Cleaning out the Closet – Getting rid of data you don’t need, keeping what you might need and making the best of the rest.

I don’t know about you, but our servers, desktops and laptops have accumulated a lot of stuff – programs, E-mail, documents, pictures, data files, downloads etc.  Once in a while, we just have to clean house and get it in order.  At the same time, I am nervous about getting rid of something, because like all things, after you get rid of it, you need it.  At SOHO Solutions, we try to strike a good balance between what we keep and what we “throw out” by asking ourselves one question…

Do we really need this? (Sorting it all out)

This simple question is the hardest to answer– so to answer it, I usually set a benchmark of 1 year – if we haven’t used it in a year, then we probably don’t need it.  Examples are E-mail correspondence on settled one-time matters, documentation on finished projects, quotes (tons of quotes), vendor quotes etc.  We put these files in a “box” called “Archive” (actually, we note the directory/folder they’re in on a list of directories to archive). 

I consider these files like old/out of style items that I’ll never wear, but might have to pull them out for a retro party – they’re put away “forever” but I can get them if I really need them.  Later on I’ll tell you how we handle this box (as well as the other “boxes” that we have); the rest of the items are sorted out by the following criteria:

1.     I might need it – keep it just in case

For us, these are files that contain technical information on how to repair older equipment that we still service;  we hardly ever refer to them, but sometimes we have to (maybe two or three times a year).  It is also E-mail correspondence that lists contact information and steps to resolve a particular problem.  We put this in a “just in case” box.

2.     Well, maybe we need it, but I’m not sure

These items are put with the “just in case” box; if we don’t use it in a year from now, then we put it in the “Archive” box when we clean up next year.

3.     Always have it at hand – Critical Information – I want it now!

This is the day to day or active client/project work that we definitely need on hand. We go through these files to see if they are stored in the right place on our SharePoint site; if they’re not we put them where they’re supposed to be.  These files are backed up every day.

4.     Laptop Files and USB Files

Since our laptops synchronize with our server, these files are sorted too.  If you don’t save your laptop files to a server, follow the same rules as above (and you better make sure you backup those laptop files or fugghetaboutit!). If you keep files on USB device, make sure you have a copy stored somewhere else too.  We backup our laptops with Symantec System Recovery which helps us restore the entire laptop (programs, files and settings) to its original state in case of a hard drive failure.

5.     We know we definitely don’t want it or ever see it again

The files that we know that we absolutely, positively and definitely know we don’t need, want, or ever look at again, we permanently delete them.   If there is any shadow of a doubt – we put them in the “archive” box.  They can always be thrown out next year.

Putting Everything Away

After we have all of our directories, files and E-mails sorted, we use tape, CD, DVD and on-line backup services to store them according to their need:

A.    The “Archive Box”

We look at all the items in our archive list and do the following:

1. E-mail messages stored in an archive that is broken out by calendar year with standardized subfolders (Quotes, Done, Sent, Orders Placed, Vendors, Benefits etc).  Microsoft Word has an archive function that lets you set the target of the archive.  Right now, we have the archive stored on the file server; when these files start getting too big, we will move the older years to tape and place in storage.
2. File directories are stored separately on a backup tape that is put into storage; we change the file names so they easily describe what’s inside.  The tapes are labeled by calendar year.

B.    The “Just in Case Box”

Since we most likely won’t need these too often, we burn them to a DVD; if the files are too big, we move them to tape.  We put the media in a filing cabinet where we keep are reference materials.

C.     Critical Information

These files are  kept on the server on our SharePoint site and are backed up to tape daily.  In addition to the tape backup, our “super critical files” such as our accounting data is stored electronically off-site with our Online Backup Service.  We identify directories and files (can specify individual files too) and set the online backup service to encrypt them and send over the Internet to an encrypted data storage facility.  The software is easy to use and web-based; we can retrieve files anytime and put them anywhere we want.

D.    Laptops and USB Files

These files are reviewed the same way we handle the files on the server; also, our laptops are set to save to the “My documents” folder on our file server, so they are backed up every day.  USB files are copied to the server. 

That’s basically how we clean up!  We do this process every year or sooner (if things are getting too out of control) for all of our files and paper documentation, which leads to…

What about the paper?

We have a lot of paper items too – receipts, packing slips, signed quotes bank statements/slips, etc.  All of these are scanned and placed in their respective file folder in SharePoint.  We go through these just like we do with the other files we have.

I want to get it back now wherever I am!

Stored away files that need to be retrieved from any location are stored using our online backup service.  This service has a Web interface gives us access to these files wherever there is an Internet connection. 

Making the best of the rest.

What’s most interesting to me about this process is finding things that I totally forgotten about or noticing “trends” of how we work.  I also find old contacts and products that really helped us serve our customers, but for some reason we haven’t used recently. 

Vendor Information

We go through these contacts to see if we still need them; we usually touch base with them to see what promotions and financing options they have.  Cisco at one point had 0% financing for three years for their equipment; one of our clients updated their entire phone system with that deal!

Old Quotes

We go over our old quotes to see which ones were rejected and why.  It helps us understand what our clients don’t want or need.  We review the accepted ones too to see what we did for them; we follow up with them just to see how they liked what they bought and how the things are going.  We also follow up with clients that we haven’t worked with in a while to see if they need anything.

Finished Project Files

Going through project files help us remember how good (or not so good) the project went and why – we note this to strengthen the good things and prevent the bad. We also check to see if all warranties associated with the project need to be reviewed and are on SharePoint.

Reviewing Old Service Orders – what we saw and did about it

We open a service order every time someone calls us for help – we review these to see what trends are happening to each of our customers and our clients as a whole. 

We saw some costly downtime and breakdowns

A few of our clients have a heavy Internet-dependent business with a server that shut down on them a few times last year.  Each shutdown cost him a lot of money.  After reviewing their service orders over the past year, we determined that it was better for them to go on a network maintenance and IT support plan.  The cost/benefit of the plan was clear after seeing the material losses and downtime they experienced to repair the downed server. Plus, they now have  IT user/desktop support on a fixed monthly budget.  The others decided to stick with time and material service – which is OK too; hopefully they won’t get hit hard at a bad time.  See our story on keeping the office moving.

We protected clients with virus and spam protection

Overall, we saw a trend of a lot of clients hit by spam and viruses on their laptops.  We started working with them to reduce SPAM  installing recovery software and external hard drive on their laptops/desktops.  If they were hit hard with a worm/virus; we now can just wipe out the drive and restore it within an hour using the recovery software.  Before that, we would have to spend 4 or so hours reformatting the drive, installing all the software and reconfiguring the system; their average bill was reduced by 75% (all this for a $100-$200 investment).

Helping our clients connect better

Some of our clients were using dial-up modems to connect to the Internet and to their servers from home (and spending a long time on the line).  We suggested they use a cable connection with Virtual Private Network (VPN ) for better security and quicker access.  Now they connect faster with better security to protect their data when they connect to their server remotely.

Overall

It feels good to clean house once and a while and review all the work that was done – overall, we provided services that met our client’s needs and our clients our happy with the service we provided to them.  Since we “cleaned up our closet” we can now easily find all the things we need to help them out more quickly.

How do you clean house?  Let us know!

Tell us how you clean house – we’ll review it and if it’s the best and ranked #1 against 10 other stories, you will win a Jabra Smart Series BT530 Headset.