At our sister company, DVMinsight - a remote image archive service, we hear too many disaster stories about how verterinarians lose all of their digital radiography data or how a computer disaster took out their digital radiography for days on end. The time to prepare for a disaster is TODAY! Our guest contributor, Kevin Sholz of DVMconnexx, will be helping us periodically pester you with short form stories and reminders in an effort to get you to hire an IT staff to help prepare you practice for the inevitable. Computer failures will happen eventually but a failure does not have to mean an expensive disaster. Whether you use DVMconnexx or someone else - hire an IT person and prepare for the future. Kevin...take it away...
Whether white or chocolate milk, we all expect milk to taste like fresh, cold, perfect milk every time. Somehow farmers, dairies, and stores are supposed to do it right every day – every cow and every carton.
We are just shocked when we get a carton of milk that is sour, sugar that is clumpy, bread that is stale, and a dozen eggs with one broken.
I see most computer users with the same expectation of the devices that channel electrons so we don’t have to do our own math, spell, or send letters. The computer is not the kind of device that just keeps working without interruption like the fridge or garbage disposal. It has so many factors working against it.
No, not like milk
The computer is doomed from the start. It fights viruses, fights invaders and spyware, needs to be able to spell and write proper grammar, run thousands of software programs that each thinks is the most important one and won’t play nicely with the others, give access to millions of websites all over the planet, be your banking portal, host your Facebook page or run your business. Each letter and number must be correct every time no matter what – forget the dust that has collected inside helping your beloved computer to overheat, it must continue on perfectly everyday as your loyal friend.
The computer is doomed from the start. It fights viruses, fights invaders and spyware, needs to be able to spell and write proper grammar, run thousands of software programs that each thinks is the most important one and won’t play nicely with the others, give access to millions of websites all over the planet, be your banking portal, host your Facebook page or run your business. Each letter and number must be correct every time no matter what – forget the dust that has collected inside helping your beloved computer to overheat, it must continue on perfectly everyday as your loyal friend.
Computers have many ways to fail and so few reasons to continue on.
It is best to assume your veterinary computers will fail, plan for it, and work on failure prevention. Oh – and find someone that knows how to help you with this.
It is best to assume your veterinary computers will fail, plan for it, and work on failure prevention. Oh – and find someone that knows how to help you with this.
About the Author: Kevin Scholz and his company DVMconnexx offers far more than the usual “fix-it” type computer service. His business is built on protecting your veterinary practice from computer issues and down time. Nearly all IT (computer service) companies spend little time or resources to protect you from experiencing major computer problems but charge you heavily when you have problems. They may be the hero for getting you back up and running - they should have been the hero for protecting you from having the problem