Sunday, July 15, 2007

OOPS!  We’re Down, Now What?

Relying on an outside firm to handle your critical system needs became very painful recently for several companies.  A major satellite-based Internet provider lost their primary e-mail accounts during what was described as “routine maintenance,” and their recovery from back-ups failed!

Almost 2 days went by before accounts were re-established, and no one knows how many lost messages there were, especially for those that used web-based e-mail accounts.  Support was terrible.  There was a pre-recorded message that stated in effect, “Sorry, there’s nothing we can do right now.” Individual home users were inconvenienced, but many businesses were brought to their knees!

What has all this to do with accounting software?  It’s our ever-increasing dependence on other companies for mission-critical systems that puts us at risk.
So, how dependent is your company on outside software providers?  When you lose the use of your accounting system because of a design flaw or a system failure, how quick is the system restored, and how thorough is the recovery?  What would the loss of its use mean to your company?  Can your company survive a week, or even a couple of days without access to your business data?  Oops!

What should you do?  If you’re looking for a new system, consider the following questions for the software developer: 

• How strong is their knowledge of the actual system?  Did they just buy the source code from someone else? 

• What’s their track record?  Talk to their current user base.  If they won’t provide you with that information, pick another provider. 

• How long have they been in business?  Did the entire staff just graduate from business school? 

• How strong are they financially?  Are they a target for takeover? 

• How many levels of support are there?  Count the consultants, VARs, etc.  The more levels there are, the slower the response, and you’ll find more finger-pointing going on.

Even if you’re not looking for new software, you should ask these same questions of your current software provider.  The results could be scary!  Do your research, and get it right.  You could lose your job by making a bad decision!