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Software rehabilitates corrupt computers

Nov. 1, 2003
REFORMATTING A CORRUPT PC OR LAPTOP TOOK ABOUT three to four hours at Fenner Drives, a manufacturer of industrial-belting, powertransmission, and motion-control components. As a midsized business with 300 employees, divisions in Manheim, Pa., and Wilmingt

IBM's Rapid Restore software restores corrupt operating environments on Fenner Drives' laptops in about 15 to 20 min, as opposed to hours.

REFORMATTING A CORRUPT PC OR LAPTOP TOOK ABOUT three to four hours at Fenner Drives, a manufacturer of industrial-belting, powertransmission, and motion-control components. As a midsized business with 300 employees, divisions in Manheim, Pa., and Wilmington, N.C., and a limited IT staff, the company decided to incorporate special software that restores a system in about 15 to 20 min. As a result, support time for PC recovery has dropped 90%.

Each of Fenner's IBM desktop PCs and ThinkPad notebooks stores Rapid Restore software from IBM's ThinkVantage Technologies. The software backs up and then quickly recovers the PC-operating environment in case of an emergency such as a virus or software crash. A single keystroke launches a program that lets Fenner restore the environment to the lastsaved, customized working condition.

With Rapid Restore, small to medium-sized businesses save by giving employees the ability to fix many software failures without resorting to a help desk.

"We chose IBM for many reasons — pricing, competitive advantage, and its ThinkVantage Technologies — but its sales staff far exceeded our company's expectations," says Jon Blomeier, PC-andnetworksupport technician at Fenner. "It was committed to our specific needs as a medium-sized business."

IBM
pc.ibm.com/us/think/thinkvantagetech.html