Best Practices for Disaster Preparedness

Offsite Data Depot, a leader in document storage, secure document destruction, digital document management and data protection, shares best practices for disaster preparedness and records information management. With the recent and early occurrence of tornadoes nationwide and expected disruption to businesses, Offsite offers a six-step process to assist companies of all sizes to better protect documents and critical data. Offsite is a leader in managing critical records for businesses in and around northern Nevada. 

Disasters typically leave organizations little or no time to secure documents, so it is mission critical to create a RIM (records information management) plan and integrate strategies that proactively enforce it. Fires, wind storms, floods and earthquakes are enemies of physical documents. Even a frozen water pipe is a potential disaster from a document security standpoint. Offsite encourages businesses to create, practice and enforce a disaster preparedness plan in advance to maintain the integrity of critical documents and maintain compliance.

Through more than a decade of experience securing critical business documents for organizations, Offsite developed a straightforward set of best practices to safeguard against even the most extreme disasters and minimize the risk of service discontinuation. Offsite recommends that businesses initiate the following strategies before a natural disaster strikes:  

• Collect and store critical documents and computer backup tapes in a secure off-site location. If a secure off-site location is not available, create an infrastructure that will best protect documents on-site from natural elements and unauthorized personnel.
• Create and communicate a RIM plan, detailing the past and current life-cycle status of documents needed to support critical business functions and locations across all departments and functional areas.
• Identify the organizational/functional areas that play a part in the secure document life-cycle in times of emergency, such as critical departments, procedures, resources, vendors and alternate sources for supplies.
• Perform full risk assessments of physical security of critical documents, facility safety and personnel accessing original documents.
• Conduct annual document audits and disaster retrieval reenactments
• Consult a local records management company for services and information on how to get started.

Additionally, lost or damaged documents can place organizations outside of strict compliance regulations, such as HIPAA, HITECH, FACTA and Sarbanes-Oxley, which require the retention of volumes of records. 

Whether files are stored on-site or off-site, and regardless of format, all departments must clearly know what records are most important, where they are retained and how to access them. An implemented, clearly communicated and strictly enforced strategy will greatly strengthen the facilitation of business continuity during times of emergency.