Case studies

1. Lloyd & Associates (Solicitors)

2. Direct Telecommunications (London) Ltd.

3. Viveka Integrated Healthcare Clinic

Lloyd & Associates (Solicitors)

Peace of mind was the reasoning behind solicitors, Lloyd & Associates deciding to employ a professional data backup and restore service.

Although Lloyd & Associates had previously implemented their own backup policy, practice manager, Bill Shea, was unhappy with the way the policy was being carried out. "To put it simply, I was concerned that data backup was not being done correctly, if at all. I decided that something so vital to the running of our business should be outsourced to a professional and reliable company."

As solicitors offering a wide range of legal services from litigation to family affairs, immigration to property, Lloyd & Associates produce a sizeable amount of correspondence and accounting work each day, records of which are valuable and must be kept safely and securely.

Bill Shea was introduced to DataSafe, specialists in professional management of secure offsite data backup, media storage and data restoration services. Data from clients of the TeleSafe service is automatically encrypted, compressed and backed up to the telesafe servers via any internet connection. Two copies of the data are kept at seperate sites for a year (or more if required) and can promptly be restored on-line or via CDs.

Lloyd and Associates have so far been lucky to escape any loss of data or virus attack and therefore the need for data to be restored. However, DataSafe have, on a number of occasions, been required to supply Lloyd & Associates' accounting software developers with a copy of the accounts data. Consequently, Bill Shea is confident that, should anything go wrong, DataSafe would be able to return any lost data quickly and simply. He finds invaluable the comfort of such a reliable service.

"A few years ago, to protect against the potential problems of the Millennium Bug, we bought new computer hardware and upgraded the software for our 30 computers in our two offices. We felt very reassured having the DataSafe service during this period, in case of any data problems occurring during transfer." back to top

backup and restore

(London) Limited
   
Caution paid off for Direct Telecommunications when they recently suffered a complete loss of data as a result of their entire system freezing. Fortunately, as customers of DataSafe Services Limited, specialists in remote data backup and restore, they were able to retrieve their data within half an hour with very little inconvenience to the continuation of their business.

As a seller and installer of telephone systems to both the business and residential sectors, Direct Telecommunications has a huge database containing customer details. From the very early beginnings of the company, managing director David Henning, recognised the importance of data backup.

"Even with just three computers, I was well aware of the problems which my company would face if we were to accidentally lose any data. At this time, we carried out the backup ourselves, however the task was only undertaken on a monthly basis. With company expansion and the growth of our customer database, I felt that we should implement a more regular system. It also seemed a safer option to outsource the responsibility of such a vital task to experienced professionals."

Now with a network of eight computers Direct Telecommunications also use the service to backup and restore their own business data such as their accounts information.

In any business, budgetary controls are always important and cost was one of the reasons Direct Telecommunications selected the DataSafe service. "Not only is the service very easy to run but the cost is relatively inexpensive. We feel that it's very good value for money". www.dtll.co.uk back to top

backup and restore for doctor

Integrated Healthcare Clinic
   
Viveka is the vision of Dr Yehudi Gordon, one of Britain's leading obstetric and gynaecology consultants. He is well known as a pioneer of informed choice and integrated healthcare. In 1996 he inspired a group of doctors, ultrasonographers and complementary therapists to practice together. Until the creation of Viveka they had been crossing paths in the course of their work while sharing a vision about caring for people. Based in a renovated and refreshed 19th century building in St John's Wood, London - once a church school and library - the spaces were transformed into intimate treatment rooms and a hall for workshops and meetings. Today, the practice has fully computerised records not just of patients' contact details but a full history of the treatment the patients had undergone.

Until March 2002 the practice relied upon an internal daily backup and restore system. Whilst this provided the practice with the base underlyimg protection it needed, there were still some major concerns. First on the list of priorities was to ensure that there was a verifiable audit trail and historic tracking of all computerised patient records and communications. A conversation with a friend gave Dr Gordon the information he wanted: not only how to ensure that all the practice's data could be backed up daily, securely offsite and, if required, restored to the practice at a moment's notice, but also, in the event of a dispute or legal enquiry, the ability to recreate those records as they were at some point in the past.

"I was looking for a professional data backup and restore service that would give me complete peace of mind. Not only did I want a system that would ensure that our data was rigorously backed-up, and completely confidential" said Dr Gordon, "but I also wanted all versions of all databases and documents to be stored for many years, and of course, the system had to be simple to use and affordable."
The data backup and restoration system chosen by Viveka was that offered by London based DataSafe Services. "Once the decision was made, we were thoroughly impressed with the speed and simplicity of the installation of the software. With one simple programme to run, and a fully managed service, all we had to decide was the backup times and what to backup. The rest is done for us." comments practice manager, Megan Turner.
The decision to outsource the practice's backup proved to be well made. Some months ago there was a dispute concerning a diagnosis made several years ago. Within a short time, however, thanks to Datasafe's service, the practice was able to recall early versions of the documents in question. www.viveka.co.uk back to top