By James O’Connor
In an age rife with apocalyptic shows, films, books, and predictions about the impending fate of humanity, many forget to think about how natural disasters will impact the organizations that are putting dinner on their tables. After all, a repeat of an event like Hurricane Katrina—which put nearly 11,000 business applications for disaster recovery loans on the SBA’s docket—is far more likely than, say, the zombie apocalypse. However, any business, whether small or large, can preclude data and document loss by taking the proper precautions:
Forego the Paper Filing Systems
With the exception of tsunamis, natural disasters often result in some variety of conflagration feeding on all that is flammable, particularly the paper containing your business’s sensitive information. If a business is to keep its data, info, and records recoverable, paperless document management software will be the best option. Even when the financial consequences of natural disaster are subtracted from the equation, document management software remains more cost-effective in the long run.
Let Encrypted Data Centers Give You the Statistical Advantage
Let’s get mathematical: If data and information are securely stored in two places, the data has less statistical probability of being compromised by natural disaster. Document management software, as an answer to paper’s inefficiency and disorganization, is usually equipped with nondescript data center storage, automatically backing up and syncing information on a regular basis to ensure its retention.
Be Down-to-Earth About the Cloud’s Info Retention Bandwidth
In the event of a hurricane, tornado, earthquake, or flood, servers are commonly compromised or destroyed entirely. However, the advent of Cloud-based document management software allowed employees to access information from anywhere and on any device. So even if monitors are swallowed by an earthquake’s office-splitting chasms, mobile devices and tablets will retain info and allow workers to utilize it swiftly and responsively from locations other than the destroyed office.
Don’t Rely on Third Parties After the Fact
Paperless document management solutions are proven even more cost-effective than their paper counterparts amid natural disasters; although insured offices will co-pay a smaller premium for natural disasters’ damages, file recovery in both electronic and analog form remains a lengthy, time-consuming process. In order to preclude this problem, a business can implement a simple, Cloud-based, in-house document management software before natural disaster strikes.
Reference the Facts and Figures
The natural weather service reported in an annual summary of US Natural Hazards for 2014 that natural disasters incurred nearly $5.5 billion dollars of property damage. Make sure your business doesn’t contribute to this organization’s 2015 report; store information securely and safely via document management software.
While experts agree the world won’t be ending any time soon, it’s as subject to (and overdue for) natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornados, and meteorites as ever. However, following these 5 steps will preserve your business’s information in the most dependable and easy-to-use manner the market offers.