Ben joined StorMan Software in 2002 and is now StorMan's Australian General Manager.
Title: What are the main dangers for your business when handling a customer's private data?
Date: 9th May 2008
Hello all - and what a busy start to the year we have had! I’m pleased in one way to say that I’ve been too busy to regularly blog, however I am also pleased that I have now found the time to post one for you today.
Over the past few months, many people have asked me what’s involved in “getting StorMan”. As you can imagine, my response is always different depending on the site - whether it’s a new site or an existing site with different management software. Overall though, I find that the biggest concern for people is knowing that they can benefit from changing to a management package like StorMan, but many are worried about moving existing data from one program to another.
In many cases, these users may currently by using a program that is not, in any way, designed for Self Storage - take MYOB for example. Often, smaller operators start off using this as they need some way to send invoices to their customers and when they are starting out, they often don’t understand all of the requirements that they will need from their software provider.
It's only later on as their business grows, that they realise they may be making it tougher for themselves, because they are using software that is not designed for the specific use of Storage. At this point, the 'sales' telephone normally rings and I am generally asked about what StorMan can do etc -and very early in the conversation I am asked about “converting” their information into StorMan.
In this day & age with more and more companies using proprietary software and moving to a web based solution, this conversion process is getting more and more difficult to do. Many people who use web based software or SaaS (pronounced “sass” - which stands for "Software As a Service") fail to see the shortcomings down the track.
Web based software has the distinct disadvantage of not being able to “get to” the information you have entered because its kept on someone else’s server... and in many cases, it's not your server. A classic example of this is Facebook. If you read the fineprint when you sign-up, you will see that the information you enter becomes (and remains the property of) Facebook. This is fine up until the user wants to remove themselves from that service or alternatively (and more commonly), wants to “transfer” all the hard work i.e. the information they have already entered, from Facebook to another social networking site such as My Space.
As a consequence of this, many people - especially those in the United States - are starting to be very careful about who has their data and have taken to reading their Terms of Service agreements very carefully - as this can impact on their lives. Imagine how this would affect your business - and I'm sure you can now see why this is causing some very real issues for software providers who do not provide the ability to retrieve data in a meaningful form. It also raises the questions from a Storage client’s perspective about who has the control over the privacy of their personal data.
Sure - the customer has signed a privacy statement with the storage vendor, but if that vendor chooses to upload that to a web based software package, then who is now responsible for the privacy and integrity of their personal data? Having access to the data in your software is the absolute aim of a good software package. Having access to it then allows you to manipulate it, run reporting from it and generally get the most out of it should you wish to.
This brings us to a fundamental question - what’s the biggest thing stopping people from using a management package? The answer lies in the ability to leverage their data out of their system and away from the main software package if the owner of the software wants to.
Generally, over the past decade, many persons bought the software and therefore had full access to it (and the data it contained). The next decade will be interesting as the war on 'who owns the data' heats up. Make no mistake here - if you think a web software package is the way to go then read your Terms of Service document very carefully, as your data and hard work may not be yours to own. Alternatively, buy a package that stores the data locally (within your organisation) and these problems disappear as well as potential privacy liabilities.
I hope that this helps people understand some of the emerging issues that are facing software providers and their customer’s data. Talk soon; bye for now.
Regards,
Ben.
