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IT 'Nor'easter' Recognizes Winds of Change

Talk about disaster recovery.

Eric LaFleur is no stranger to a "Nor'easter," those winter weather systems originating just northeast of the east coast of the U.S. and often reeking sizable havoc -- particularly across New England.

LaFleur's home just outside of Boston has often been in the path of those "Nor'easters," which bring strong winds and frigid artic breezes that create strange patterns of climate change that can affect every aspect of life, including how one does business.

Notwithstanding their sometimes devastating effects, over the years these "wicked" Nor'easters have come to symbolize resiliency and a regional identity, a cultural panache of this part of the country.

It's this provincial pride that was behind the slogan of LaFleur's IT service company, which is "NE tech, NE time NE ware," and behind the company's name as well: NorthEast Computer Services, LLC founded in Haverhill, Mass. in 2003.

According to LaFleur, the basic thinking here, among other factors is "what if a Nor'easter knocked out your power" and services were down, how would you back up your critical data and who would help you?"

"We started the company to fill a somewhat new and growing need and that was to provide Managed Services to the SMB market," said LaFleur. "Managed Services and IT outsourcing have been around for a long time for large companies but it was something that was just emerging into this market segment and we saw the potential and viability of starting a company to service that market."

To LaFleur, business continuity solutions, with backup and disaster recovery as a key component is without a doubt very appealing for clients who face literal and figurative, physical and financial "Nor'easters" that could adversely affect their businesses.

To that end, NorthEast Computer was able to take the capital that would have been needed for hardware, software, bandwidth, etc and instead focus those dollars on marketing to and acquiring customers.

Posted by Jabulani Leffall on August 17, 2010


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