Best Advice: Always back up
January 29, 2013
Cyber-stalking, data mining, Spoof Cards .. oh my!
January 29, 2013
Everyone knows that technology is always changing.
What’s useful today is obsolete by tomorrow in the ever-evolving world of computers, Internet and data management.
But local business owners should have no fear.
Data Management Services believes it is more than prepared to stay updated on the latest happenings in the technological world.
Now boasting more than 20 years of service in assisting businesses with technological needs, the Thibodaux-based company prides itself on training its employees to keep up with the latest and greatest in industrial changes.
“It is very much a challenge to keep up, but we are very conscious of it,” Data Management Services Vice President Sammy Hebert said. “We budget $3,500 annually per employee per year to get our employees trained to learn everything that they need to know.
“That’s our commitment to our customers that we’re going to stay committed and stay current with everything going on in our field.”
The commitment is evident in growth – Data Management Services offers far more than it did when it opened its doors in July of 1986.
The company was created by President and Owner Marc Boudreaux, who himself boasts close to 40 years experience in the field.
Hebert, who serves as Boudreaux’s right-hand man, said that Data Management Service was a software and programming support firm for local businesses throughout its first decade of existence.
“That’s what we did,” Hebert said. “We had programmers on staff and we supported our local customers who had IBM midrange computers. We’d write and modify software applications to fit their businesses and their business needs.”
But in the late 1990s, the company expanded when Data Management Services became an IBM business partner.
With that in place, the company can now sell IBM midrange computers to customers interested in boosting the technology within their business.
That change, combined with the boom of Internet technology taking place in the world at that time, caused the business to become what it is now – a one-stop shop for most technological needs.
“We went from a real narrow focus of just software and programming to now being real spread out and having a real wide focus,” Hebert said. “We’re doing networking, Internet connectivity and printers and scanners – everything you can think of. … We really went full force. We sort of pride ourselves on being a full-service IT support company.”
Since expanding its services, Data Management Services has also expanded its available hands.
The company boasts 10 employees, including an eight-person IT staff that owns well more than a 100 years of combined experience.
Hebert said that in addition to the $3,500 budgeted for each employee’s annual training, the company also makes it a point to cross train its workers in each specific realm of the company’s work.
“We don’t want our customers to have to be dependent on any one person for their needs,” Hebert said. “If something comes up, we want to be able to have a lot of different outlets to get them help.”
With the growth in technology, Data Management Services sometimes doesn’t even need to leave the office to fix a problem that occurs.
Because of a rise in manage services, Data Management Services has the ability to remotely monitor and oversee the networks of the customers they assist.
With this cloud-based technology, the company is alerted of potential problems and can sometimes fix them instantaneously.
“A lot of the time we know before the customer even realizes that there’s a pending issue,” Hebert said. “Some of those things can be resolved remotely where our techs can log in and just resolve whatever the issue may be. Once it’s done, we simply call the business owner and let them know, ‘Hey, there was a problem last night, but we fixed it and everything is OK.’ That seems to be a good trend in where we’re going because you’re fixing a problem before it occurs now.”
A large reason why this is important is because businesses rely on technology more than they ever have before.
Hebert said many Louisiana-based companies learned that the hard way during Hurricane Katrina.
“Prior to Katrina, people thought that the Internet was just helpful to their business,” Hebert said. “But then the storm hits and now people were without it, they understood that this stuff is as important as the lights, the air conditioning and the plumbing and everything else. People understand and realize that they are that dependent on technology to operate their business.”
As for future trends in technology, Hebert said machinery would continue to get faster in speed, while smaller in size.
But no matter what gadgets and gizmos steal the eyes of some, Data Management Services’ mission will remain the same – smooth operation for its customers.
“We have a lot of customers who have been with us from the very beginning when Marc started the business,” Hebert said. “We really take pride in taking care of those people and providing them with quality care. No matter what changes occur in our field, we’ll stay the same. We’ll keep up with it and we’ll take care of our customers.”
Data Management Services President Marc Boudreaux says that his office is messy – it’s easy to understand why. With more than 20 years experience in IT work, the business owner is constantly keeping himself and employees up to date in the changes in business.
