Almost three-quarters of firms and public sector organisations across nine European countries may not fully recover their computer systems or data after an IT failure, a survey suggests.

A survey by IT group EMC asked 1750 bosses if they were “confident they could fully restore their networks” – 74% said “No”!

It also found that 54% had lost data or suffered downtime in the last 12 months. Personally I’m amazed that figure isn’t higher! I guess it depends on what they are classing as ‘Downtime’.

Having been in the business a long time I can tell you that the number of customers I have dealt with on a regular basis, that think about these kinds of things are very few. It is not something that clients worry about. Furthermore, it is a topic that some clients feel that you are using to try to scare them in to buying something!

On the flip side of that coin we have seen several instances where a lack of disaster recovery planning has caused the company irreparable harm, resulting in the closure of the business.

It is not an easy thing to get a solid plan and systems in place, but they may stop the loss of business critical systems data.

Heed the warning – business continuity and disaster recovery should be near the top of any IT project!

Of course you can call us free of charge, for an initial chat about this… 08456 340 599

News article here

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For a long time now, the 64bit users of Windows have had to endure the ignominy of having to resort to a mere 32bit browser to enjoy Flash (the animation bits you see on MANY websites).
You see, Adobe, in their wisdom, decided that the 64bit operating systems didn’t deserve Flash, and therefore must wait…

No longer!

Adobe have released a BETA version of their Flash Player, available from Adobe Labs Download.
I can safely attest to it working (mainly), but please remember, this is a BETA version of the software, and as such MAY contain dodgy code that MIGHT blow your PC to bits

It’s been released for some time, but I thought I’d play with it for a while before letting you guys in on the secret…

So, if you are running Windows 64bit and would like your websites to stop moaning about Flash missing (and trying to download it), grab the download, agree to the “we own your soul” bit and Flash until your heart is content…

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For the past few day’s we’ve been having some fun with pricing a few new services we’ve been asked for.
Please take the word ‘fun’ in there are a largely sarcastic comment – put simply I HATE MONEY!

This of course doesn’t help the requirement for accurate pricing

So, as we’ve decided that the MD doesn’t like money (and especially the lack of it) we look to other means of pricing our services.
Mostly this comes down to a couple of simple rules:
1. What are our costs for any given services
2. What (if at all) are our competitors charging for a similar service (though obviously not as good as ours )

With these in mind, my analytical mind kicks in and I’ve got something to work with, in my case this is a basic necessity!

Costing in our company is fairly straight forward:
How much did/do we buy in at?
How much does it cost us to do it?

Now those both seem to be simple questions on the face of it, but you must remember to cost everything – your office costs money to run after all!
So I’ve been trawling through reams of numbers in search of info to assist in the quest, and factoring in things like “Return on Investment” and “Break even points” etc…
The second is a much harder question to answer, as most competitors know who you are and wont tell you their prices. The web is your greatest friend here, as well as your mates and their acting skills (I’ll not add any more info here, I’m sure you know why! )

Suffice to say we got there in the end, knowing we a going to make a profit and are still competitive on the products offered

Now we just have to sell them!

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So it took a little lateral thinking but IT WORKS!!

Backtrack a little to the issue I was having with an ePOS system (an electronic cash register).
~ original post here ~
The d**n thing wouldn’t communicate to it’s control software in the head office.

The Head Office being in a totally different part of Leeds.

This morning I got it working
The sense of elation was almost overwhelming
Sad but true…

Anyone wanting ePOS till systems with remote reporting give us a call ~ 08456 340 599

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Did you know that Microsoft are being banned from selling the Word software package?
Microsoft Word and Office ‘sales ban’ begins

Funny or what!!

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You know, as a techie you hear all sorts of things ~ clients sometimes see you as everything from emotional punch bag, through Samaritan, to agony aunt.
It’s kind of understandable though, as the years go on and you see clients quite often, they become like friends.

It’s in this capacity I’m hearing more and more complaints about the commercialism inherent in the festive period.

The line “Christmas is just too commercial” rings true about once every two or three days, from one client or another. Usually from those a little longer in the tooth…

The truth is of course, a little wide of the perceived.

Christmas IS still a time for friends and families to get together and share things (some people I only get to see at this time of year!). There ARE still feelings of ‘glad tidings’ about too, you just have to give them to receive them.

If you think that the commercial aspect of Christmas is all pervasive, just choose to not get involved!
You really don’t have to fuel the ever increasing shops profits at this time of year ~ or brave the masses, all clamouring for the ‘bargains’ at the local department store.

This Christmas, I have managed to saunter through buying AND wrapping my gifts, by the simple method of forward planning.
We (as a couple) enjoy a stroll through the January sales, buying those little nick-nacks for stocking fillers, and/or getting things like decorations, wrapping paper and those funky sparkly paper gift bags.
Obviously, if you are a fashion victim and absolutely MUST have the latest fad in decorations, this little bit of forethought won’t be for you.

With the majority of the little things purchased and stored for next Christmas, we shopped online for the gifts we wanted to give.
A few Home deliveries and a bout of wrapping later, and we are about done :)

Once this little plan was in operation, I was free to enjoy the shopping experiences we undertook ~ safe in the knowledge it wasn’t all panic!

Organised for once?
BAH HUMBUG!!!

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Just a couple of items sparked my interest today:
UK trails on super-fast broadband say OECD figures

Oh dear – in this technological world which we live in, the UK is severly lagging behind in terms of available speed:
The top 10 speedy nations:

• Japan – top advertised speed 1Gbps
• Finland – 110Mbps
• Sweden – 100Mbps
• Korea – 100Mbps
• Iceland – 100Mbps
• France – 100Mbps
• Denmark – 100Mbps
• Netherlands – 60Mbps
• United States – 50Mbps
• Spain – 50Mbps

We rank 21^st!

This on the back of 4G mobile phone network comes to Scandinavia
Only 100mb/s second download on a MOBILE network!!!

Sigh…

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