Business Backup
- Auctioneers

Auctioneers generally carry significant quantities of critical data. As with any business they are likely to have accounts, payroll, email and contact information. In addition, they are likely to have a significant quantity of property data including photographs, virtual tour data and industry database information. It is imperative to the smooth running and indeed continuance of any auctioneering firm that critical data is available and secure. Auctioneers do however face challenges in deciding which data is critical and what is the optimum retention period for all data types.

A successful auctioneering firm will have considerable numbers of properties going on and off their books on an ongoing basis. With each property comes personal information pertaining to the vendors, potential buyers and actual buyers. The shelf life of properties may vary; some individual properties may be sold more than once by the same auctioneer, some vendors and buyers may buy and sell more than one or many properties through the auctioneer on an ongoing basis. The auctioneer therefore faces the complex issue of balancing the companies needs and obligations with regard to retaining information which is required for as long as it is required and ensuring at the same time that the company does not incur unnecessary expense or risk of data protection act breach by retaining data which is no longer applicable or relevant.

In the past, (and not too recent past in some instances) auctioneers generally did a bulk backup on tape or hard drive. There was little or no legislation requiring them to implement any real data management or data retention policy. Additionally, there were few affordable options beyond tape despite its obvious weakness and frequent failure. A small percentage were fortunate with this lack of a system. The majority experienced some data loss and survived it as their dependence on computers had not been to today's' level. Others suffered near total or total data outage with significant impact on their business.

To say that auctioneers today depend very much on computers is to understate the situation considerably. Auctioneers (if not themselves, through their P.A., staff and suppliers) use computers to upload to their website, scout competitor market price, search for vendors, communicate with buyers,
upload to and browse on third party sites such as www.daft.ie and www.myhome.ie, manage contact information, use banking online, manipulate photos, send and receive email.....the list goes on.
The unavailability of any not to mention all of these features on a temporary not to mention permanent basis would have a serious impact on the business. We are not talking worst case scenario here. We don't need to tell you what would happen if you irretrievably lost all of your data. You can see the impact far clearer than any outside party. Suffice to say, words like panic, confusion, embarrassment, prosecution and failure come to mind.

Worst case scenario is not the only reason you should consider online backup. You should avail of an online backup service which caters for worst case scenario and bring positive results even if a worst case scenario does not arise.

When an auctioneer considers online backup, it should not just be for the security, simplicity and value. While these are very important factors which online backup can offer, an often overlooked feature of online backup is the data management options it offers. Your move to online backup should assist with compliance and reduce the labour overhead, headache and risk associated with traditional off line backup systems.

If you are moving from an off line backup system such as tape or hard drive, your move to online backup should involve identifying which data is critical and what is a safe and viable retention period for your business.

In effect, you should be moving from your bulk, weakly indexed data dump to a data specific, fully indexed and searchable safe storage solution. Many providers will encourage an as is move from off-line to online backup. This involves selecting the same data set which is currently backed up locally. This offers a simple install for the provider. It also results in a missed opportunity. The move to online backup should also involve an assessment of which data is selected with a view to making the data selection more appropriate, efficient and useful to the auctioneer.

We at Backupanytime have considerable experience providing online backup for auctioneers. Our reference list and testimonials demonstrate our ability to implement simple, secure, automated and supported online backup for auctioneers.

We also offer group incentive schemes to auctioneers. These pertain to large international formal affiliations and small local umbrella groups .

Contact backupanytime in strict confidence today and avail of world class online backup from Ireland's largest online backup provider tonight.