As the events of Sept. 11 illustrate, a disaster can literally hit any company, at any time. Thankfully, the problems most building service contractors face in their business lifetimes usually are a lot smaller — a flooded office, a fire at a job site.

But those relatively small incidents still can wreak havoc on a BSC.

If there was a fire, flood or other disaster at a job site, or in a contractor’s headquarters, timekeeping records — whether time sheets or a computerized system — could be lost. Because the law states employees must be paid for all time worked, contractors may find themselves paying their employees extra, even overtime, just to be safe.

“Traditionally, timekeeping is done manually, and the time sheets are retained at the job site,” says John Graham, president of Management Information Technology Corp., a vendor of timekeeping and other software for cleaning contractors in Monrovia, Md. “If anything happens — a fire, a flood, even the supervisor leaving the time sheets at McDonalds, the records are lost, and the contractor must pay the employees what they say they’re owed.”

Telephone records, on the other hand, are stored on BSCs’ computer systems; if there’s a problem at the job site, the records are kept intact. With a telephone-timekeeping system, employees call in to a centralized phone number from the job site, and the program records the time and location of the call on a computer.

“Our largest customer has three or four thousand employees, and they have many people calling in every day from many states,” Graham explains. “But if there’s a problem at a job site, it doesn’t matter — the records are centralized in their headquarters in New Jersey.”

If there’s a fire or flood at the company headquarters, however, the amount of information lost depends on how frequently the BSC makes backups of the data.

“Most companies should be doing an off-site backup at least weekly, but most BSCs aren’t religious in doing backups,” Graham points out. By off-site backup, Graham means physically taking the CD or tape with the backup data on it and storing it somewhere other than the office — even the owner’s home can be appropriate, since the odds of a disaster striking both the home and the office are unlikely. Graham suggests keeping backup media in a fireproof container. (Small fireproof safes, with enough space to store essential computer disks and documents, can cost $300 to $500.)

However, some very large companies store their backups in what Graham calls “coal mines” — bomb-proof, weather-proof shelters specifically designed to hold computer disks and tapes.

“It all depends on what you’re willing to spend,” he comments.

With weekly backups, there still is a risk of losing some data — and thus having to pay employees for all hours they say they worked — but for most small and mid-sized contractors, the financial losses should be minimal.

Companies can make more frequent backups, or try to “mirror” their timekeeping computer on another remote site, but for most companies, that may not be cost-effective.

“You need to measure the cost of paying your employees for a few extra hours versus paying the extra cost of a sophisticated phone or backup system,” Graham says.

By Stacie H. Whitacre, Managing Editor

Make Your IT Bulletproof
The next imperative in information technology (IT), says ZDNet Tech Update’s editorial director David Berlind, is making computer systems "bulletproof." Among his suggestions from a recent online column:
  • Search for security weaknesses in your computer infrastructure
  • Consider outsourcing your computer functions to an application service provider (ASP); make sure the ASP has adequate backup policies
  • Consider going "paperless" by keeping all records on computer instead of on paper; at the minimum, scan your paper files into a computer for backup
  • Install personal firewalls and antivirus software on all computers on your network, so even if a curious user opens a virus-containing attachment, your network still should be protected

Prepare For the Computer Viruses of the Future
Approximately one week after the terrorist attacks on New York, a “viral” attack hit computer systems nationwide. Nimda, a particularly damaging computer virus, spread rapidly through e-mail attachments as well as shared servers.

Another virus presented itself as a plea for help in the wake of the attacks; sympathetic users click on the e-mail attachment and the virus installs itself on their computers.

For businesses, the cost of ridding themselves of this or other viruses can be steep — PCs need to be “cleaned” and software reinstalled. Time spent by technicians, and the cost of lost data, adds up quickly.

Consultants say prevention is key. Some advise clients to update antivirus software every day, or at least once or twice a month. Make sure software is current and effective. Check out antivirus software available through vendors such as McAfee.com, Symantec and Trend Micro, among others.

.info Joins Domain List
In addition to the familiar .com and .org Internet suffixes — called top-level domains — Web browsers now can recognize a new one, .info. The domain went live in September, and more than 52,000 addresses have been registered, reports Afilias Ltd., the company in charge of maintaining the . info database. Another 250,000 addresses are in the pipeline, awaiting activation.

Building service contractors may want to register their .com Web sites under the .info name as well to protect their trademark; indeed, many of the new .info sites belong to brands with existing .com addresses, including Nokia, Budweiser and Dell Computer.

Web browsers such as Netscape and Internet Explorer should automatically be able to read the new addresses.

Disposable Cell Phones Debut
Equipping employees with cell phones may become easier and cheaper in coming months, as new disposable handsets come to market. While these phones ($10-$30) may never replace traditional units, they might be useful for workers who may not stick around long enough to return a company phone. Analysts also speculate these units might result in lower prices for traditional phones.

Hop-On Wireless is slated to debut its disposable cell phone this month. Dieceland Technologies holds several patents for a paper phone; the product is in development.




POSTED ON: 10/1/2001