Business Recovery Services (BRS), Computer Configurations Holdings` disaster recovery company, has achieved its six-month revenue target within three months of opening its doors for business. BRS MD Frederick Castleman reports that the company has clinched contracts worth R10m since its high-profile launch in October last year.Within this period BRS has secured several major contracts, including Hollard Insurance, Momentum Health, Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank, Rand Merchant Bank, Teljoy Cellular and several major clients of EDS Africa."BRS has looked specifically at the high-end midrange and client-server markets, where no real disaster recovery services have been on offer in the past," Castleman says. "The fact that we have achieved our sales targets so soon is an indication of the huge need in the market for midrange disaster recovery and off-site data storage services."Again, we have been able to take advantage of gaps in the mainframe sector. We have installed a virgin Amdahl mainframe for year 2000 testing, and we have also entered into a business partnership agreement with Amdahl South Africa." Companies with midrange computers have been accused of neglecting to safeguard their information systems and data, yet Castleman disagrees. "Most organisations we talk to are fully aware of the need for a disaster recovery programme, but they have been unable to find a service provider which can fulfil them."Computer Configurations Holdings (CCH) chairman Mario Pinheiro concurs. "We are one of the biggest suppliers of hardware and services to the midrange market, and have noticed over the years that more and more critical systems have been migrated off mainframes and on to powerful midrange machines. It was no accident, therefore, that we identified disaster recovery as an important area which had not been addressed fully by anybody."BRS has a wide range of hardware platforms from mainframe systems through big-brand high-end midrange machines such as Sun, HP, Corollary, Axil and Compaq, as well as smaller desktop systems. In addition, BRS has fully equipped dealing rooms, with Reuters feeds and telecommunications systems."Facilities are available for complete off-site operations, including computer systems, offices, furniture, fittings and a relaxation area. A company can move its entire operation - including staff - onto our premises, and would find themselves in a similar office environment, down to the potplants and the coffee machine, explains Castleman. We can even patch through telephones, so customers dialling in will not know that they have been put through to a different site." Castleman predicts that business will grow rapidly over the next six- to nine-month period. Momentum is gathering as companies see their information systems as not critical, but indispensable to their business. They also know that a comprehensive disaster recovery programme for non-mainframe platforms does exist. Companies need more than just a back-up machine and a good insurance policy to safeguard their data and keep their business running in the event of a disaster.Key contributing factors to the success of Business Recovery Services, says Pinheiro, are "Investment in the best possible technology, and the calibre of people we have employed. Individually and collectively they have a long track record in disaster recovery."
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