Many of us have heard of making “disaster plans” at home to protect our family. I have heard of families practicing what to do in case a fire and setting protocol for tornadoes with a “safe place.” The CDC even launched Zombie Apocalypse week to help prepare people for disasters (CDC.gov 2011).
At my house my husband is always stocking up our survival kit with food, batteries and so many other things. I admit I tease him that he’s a little extreme, but I also admit it does makes me feel safe and if something were to happen, our family would be prepared to survive for months.
But what about preparing at the office? If something were to happen tomorrow, would you be prepared? I don’t mean stocking food in your drawers at work, but rather the foundation of your business, your documents and information. Are they safe or are they piled up in your back office?
As too many of us know first hand, a natural disaster can devastate a business, a street and even a town. In the past two months thousands of lives have been changed by these tragic events. In fact, 70% of today’s businesses would fail if they suffered a catastrophic loss of their paper-based records (PWC.com, 2010).
Last year there was a tornado that went through Yazoo City, MS. There was a picture in the paper of a front end loader cleaning debris off the interstate. Plain as day in the picture, you could see someone’s IRS 1040 form (Yazoo Herald, 2010).
Recently we spoke with a person that lost 10 years of financial records when the storms went through the Huntsville area. He said he had been considering securing his information, but had just never got around to it.
Joplin, Missouri, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, both flattened by a tornado with devastating loss. This year the greater Memphis and Mississippi flooded. Last year it was Nashville.
We have several stories of documents that were damaged by the flood in the Nashville area, including 2,100 Juvenile Court documents from the Nashville Juvenile Justice Center (WSMV.com, 2010). Flood damage reportedly cost them $758,000 to move, sort through and attempt to restore files through a freeze-dry procedure. Officials did comment they plan to scan every document dating back to 1989, in case of another emergency.
It’s tragic, it’s expensive and it happens. What are you doing to prepare?
Step 1: Create a Plan
Define which documents are critical to sustaining your business.
Step 2: Secure Documents
Get them into digital format and save over a protected system that is stored off-site.
Step 3: Protect Entire Business
Expand the plan beyond your critical information into secondary and additional data.
Want to find out more about document security? We can help you create and implement the plan.
Sources:
CDC. “Social Media: Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse http://emergency.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies_blog.asp May 16, 2011
Pricewaterhousecoopers. “1998 Coopers & Lybrand report”
Yazoo Herald. “Tornado Hits Yazoo County” April 25, 2010
WSMV.com. “758,000 spent to in attempt to restore documents” http://www.wsmv.com/news/23921177/detail.html June 16, 2010
