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BOOK ROOM CRASH COSTS THOUSANDS

By Vanessa Greco

The Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) may have to shell out more than $5,000 to get the Used Book Room running again after an unrecoverable server crash erased records of all inventory.

Last week, six boxes of printed book room receipts were sent to Southport Data Systems, a data entry company in Markham, ON. Initially, the company estimated it would cost $2,400 to work through all the information.

But on Monday morning, when Southport employees started entering data from the receipts, they realized they might have more work than they bargained for. Now the procedure may cost $4,400 plus tax, said Raymond South, president of Southport Data Systems.

Southport charges $200 for set-up plus 20 cents for each line of information they have to scan. They are the fourth company hired to help with the Used Book Room fiasco.

In late September when the Used Book Room server first crashed, two different computer companies were hired to inspect the failed hard drive. In an attempt to recover lost data, the server was sent to a third company — Seagate Technology.

Seagate’s data recovery attempt cost between $400 and $450, said Toby Whitfield, RSU’s VP finance and services. Whitfield couldn’t provide the cost of the first two companies hired to examine the hard drive, as he is waiting for invoices.

The price of Southport and Seagate’s efforts alone total up to $4,850—this excludes the cost of the first two companies hired. It also does not include the cost of hard drive reparation or replacement and the Used Book Room’s potential loss of sales from a month of not operating.

“The money is coming from a Used Book Room expense account as well as revenue it has generated,” said Michael Verticchio, RSU’s executive director, operations and services.

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