This is the first backup Seagate has made for small businesses, and it's far superior to Mirra appliances. First, it's much larger, with the NAS 420 storing up to 2 terabytes of data. The NAS 440 stores up to 4 terabytes of information. The NAS 420 comes with two mirrored, hot-swappable drives. With everything backed up to a redundant drive, you lower your risk of hardware failure in a disk drive. The NAS 440 comes with four drives.
These devices attach to your network and you can back up as many as 50 computers on your network to one device. You can also access files backed up to these devices over the Web. For an advisor who must take a backup of e-mail and other critical data offsite regularly, these hot-swappable drives make a lot of sense.
A backup system is only as good as its software, though, and the software that comes with the BlackArmor series of drives is a big improvement over previous versions from Seagate. I was able to get backed up in minutes after installing the software. Your Microsoft Outlook data will get fully backed up, even if you do not close Outlook. This had been a problem with previous versions of backup software from Seagate, hampering many advisors who must back up e-mails in Outlook for compliance purposes.
Document processes. If you have not documented your core processes for running your business, you are operating less efficiently than you should be. For firms approaching this task for the first time, it is enormously difficult. So hire a consultant. Firms that can help you include: Actifi, Financial Productivity Group, Focus Partners and Moulton Strategic Partners. Hire one of them this year. You'll feel some pain, because devoting time and money to long-term strategic issues distracts you from dealing with the issues on your desk right now. But by documenting your processes and replacing your current ones with strategically sound thinking, you will realize the benefits for many years.
Editor-at-large Andrew Gluck, a veteran financial writer, owns Advisor Products Inc., a marketing technology company, and he recently launched an online practice management Web site at www.advisorsforadvisors.com.