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As increased reliance is placed on IT infrastructures for the
delivery, indeed the success, of many business ventures it becomes
essential to have thorough and well-conceived plans when seeking to
implement or change your IT resources.
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Many businesses can not justify employing full-time IT staff, but
still require that knowledge and experience to provide them with the
expertise to launch new business undertakings or efficiently manage
their current IT assets. In such cases the ideal solution is to turn
to consultants with the necessary expertise.
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Planning A New Business Venture
~ A web-based directory providing listings of English bed
& breakfast accommodation required a method for website
visitors to contact listed members to make bookings or
request information. However, most listed members did not
have regular access to email, or in some cases did not even
have a computer.
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Contingency Planning
~ Although the benefits of prudent disaster planning and
recovery do not materialise until catastrophe strikes, no
business can risk failing to consider the possibilty of a
disaster striking it. Studies have shown that more than
half of all businesses that suffer damages related to data
loss and application downtime eventually go out of
business.
Planning A New Business Venture
The Client's Problem
A web-based directory, providing listings of English bed &
breakfast accommodation, required a method for website visitors to
contact listed members to make bookings or request information direct
from the website pages.
Most listed members did not have regular access to email and in some
cases did not even have a computer. However, nearly all listed
members did have a fax machine, and the web-based directory already
included the fax number in the members' listings.
Glideslope Software's eBusiness Solution
The eBusiness Solution was provided in two stages:
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Implementation Study
An implementation study was carried out to determine what
was required to provide an eBusiness Solution, how the
eBusiness Solution was to be implementated and what it
would all cost.
Following the completion of the implementation study, an
extensive report was prepared for the owners of the
website directory setting out the details of the proposed
eBusiness Solution.
It was recommended that an email-to-fax gateway
should be designed and installed. The gateway
would be provided using a dedicated email-to-fax server
with emails being sent from a form on the web-based
directory. The listed members on the web-based directory
would be offered the service as an integral part of their
membership fee and the email-to-fax gateway would also be
marketed to other potential users.
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Project Management
The web-based directory approved the eBusiness Solution
and Glideslope Software were contracted to provide the
email-to-fax gateway service.
Initially, the server hardware was specified, purchased
and configured, the email-to-fax gateway software was
specified, installed and configured, and the internet
connection was installed and configured.
Next, a CGI script to run on the web-based directory's
webserver for generating and processing the website forms
was designed, coded and installed on the webserver.
And finally, once the email-to-fax gateway service had
completed operational testing and was ready for use, a
training course was devised and presented to the web-based
directory's staff.
More information about the email-to-fax gateway service
can be found on The Fax Link website at
www.thefaxlink.co.uk.
The Fax Link Website
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Contingency Planning
Although the benefits of prudent disaster planning and recovery do not
materialise until catastrophe strikes, no business can risk ignoring
disaster preparedness. Most businesses directly affected by a
catastrophe do not recover from the damage without a viable
Contingency Plan in place.
The preparation of a prudent Contingency Plan is carried out in
three major phases:
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Risk Analysis
A risk analysis is an organized process of identifying the
vulnerabilities in business operations. To find potential
threats, you must know what you need to protect.
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Security Planning
Security planning is, essentially, devising solutions for
the vulnerabilities identified in the previous phase.
Using the information derived from a thorough risk
analysis helps to create a complete security policy.
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Recovery Procedures
Having established recovery procedures in place when a
disaster arises eliminates guesswork and fumbling by staff
encountering new and unknown situations. This prevents
lost time and productivity, which could result in lost
business.
Studies have shown that more than half of all businesses that suffer
damages related to data loss and application downtime eventually go
out of business. Backing up applications and data is not enough and
even with insurance policies that cover equipment loss, the cost of
data loss and downtime of business-critical applications can often be
insurmountable. A thorough and well-conceived contingency plan will
help your business survive.
The Foundations of a Contingency Plan
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To successfully implement, and take advantage of, the opportunities
available from your IT infrastructure your business requires expertise
in areas as diverse as project management, security auditing and
contingency planning.
Phone:
Email:
Post:
2 Wince Brook
Middleton
Manchester M24 1BN
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