand alone packages ranging from free (such as Cute PDF) to commercial (such as Adobe Acrobat). However, the manipulation and sorting of PDF files are not easy.
We've discovered a wonderful program capable of all this and more written by Xerox called DocuWorks. DocuWorks creates, edits, manipulates and stores anything we can print into a compressed file format for which a free reader (similar to the Adobe process) is readily available for download on the Internet.
Ok, so how does the process work, you ask? DocuWorks installs itself exactly like a PDF printer. Anything you can print to a real printer can be printed to DocuWorks. Consequently, you print directly from your software applications to DocuWorks. You scan anything not produced by your own software into DocuWorks. Once all is on your DocuWorks desktop, it can be referenced, annotated, organized by documents into folders and binders, and saved as a single file. Reviewers can open the file, add their checkmarks approving it for finalization, and send it on its way. A complete file, without paper, without cheating!
For more information on this and many other topics, please contact one of our team.