It never fails to amaze me when a customer calls without backups. I spend most of my working life amazed, however. Companies who backup their computers religiously, who have the most elegant solutions for document retention, and who even check the desks of people leaving to make sure they retain all their “Stuff”, fail entirely when it comes to having any backup for their equipment programs and parameters.

Trust me, having known good backups are more important than making sure the guy leaving the company doesn’t have a company stapler in his box.

I have seen two companies this year close (yes, the whole company is gone) because they had one machine, and let the program evaporate without having a backup. Obviously, these were companies that were on the edge already, but they were making money, just not enough to be able to spring for a complete control system rebuild, with the accompanying downtime. Usually, by the time they called me, they were already one foot in the grave, so it didn’t take long.

Lest people working for larger companies smile and move on, I will also say I have had Fortune 100 companies take severe downtime hits for the same reason. Add in the cost of having an integrator come in and rework the system, and having to give all the refunds and fines for not shipping product on time, and making those backups seems quite cheap by comparison. If you have known good backups, even if you don’t have anyone who can load them, we can get you back going in a day or so.  If you don’t…

 

Well, how long would you have been with the company had you made it ‘til Friday?