Will a disaster put you out of business?

When a disaster strikes - whether a fire, flood, tornado, hurricane or earthquake - the initial damage is only the beginning of disruptions that can last weeks to years. Recently, Gartner Research released a chilling statistic: two out of five enterprises that experience a disaster go out of business within five years.

One of the inherent benefits of an electronic document is that a copy of it can easily be stored offsite. Although enterprises routinely back up their servers, the problem lies in the fact that 90% of an organization's knowledge resides on paper. A document imaging system facilitates the conversion of paper documents into electronic documents so that your critical organization knowledgebase is always protected.

You should be concerned about the very essence of a business surviving a disaster. You can purchase insurance to pay for the interruption to you business cause by a disaster, but without one's important records, a business may never recover. In fact, the Institute of Business and Home Safety estimates that 25 % of businesses that are forced to close because of a disaster will never re-open.

Vital Record Test

  Is the record required for business success?
  Is it required for legal reasons?
  Is it required by a regulatory agency?
  Is it required to support recovery efforts?

If you answered YES to any of the above, then answer the following:

  Is it impossible to re-create?
  Are copies unavailable at a remote location?

If you answered YES to either one of the last two questions, consider the record vital.

Source: Institute for Business & Home Safety

In 2004, we experienced Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan. Recently, we experienced the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. These forces of nature have demonstrated the power such storms can possess and the damage they can achieve. One hopes that a disaster will never strike, but if it should, the return on investment in a document imaging system is not only measured in dollars and cents, but also in peace of mind.

It is absolutely critical that a business digitalize their important documents, and store them securely off-site, or there is little hope of recovering. This one problem is so significant, that it alone is a big enough reason for a business to invest in a document imaging system.