1992 - The Mouse That Nearly Put Us Out Of Business

The business now had four employees, including our first graphic designer, working on separate computers and this was causing a big problem with data not being shared. Sign design was on one computer while the plotters for cutting the design were attached to other computers. There was also huge waste of time and frustration in searching for files on different computers and transferring of files by disc. We decided to install a new computer server network which made work much more efficient and greatly improved our productivity going forward. However, there was a severe cold winter the same year and we were advised to keep computers running during the holiday season to avoid any condensation damage from frost. When we arrived back to work after the holidays our whole system was down and we discovered an electrocuted mouse ‘fried’ to the electronic board of the main server. The mouse had short-circuited and destroyed most of the main electronic chips. We lost a big amount of data files but, thankfully, not everything. That one small mouse who crept into our computer for a little bit of warmth over Christmas very nearly put us out of business. Lesson learned, all data was now backed up every day - and no more micky-mouse business after that!