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Small Businesses Need Better Disaster Contingency Plans & Preparation for Sudden Data Loss Vulnerable Paper Records Can Be Protected Through Information Relationship Management Approach
ATLANTA, October 18, 2005 – Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) represent 99 percent of all U.S. companies. However, only 23 percent of those businesses back up their data to a separate, secure off-site facility1. In the wake of the natural disasters spanning recent headlines from wildfires in the West to hurricanes ravaging the Gulf Coast, the loss of information SMBs suffer when hit with sudden disasters is a critical threat to the nation’s business majority. And, as information relationship management software provider FileVision sees it, they need to be better prepared. “As the lifeblood of the country’s economy, SMBs need better contingency plans on how to recover their information when it’s lost from an unplanned event,” says Laurie Shufeldt, vice president of strategic business development, FileVision. “That event could be a natural disaster, power outage or IT security threat. Businesses that prepare by preserving their paper documents in an electronic format and storing the records off-site have a better chance of recovering the information regardless of the type of disaster.” The stakes for SMBs for lost information are high. According to Gartner, the world's leading provider of research and analysis about the global information technology industry, 50 percent of SMBs will go out of business within three years if lost data can't be recovered within 24 hours, yet nearly 40 percent don't back up their data at all, with only a quarter of small businesses having a recovery plan in place. Keeping track of records and information also plays an important role in obtaining some types of financial aid in the aftermath of a disaster. When FileVision client Hart County, Georgia was hit with tornadoes in fall 2004, the information relationship management system helped the roads department receive Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds for road damage sustained. "We created a keyword for storm damage, which we used to go into the system and get a report on exactly how much work was done," says Mary Hughes, an IT specialist for the county. "We gave that to FEMA to get our money. This saved us 40 man-hours of work, as the old way would have required searching through drawers to look at paper reports on every road." The FileVision solution makes use of document management, document imaging, workflow management, and relationship management technology and also has in-depth search capabilities for its business productivity tool. “Imaging is a key component to electronically storing documents,” says Shufeldt. “Even though the purchase of a scanner and data integration system to organize and track the information may seem excessive to an SMB owner who faces more immediate every day expenses like the cost of energy, labor and liability insurance, it’s equally, if not more important than traditional businesses necessities. In the case of sudden data loss, the cost for imaging all of the information and storing a back-up version off-site outweighs the unplanned expense of recreating everything. Its ROI is more apparent if the software behind the recovery plan is also incorporated as part of every-day office productivity processes.”
1 HP 2005 Small Business Survey conducted with Harris Polls.
# # # Media Contact: About FileVision |
