There are 2 main types of backup.

Named ON-LINE or OFF-LINE.

OFF-LINE backups are simple and provide limited recovery, you can only recover up to point of your last backup. If they are backing up the server whilst the database is shutdown this is ok.

ON-LINE backups are so called because they are performed whilst the database is open. If your company is 'backing up' the whole server whislt the database is open then this back up is useless as your datafiles will not be consistent. An actual on-line backup procedure is needed where you place each tablespace into backup mode individually and copy the files.

INCREMENTALS are database exports, only of the data that hasd changed since the last incremental export.

The correct type of backup must be decided and implemented.

For me I backup the database off-line every weekend and take a full export daily. I could then restore the datafiles and import the latest data I have if necessary.

If your company are not shutting down oracle whilst they back up there server then they have no usable backups.