Software and Hardware for Domestic Energy Assessors
There's no escape, issuing Energy Performance Certificates is a technological business, which, along with the benefits of higher productivity, decreased duplication of tasks, accuracy and compliancy, also come concerns over cost, annual licence fees, ease-of-use, reliability, security, and RdSAP compliancy... hence the need for this technology section.
Mobile Devices - Things to Consider
You can find mobile devices in the hardware section.
At the time of writing, developers are working on enabling PDA's, "e-Pens" (electronic pens) and Tablet PC's for use in-the-field by DEA's. Presumably, some of these devices will allow your energy assessments to be instantly uploaded and processed, without you leaving the clients home. Whilst there are obvious benefits with that feature, it does mean you have to be super-accurate in your reporting as there will be no second chance to proof-read later... and that could prove costly down-the-line!
Security
Several points of note you need to consider here:
- Theft
- Security of personal data
- Physical loss
- Data loss
- Damage
You should seriously sit down and formulate a policy that you, and/or your staff, can look-to should any of the above eventualities (plus others) occur. There should be a series of events that are triggered according to what's gone wrong. For instance, if your mobile device allows connection to a server, you should have a policy that makes any changes necessary to prevent connection by a thief. That might involve contacting your connection-provider and/or changing passwords. So in addition to what might seem the obvious:
-
Where is the telephone number to contact the connection provider? Hopefully, not on the mobile device - or at least, not solely on the device!
- Do you need to inform any of the governing bodies? Who and how do you contact them? - You need to know!
- How much information was on the device? You need to know what information is vulnerable and what action to take. How will you deal with assessments not yet processed?
- Passwords - Which ones need to be changed? It's not uncommon to need several passwords these days - Some are more important than others; which ones
They are just some of the considerations you should think about in formulating your policy. A good policy thinks beyond the immediately obvious to ensure minimum downtime, client protection, business protection as well as, if applicable, employee protection... and of course, to get the wheels of business rolling again.
Back-up Data
You saw that coming didn't you! Well, as boring as it is, it's likely that as a practicising DEA, you'll also be practising under the shadow of the Data Protection Act 1998, which we can talk about again, but the upshot is; your client's data needs protecting... securely!
... and that means securely away from fire, floods, hurricanes, visiting guests, kids, cats and angry spouses (or employees)!
Have a back-up policy and stick to it. Should anything bad happen, you'll know exactly what is at risk as a result, and how much "back-tracking" you need to do in order to get back up to speed.
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Reply #1 on : Sat January 05, 2008, 20:18:06