General Consultant Discussion

As part of your services to your customers - do you keep any type of permanent file of information such as electronic copies of key reports, significant files (sy0ctl), etc? I'm thinking this might not be a bad thing to start doing - and pondering whether I just create a Dropbox folder for each of the customers with their Sage 100 version as a subfolder or if someone has a better way.

Wow, I just created a Dropbox folder for a customer that I created a report for about 10 minutes ago. Not sure I'd want to add TOO much info but it sure could be helpful. What other files are you thinking about? VI jobs? Activate.pvx? More maintenance, of course. Is this an offering for a fee??

I have a BLS folder on their system where I put Crystal reports, registration information and other files of importance. It is also in a spot that is backed up nightly. Information stays on client's server under their control. I also keep copies on my server for ultra backup

FYI, just got back from a conference where the new HIPAA regulations were discussed since we are in the cloud backup business. If you have any copies, or even any remote access to a company's data or server that also contains Patient Protected Information, you must sign a BAA (Business Associate Agreement) with your client and you are completely liable for that data and it can never be in an unencrypted state, during transfer or 'at rest.' Basically to CYA, make sure you only have a password that works for the MAS servers and that no patient information is in there.

What I was thinking was (very open to suggestions on this): 1. Create a Basecamp project (use whatever project mgt you have) to contain notes on various custom items such as scripts, reports, pass through queries, site visit notes. Can also invite customers to view/work on these though most won't. As our customer sites age the number of tweaks and quick patches we make are daunting to keep track of. Multiply by the # of customers you see in a month/year and it's tough to remember one from another. 2. Use DropBox to store system level files off-site - mas_SYSTEM, every custom form, report./. I do not think I would store any financial data (none of the MAS_xxx).