DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
How to Prevent a Document Disaster from Crippling your Institution

Today we are all faced with challenges beyond our control. There are deadlines, equipment maintenance issues, budgets, staffing and of course the economy. As facility managers, we prepare and educate ourselves on new technologies, operations, techniques and procedures. But lurking just out of sight is the unknown. The unknown will always elude us and never give up in its pursuit to keep a certain level of anxiety bubbling just below the surface.

Every institution should include backup for paper documents
as well as computer documents into its recovery plan.

Preparation for every disaster scenario becomes an overwhelming task. However, reasonable precaution and organized planning can take the “sting” out of whatever disaster comes your way.

Our focus here is disaster preparedness and the critical role documents play in determining the success or failure of your plan.

Here is a question we often pose to facility managers. “Are you prepared for the disaster that could cripple your facility?” The answer we receive in most cases is a resounding “Yes.” However, our research shows critical areas of the disaster preparedness model being overlooked.

Floods are America’s number one disaster and can strike at any time without warning anywhere. The recent midwest flooding and California wild fires gives us plenty of warning as to the dangers we are faced with and how in an instant your facility can become either an evacuation center, a shelter or the primary focus of the next news report. We know the dangers, we read the statistics, we understand the power and devastation of a disaster, and as managers and administrators we have developed recovery plans we drill, review and enhance.

Keep in mind that disasters can be major or minor. Major disasters are earthquakes, floods, long term blackouts. These are not very common but we plan for them diligently. However, minor disasters can cripple your facility overnight and in many cases are overlooked when developing plans. Minor disasters include: roof leaks, pipe bursts, water damage, mold on documents, sabotage, negligence, loss, theft or misfiling.

Case Study 1 – When Documents are at Risk in a Crisis:
This client’s case study could be typical to many office environments. They centralized storage of all business records including client records, invoices, purchase orders and vendor files plus original architectural drawings dating back to the turn of the century. Precautions had been taken for protecting the building with sprinklers, not considering that while a flash fire would have been controlled, the water damage would have wiped out the entire document archive in minutes. This would render the institution unable to conduct further business.

Solution: with some simple steps a document scanning procedure was put into place to help this facility protect its documents.

According to the Department of Labor, 93% of businesses that experience a disaster go out of business within 5 years. By implementing a “simple” plan you can increase your chances of being in the 7% that survive. Of companies that suffer a major loss of computerized records, 43% will never reopen, 51% will close within two years and only 6% will survive long-term - Cummings, Haag & McCubbrey 2005.

Of course, for facilities and institutions that get hit by disaster the picture is even worse since most do not even have the luxury of closing operations during recovery.

Case Study 2 – When Documents Become a Critical Factor in a Crisis:
A buildings & grounds supervisor was notified of a critical water leak from a burst underground pipe and was faced with the challenge of a shutoff valve buried “somewhere” under a newly renovated ball field. Every second counts when a basement is filling up with water.

Solution: using a digital archive database the blueprints were opened on screen, the location was identified, prints were made, a small hole was dug gaining access to the shutoff valve giving the maintenance crew time to isolate the source of the problem and the crisis was contained.

The scanning of this particular district’s blueprints was quite timely. It had only been a week earlier the district had received, in digital format, all of their facility’s blueprints. Before that the documents had been stored in garbage cans in several different buildings with absolutely no organization. If this crisis had occurred a week earlier there is no telling what costs would have been incurred as a result of the water damage, overtime hours to repair, reconstruction of the ball field and other associated costs. The total cost of digitizing all the records for that district was many times over justified upon the immediate location of one blueprint in a time of crisis.

So, I will now ask the question in this way. Are YOU prepared for the disaster that could cripple your facility? A disaster recovery plan is a piece of the puzzle – but if facility managers are not running their own what-if scenarios and developing their own plans to work in conjunction with the overall disaster plan then they face the unknown when disaster strikes.

In speaking with a director of facilities in a small hospital, I asked “Are you prepared for a disaster?” His response was, “Yes, we have an extensive disaster recovery plan, crisis management, and continuity plan.”

I then asked “Have you included all of your data and important critical information?” His response was, “I think my computer guy handles all of that so I think I’m safe.” I then asked, “Are your blueprints backed up, operation & maintenance manuals, equipment logs, timesheets, insurance records?” His response: “Backed up? They’re paper!”

Although the computer guy may have a handle on data backup and there may be a solid disaster recovery plan in place – the critical documents used day-to-day for the facility were not considered in the overall plan and therefore, could possibly be lost forever in the event of a disaster.

The United States Department of Education, in their Practical Information on Crisis Planning manual says, “The goal of recovery is to return to learning and restore the infrastructure of the school as quickly as possible.” In the preparedness phase of your plan they suggest to “Gather information about the school facility, such as maps and the location of utility shutoffs.” And they stress “Emergency responders need copies of this in advance.” Then on the recovery phase of your plan, they suggest to restore operations and document your procedures throughout the event.

So Where do you Start?
Begin with a very basic disaster recovery plan.

Plan
Be sure you backup all of your data, delegate responsibilities in case of an emergency or disaster and have some sort of conAS& HF November/December 2008 17 FREE INFO: eInquiry #113 • ashfmag.com tinuity plan. When disaster strikes, the plan automatically goes into play – communications, documents, computers, contact with clients, vendors are all covered.

Test
Based on a Gartner Research Report it is estimated that 32% of all conventional tape backups would not restore properly. Many facilities that use a backup procedure do not test their backup media and suffer data integrity issues as a result. Add offsite storage of your backup media to your continuity plan. Be sure your backup media is stored safely offsite and is accessible under all circumstances. Along with off-site backup storage you may want to consider a secure off-site hosting service that can make your documents available online for easy access from anywhere. Off-site hosting of your documents allows login from anywhere and your documents are secure.

Refine
It is very easy to overlook some of your most critical data – your paper records. More than 70% of today’s businesses would fail within 3 weeks if they suffered a catastrophic loss of paper-based records alone due to fire or flood. If you are managing a school or hospital failure is not an option. Add your paper records to your backup. If you were to run a drill today that required offsite management, do you have the documents that are required to perform your operations? Centralizing your archive documents along with your newly created digital documents can also be achieved through document management software. A qualified document management specialist can help you choose the software that is right for you.

Every institution should include backup for paper documents as well as computer documents into its recovery plan. A simple way to get started in this area is to begin scanning all paper from today forward. You can purchase an easy to use, inexpensive, desktop scanner and be up and running quickly. A document scanning service can assist with your “backfile” conversion, large document scanning and simple ways to integrate the process into your day to day workflow.

With the great responsibility of managing your facility consider the important “paper” documents that are needed to accomplish your day-to-day operations, identify these documents along with other critical information that you will need to operate before, during and after a disaster. Then create your plan to backup this data and make it instantly available from anywhere.

The unknown is always there, waiting patiently for a time to introduce itself as chaos, crisis, disaster or other forms that will disrupt our lives. At least now when asked about the document disaster that may cripple your facility you may truly say, “Yes, I am prepared.”

Stephen Hoey is president of KDF Reprographics, Inc. A document management company helping schools and hospitals get control of their documents through affordable scanning solutions. He can be reached at: 201.784.9991 x501 or visit www.kdf-comp.com.

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