Emergency document safety.
Begin the process with the assessment and identification of those vital documents, which need to be protected from disaster, in order to resume business with the least delay and distress.
Proceed with an inventory of these documents and identify the documents. For example, include in your report the type of business function they address, why they have been selected, and where they are located including the format. Take into consideration what assets are to be protected, be it legal, financial, your obligations to employees, customers, stockholders, and of importance to marketing and your business plan. Include all work in progress of importance, review and add to the list. Distribute your report to the individual who is assigned for the recovery process and secure it in protective storage.
For the inventory, you may set up a book on Excel and divide the documents into three different categories: crucial, important and useful or use a template for vital records inventory. You will save time, money and frustration in resuming business. It will simplify the whole process and allow for a smooth return to doing business. If you are automated, this will facilitate the process as they will be indentified as such with pertinent details.
Give a description to the documents such as the business function they belong to, why they are selected, add the value of importance, and include the protection method being used.
Protective storage can be either onsite or offsite. Onsite is less recommended and is riskier. Your best bet is to choose another method of storage. Offsite is best suited and is recommended for both paper and electronic files. Dispersal of information is available with many options to consider. You can have the data duplicated or replicated with an alternative site. You can select an offsite record center, which takes into consideration many facets of storage such as the media it is stored in, the conditions it needs to maintain to save the integrity of the material being stored, and who has access to the documents. Choose a center not too far away for ease of access and retrieval. Another popular outlet for storage is to send documents to a third party service such as electronic vaulting. Overall, do some research and inquire about the service, the type of storage you choose, and ensure that all security measures are in place for your company business documents.
What ever storage solution you choose to adopt for your documents, ensure that it is suitable for ease of access and protection. The sensitivity of material protected is also of concern to your business and employees.
Francine Renaud
Records Management Consultant
http://www.timeouttoorganize.com/
Tel: 250-763-3988
Thanks !
ReplyDeleteWe all should maintain inventory of documents for the disaster situations.There are methods which we can use to store such documents indite and offside.This save time and reduce effort.The main things is you should choose that method which ease suitable for access and protection.
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The best way to store important hard copy files is to place it inside a vault. With this, you can be assured that your files are safe and they will not be damaged in case of fire, earthquake, or any other accidents.
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That is right. Additionally, hard disk drives and solid state memory flash drive containing documents with hardcopy that had been shredded in Paper Shredder can be copied several times and stored in fire, water and temperature proof box, that is , similar to black box of an airplane or time capsule.
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