Your I.T. Emergency Service. . .

Based in the heart of Coventry, covering the Midlands and Beyond

For the duration of the UK flooding crisis and in partnership with the UK IT Association (UKITA) and Kroll Ontrack Data Recovery, PCMAYDAY.COM is assuming a co-ordination role to help businesses get the IT support they need as quickly as possible. 

On Friday 29th June, David Gibson of PCMAYDAY.COM travelled to South Yorkshire, one of the worst-hit areas, to gain a direct understanding as to the scale of the devastation and its impact on the community.  Whilst in Sheffield, David appeared on BBC Radio where he explained how to give first aid to a computer to maximise the chances of a successful data recovery.

It is already clear from the TV pictures that the need for IT support is likely to be substantial. 

Given that some local IT providers will themselves be victims of flooding, the expectation is that some businesses attempting to get back on their feet will find it difficult to find an IT provider able to help them quickly.

The UKITA website is a place where businesses seeking IT support can log their requirements, triggering emails out to 250+ UKITA members with an invitation to respond.  IT companies in South Yorkshire that are operational and have capacity to assist are invited to sign up with UKITA, since in no way do we wish to take IT business out of flood-hit areas if there is spare capability and capacity locally.  It has been agreed that South Yorkshire IT companies, once registered, can make use of UKITA free of charge during the current crisis.  For details of UKITA companies (and others) that have already confirmed their ability to assist, please click here.

Our aim is to put businesses needing urgent IT support in touch with IT companies that can help, as quickly as possible.  Our initial focus is on South Yorkshire, since that is where we believe we can do the most good.  If we can make a difference in South Yorkshire, then we will look to assist other flood-hit areas also.

Kroll Ontrack provide a specialist data recovery service and have the capacity to recover data from water-damaged computers, servers and media such as back-up tapes.  Advertisements appeared in Friday's Sheffield Metro and Monday's Sheffield Star, with the latest news from Kroll Ontrack that they will not be charging any initial assessment fees for flood victims, a saving of £80-90 (excluding servers).  A further advertisement, plus editorial, will be appearing in Wednesday's Sheffield Star Business Section.  Depending on the level of demand, PCMAYDAY may look to set up collection points in Sheffield and Rotherham with a shuttle service running between the collection points and Kroll Ontrack's specialist laboratory in Epsom, Surrey.

One issue that is unknown at this stage is how many businesses know what a hard drive is and how to remove it from the computer.  The hard drive contains your computer files; it is the part of the computer that is required for the purposes of data recovery in the absence of any other data source, such as backup tapes or disks.  Unfortunately, it is not possible to send the whole computer for recovery and, in any event, insurers may want to take a look at flood-damaged computers in order to validate claims.  PCMAYDAY's partners Sort-IT are offering a disk removal service for businesses unable or unwilling to remove hard disks themselves.

PCMAYDAY.COM promises to pay a significant portion of any flood-related income arising from this initiative to the Lord Mayor's Appeal Fund.  The amount to be given will be in line with the volume of work undertaken.