Young company's back-up software gets rave reviews in world press

Back-up software designed by San Ġwann-based start-up Altaro has received rave reviews in the international technology press, including leading magazine PC World.

Altaro, the company founded by Simon Attard and Julian Pace Ross last year, launched its first product Oops!Backup in December. Over 1,000 orders have been made for the software, translating into hundreds of licences being sold.

PC World, which first reviewed the software a few days after launch on its online magazine, currently hosts a version available for download. A review was also published in the March publication, describing Oops!Backup as "a delightfully easy way to back up data" and highly recommended it to readers.

Meanwhile, Techrepublic said the software was "a great step forward in the arena of helping get computer users to back up their data as often as possible". Positive reviews for the continuous data protection tool were also published in the German technology press and US online media, including AOL's DownloadSquad.

Oops!Backup is available at www.altaro.com for download and installation on a 30-day trial. Users are able to purchase licences for the software online within the trial period which entitles them to free updates released as frequently as fortnightly. Oops!Backup retails for $37.

Software users are also able to access an online forum and a support ticket system to iron out difficulties or clear queries they may have while using Oops!Backup.

"We became more innovative than we originally intended," Altaro's chief information officer Julian Pace Ross told The Times Business. Mr Pace Ross is the creator of a previous online data backup software called Datasafe for the pair's other company Prisma.

"We started off as a more traditional software company. Our sales cycle was the typical phone call, meeting and follow-up with a demonstration and sale. Originally, the website served as an online brochure and advertising medium. We turned the model on its head and decided to transform the website into our main sales channel. An online presence gives immediate worldwide access, straight into the most competitive scenario. There is a shorter sales cycle through the online store and revenue is received round the clock."

Altaro is now registering over 200 new customers a month. Chief technology officer Simon Attard believes Oops!Backup has already been installed by over 6,000 users. He is confident many trials will translate into purchases.

"More than half our sales originate in the US, but we have seen numerous orders from the UK and Germany," Mr Attard said. "Oops!Backup has sold to clients in Australia, Israel, and several other countries around the world. At first, our target customers were home users and professionals, but we are now seeing more and more businesses using Oops!Backup. We have been encouraged by feedback to design a version for business applications which we hope to launch soon."

While constantly updating Oops!Backup, Mr Attard said Altaro was also busy working on other products spawned from the backup software apart from a whole set of new ideas.

"Oops!Backup is not run-of-the-mill back-up programme," he explained. "Rather, it takes frequent back-ups - every five minutes - and every version that is backed up is available on a user interface which allows users to 'rewind', so to speak, to earlier versions of their files. Oops!Backup allows you to go back to previous versions of files created a week or even a year earlier. The software allows users to preview files in Word, PowerPoint and even photos before they decide to restore them. It is particularly useful for web development. Any file on a computer can be backed up."

Mr Attard studied computer science at the University of Malta. He later developed a job management and time billing system for notaries and lawyers called Blaide, and went about selling it.

Mr Pace Ross, who studied engineering, was also delving in software development with a focus on backup tools around the same time, while working within the electrical engineering sector.

The two friends decided to share an office and soon found their own clients also required the other's product. The relationship evolved into Altaro.

Altaro is now focused on increasing traffic to its website to maximise sales potential. Chief executive officer David Vella joined Altaro last year to define a business development and marketing strategy for the young company.

By streamlining operations and constantly innovating, the team is confident Altaro will achieve growth with a functional and appealing range of products.