Who's got your back?

It’s a little known fact that unlike most industry sectors in the State, Real Estate licensees have specific laws that dictate their data backup process.

Monday 03 Dec 2007

It’s a little known fact that unlike most industry sectors in the State, Real Estate licensees have specific laws that dictate their data backup process.

The Property Agents & Motor Dealers Act, a body governing all Queensland Real Estate offices, has a strict criteria relating to the storage of electronic data.

It’s a subject that tends to fall beneath the radar yet the critical business function of backup simply isn’t being performed effectively.

It may seem boring and you may be able to get by without it for a while but data loss will hit you; the only question is how prepared are you for the inevitable?

With data loss and privacy of information both hot topics in today’s business environment, it is time that all members of the Real Estate profession get organised and make backup a core element of their administrative and I.T. process.

Before you convince yourself that your backups are under control, take a minute to really assess exactly how your backups are managed. You’ll thank yourself later.

It might help to take a closer look at why we need to backup.

According to Brisbane-based I.T. provider Spheritec, the trust accounts, client databases, sales contracts, banking information, financial and payroll data that all sit on your computers or server can be lost in an instant.

‘Whether it is the result of accidental deletion, hard-drive failure, virus or spy ware, it’s a fact that at some point in time every business will be in the position of having lost their data. It is also the incident that causes the most down-time of any other I.T. issue,’ says Marketing Manager, Leona Duffy.

‘We insure our hardware but often the greatest value is in the data. A laptop can be easily replaced: - losing your important computer files is a loss that can have impact for months, if not years.’

Not having a copy of your critical business data puts you in a position that is very difficult to recover from and as it turns out, one that puts you in breach of law.

The first rule set out by the Act is that data must be stored offsite. Any backup stored at your place of business is neither reliable nor compliant. Just as important is the frequency of your backup. Can you be confident backups happen each day without fail?

It can be tempting to assume your business complies and your staff makes it a priority but it’s a hard fact that most businesses don’t consider their backups until catastrophe strikes.

Many businesses entrust their backup function to a junior admin role whose job description most likely focuses more on supporting busy sales people and a busy office. Any process that involves a manual, human element can let you down and to be honest, data backup is a large responsibility that must be set in place by the Principal.

An external hard-drive kept in your car or USB thrown in your handbag at the end of each day does not qualify as secure, offsite backup. The risk of theft is high and loss even higher. And if the disk falls into the wrong hands, just imagine if your rent roll or sales database was compromised. Your reputation as a professional business will be at stake and your business will struggle to service its clients.