Key Challenges

One year after becoming a Black Mountain Software client in 2014, Havre Public Schools inquired about BMS Cloud Hosting Services. “Network issues were a constant and growing worry,” explained Business Manager Mike Arnold. “We started to look seriously at cloud hosting services because we knew it would be a big relief to get concerns about backups, network security, updates, and network errors off of our plates.”

And then the virus hit. A ransomware attack rendered the organization’s files encrypted and inaccessible. Initially taking some comfort in knowing that they had a nightly backup process in place, Havre Schools at first believed they would be able to avoid paying ransom to the malware company to have their files restored. But as luck would have it, they discovered that the server that held all of their financial data had not been backed up nightly.

Suddenly faced with a nearly complete loss of business operations functionality and data, and having experienced first-hand the speed and insidiousness of a malware virus, Havre Public Schools called Black Mountain Software for help.

“They bent over backwards for us and they didn’t have to. It shows what a quality company Black Mountain Software is. Other companies would have put us on their list and gotten back to us later.”

– Mike Arnold, Business Manager

Havre Public Schools, Havre, MT

Population

10,000

Student Population

1,700

Client Partnership

Since 2013

Applications

Accounting | Budget Prep | Human Resources | Payroll | Student Accounts

Black Mountain Software Solution

After an evaluation of the situation, Black Mountain Software recommended that Havre Public Schools immediately move to BMS Cloud Hosting as the quickest and most reliable way to regain business operations. The school district also ended up having to pay ransom to the malware invader in order to regain access to their financial data which had not been backed up.

“I didn’t have to think twice about switching to the cloud,” stated Mike Arnold. “I had already visited with other schools and they were all pleased with the BMS Cloud. I also had previously spoken with the software engineers at Black Mountain and had learned that Amazon is their cloud platform provider. Amazon’s strong reputation along with Black Mountain’s strong reputation made it an easy decision – especially with the compromised situation we were in.”

Engineers at Black Mountain collected Havre Public Schools’ raw financial data, quarantined it and ran checks to make sure no files were infected. Then they cleaned the data, compressed it, and transferred it to the BMS Cloud. Havre Public Schools was running smoothly on the BMS Cloud within two days of the disastrous virus attack.

With their information restored and access to their software made more stable and reliable thanks to BMS Cloud Hosting, Havre School District has had smooth sailing in the years following their data disaster.

“It was great how BMS staff stayed in touch with us so closely during those two days and got our data caught back up to where it was when it crashed. It was phenomenal.”

– Terri Rolf, Accounts Payable Clerk

LET'S WORK TOGETHER