Become the Complete Solution with Data Recovery

Office World News, Dec 2004 by Reinert, Jim

Whether they realize it or not, data recovery is a service that most companies will need at some point during the life span of their business. Since nearly all critical information - documents, e-mails, financial records, etc. - is now stored electronically, that data is vulnerable to a wide variety of issues (hardware/software problems, human error, natural disasters) that can lead to data loss. But why is this important to the office products dealer? Helping companies avoid the downtime associated with data loss can be an easy way for your business to earn additional revenue and be viewed as a more complete resource for office-related needs. The best part is that you can easily add data recovery services to your current offerings with no additional cost to your business!

When data loss occurs, a company can waste valuable time searching for answers, or even worse, trying to fix the problem themselves. Most arc simply not prepared to deal with data disasters, so they panic and make bad decisions that complicate things even further. What they don't realize is that no matter how complicated a data loss situation becomes, data recovery can still help. A majority of professional data recovery attempts are successful, so one should never lose hope. Since data loss happens to every computer user at some point, it's important that people are aware of their options and can turn to someone they trust during the crisis. As an office products provider with relationships already in place, that's how your company fits into the picture.

Offering data recovery in addition to traditional office products is a logical service extension that allows you to provide the complete solution to your customers. Since your clients already come to you for the office products and equipment that make their businesses run efficiently, it makes sense for them to look to you for advice on how they can keep their companies running in troublesome times. The benefits of offering data recovery products and services become apparent when you join a partner program that can provide great rewards with very little effort.

The biggest challenge in selling data recovery service is educating your customers about data loss and the problems downtime can create. Downtime is a significant problem that needs attention since the cost of downtime continues to escalate for the general business community. According to a study by Meta Croup, each hour of downtime can equate to millions of lost dollars, up to $3 million an hour depending on the industry. Luckily, a quality data recovery partner program will provide educational resources to help explain the dangers of data loss and the importance of having a solid plan in place before disaster strikes.

Data recovery is a valid business solution that can complement your current offerings by providing your clients with several options for keeping their businesses running smoothly. It's fast (faster than rebuilding from scratch using the last backup), costeffective (less than 1 percent of cost of downtime) and gets back the most recent files versus the most recent copy. With today's recovery technology, delete never means gone, so establishing a relationship with a data recovery provider is the best way for you to help your clients prepare for unfortunate data loss situations.

The following is a quick list of service options you should look for in a data recovery partner. No one vendor will be a universal fit, but this is a good starting point. Remember, the most important thing you can offer your clients is to get data back quickly and have their company up and running with the least amount of hassle:

Recovery Software

Thankfully, not every data loss scenario requires the hard drive to be shipped in to a data recovery company. If the hardware is still functioning, data recovery software can be an excellent option to solve problems quickly and easily. There are costeffective software solutions that can recover data from everything from servers to laptops and work on a variety of media, operating systems and file types. If you accidentally delete a Word document or can't get access to an important Excel spreadsheet, it's nice to know the problem can be solved easily with a simple software program.

Remote Recovery

If data on large-scale storage systems becomes corrupted, but the hardware is working, recovery performed remotely through a modem or Internet connection is a possibility. This is an excellent option for data disasters involving servers because it eliminates the need to dismantle and ship drives or hardware in for service. This technology is available around the clock from anywhere in the world, and recovery can be completed in as little as one hour. Not every data recovery provider can offer this method of recovery, so it's important to inquire specifically about the service.

In-Lab Recovery

Whether caused by human error, a hardware malfunction or a natural disaster (fire, flood, lightning, etc.), many data loss problems are too severe to be fixed with recovery software. In cases where computer hardware is physically damaged it requires the expertise of recovery engineers working in cleanroom facilities to get drives working long enough for data to be copied. Years of research and development go into the proprietary tools and techniques used by recovery engineers to rebuild drives and reconstruct the directory structures that identify where data resides. With recent advancements in technology, it's possible for engineers to recover data from almost any situation, no matter how bad things seem at first.