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In
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Client
Profile: Sport Southland
Within 24 hours of snow
destroying Stadium Southland's roof, Focus had the Sport
Southland team back up and running.
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Product
Profile: ShadowProtect
Recovery of data and
systems won't break the bank, but having to recreate
them certainly could.
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Focus
on: Sport Southland .jpg)
When an unusually heavy
bout of snow caused Stadium Southland's roof to collapse in
September last year, Sport Southland had an awful to lot to be
thankful for.
"When you saw what was left of that side
of the Stadium we were incredibly lucky and thankful no one
was hurt... or worse" said Sport Southland General Manager
Brendon McDermott.
He is also grateful Sports Southland
had partnered up with like-minded, forward thinking IT firm,
Focus Technology Group so disaster recovery plans were
underway from the moment adversity struck.
"The main
Stadium was all but destroyed. We had no power ...no
connectivity ...we had nothing. But we did have back up
and we did have plans and systems in place in case of an
emergency".
Within 24 hours Geoff and the team from
Focus had set up a fully functional base with a wireless
connection in the nearby badminton hall. Staff could
come in or remotely check their emails, access their
databases, change bookings, put notices on the website and
such like.
"Getting back to business in such a short
space in time was truly a phenomenal effort", said
Brendon.
Their proactive and holistic approach was one
of the reasons Sport Southland chose Focus as their IT partner
when they began reassessing their needs in 2009.
"We
didn't want an IT firm that only reacted when we had a problem
or issue," said Brendon. "We wanted a local firm (if
possible) that would look at the bigger picture and
plan with us to ensure we always have, at any given
time, the best-aligned technology, capacity and resource to
support what our people do and how we communicate with all our
stakeholders".
IT planning is no easy feat for an
umbrella organisation tasked with promoting, coordinating and
supporting all manner of sport, recreation and physical
activity for Southlanders of all ages and abilities. Sport
Southland is the regional 'network hub' for many affiliated
sport organisations, schools, clubs, community groups and
individuals that utilise it's services.
"Focus looks
after us well. They are conscious that we are a
not-for-profit organisation and they consistently bring
best-fit, personalised and cost effective - not cheap -
solutions to the table. We trust them to look after all
our IT needs now, as we grow, and into the
future".
After all it's not about the technology
itself. It's about what that technology enables people to
do. In Sport Southland's case, it puts them on the fast
track towards achieving their vision of "...inspiring sporting
excellence and active lifestyles".
Focus
on: Shadow Protect
Given the spate of natural
disasters wreaking havoc upon the world, businesses are doing
themselves a disservice if they don't have a disaster recovery
plan in place, says Focus Technology Group Technical Director
Geoff Hinton.
IT systems are crucial to the
functionality and efficiency of today's businesses, as is
ensuring continuation or speedy recovery in case of
crisis. According to Geoff, good DR planning should
focus not only on the resumption of IT systems and the
prevention of data loss but also include measures to protect
the integrity of that data.
"There's absolutely no
point having corrupted, or out-of-date or partial back-up data
and operating systems that aren't, in actuality, going to get
and keep you business running in the event of a disaster,"
says Geoff.
"Recovery of data and systems won't break
the bank, but having to recreate them certainly
could."
Indeed, overseas figures indicate 43% of
businesses that suffer a major loss of data never reopen, 50%
reopen and fold within two years and a meagre 7% survive long
term.
"At Focus we actively encourage our clients to
have more than one backup option, to back-up comprehensively,
regularly and frequently ...and to take and store a back-up
copy off-site either remotely or manually every
night".
ShadowProtect backup and disaster recovery
software has a proven track record, backing up hard drives and
restoring whole systems, from individual drives, down to
individual files.
It works by creating incremental
snapshots of everything, at any given time. For example,
if asked to backup C, it will backup all operating systems and
all files, every single used sector on the C drive. Most
users find it useful to schedule regular automated backups as
work progresses which can then be saved into internal and
external hard disks, USB, FireWire, CD, DVD, Network attached
Storage (NAS) device or network location.
"To me the
beauty of ShadowProtect is two-fold. It's the only
programme of it's kind that creates writable backup images
allowing you to manipulate and modify anything inside and then
resave in it's modified form while still keeping a copy of the
original image. But more importantly ShadowProtect
allows you to restore your entire system from image backup,
with all of your applications and data, to any brand of
hardware if yours has given up the ghost for whatever reason,"
says Geoff.
Geoff cites the example of a recently
"red-stickered" Christchurch-based firm with branches from
Napier to Invercargill. Fortunately they'd had the
foresight to have multiple copies of their data offsite.
Focus was able to retrieve their core accounting system data
and now hosts their entire accounting system in
Invercargill.
"Within a week of the earthquake, we had
fully recovered their data, built up their servers and printed
and posted their monthly invoices. Because let's face
it, if the money isn't coming in ... a business can't
survive. It's as simple as that".
"Ironically in
this case, it took longer to courier the backup tapes south
than it did to rebuild their system!"
Focus
on: Law
Thank you to those of you who
attended our practice management solutions
demonstrations. Luckily David from LexisNexis was
already well south of Christchurch when the last devastating
earthquake hit. We're thankful that despite extensive
damage to his home, David's family was unharmed allowing David
to carry on and show us all what Affinity has to
offer. Sandi from Fujitsu arrived to find that she was
unable to get technology to play ball - it was a good thing
that she had Focus around - Garry was able to connect Sandi to
the Ascot's wireless network and get her up an running so that
she could demonstrate Infinity. We trust that you
received the information that you needed enabling the next
step in this process to be easier.
Focus
on: Technology
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As you are no doubt aware there is a
plethora of new smartphones available on the market
today running various operating systems and offering
various features.
While you may be attracted to some of
the bells and whistles these new phones have; you do
need to be aware that there may be limitations in
synchronising to your Outlook or Microsoft Exchange
email systems. This can be especially true if you
are migrating away from a Blackberry environment. |
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If you are considering a smartphone upgrade
then please call us to discuss before making a decision... we
may be able to spare you some heartache! |
Focus
on: Time
At one time or another we've
all wanted to take a quick snapshot of something on screen,
but most of us simply don't have software to do so - it's
usually accompanied by a hefty price tag! Now taking a
screen capture is possible and it's
free! Using the Windows7 new inbuilt feature called the
'Snipping Tool' feature you can take a snapshot of your screen
or just a section of it. The 'Snipping Tool' is a great
way to send a picture to accompany an email, for instance, if
you need help or need to show someone an idea.
1) In 'Start' menu begin typing 'Snipping Tool', this will
populate the 'Snipping Tool' in the Programs list.  2) This will open the 'Snipping
Tool' window.  3) Using the drop down arrow on
the 'New' button you can choose from four capture
options: Free-form Snip
Draw a
free-form shape around an object. Rectangular
Snip
Drag the cursor around an object to form a
rectangle or square. Window
Snip
Select a window, such as a browser window or
dialog box, that you want to
capture. Full-screen Snip
Capture
the entire screen. 4) Your snips can either be saved to
a file for access later or copied to the clipboard for pasting
into a document or email message. The Snipping Tool can
be accessed on Windows7 Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate
and Enterprise versions.   Since
its establishment in 1994 Focus Technology Group has grown to
become one of Southland's largest IT firms, employing 31 staff
at offices in Invercargill, Queenstown and Christchurch. By
supporting their systems, anticipating future needs and
matching them with emerging technologies, we give our clients
the lead-in time to budget for, and implement, technologies
without downtime. Our promise is technology solutions that
allow you to focus on your business and "leave IT to us"
INVERCARGILL
P: 03-211-0099
A: 176 Spey Street Invercargill
E:
admin@focus.net.nz
W: www.focus.net.nz
QUEENSTOWN
P: 03 441 0099 A: Te Nuku
Building, 43 Ballarat Street, Queenstown E:
queenstown@focus.net.nz
For software products developed by us visit: www.exosoft.net.nz
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