Surface Ripples

Effective Risk Management - Back Up your Information

One of the most valuable assets that your business owns is information.

My clients have information on customers, products, prices, competitors, new markets and prospects, deals in process, cash owed, bank accounts, certificates and registrations and any other number of vital items needed to run the business. This is held on paper, or “on the computer”. However, when I ask them how they back these up, the answer’s often silence.

Anything can happen to your records, whether they’re in paper form or stored on a computer. Your ability to continue doing business hangs on being able to recover vital records at critical moments. Do you really want to be telling that valuable prospect that you need more time to put in the tender, or the tax man that you can’t respond immediately because “there’s been a problem with the computer”?

Equally, if you store all your vital information at the office and you can’t get there due to bad weather, other natural disasters or for other reasons, where does that leave you?

It’s easy to take a few simple steps to secure your most valuable information. Here are a few suggestions and questions:

• Identify what’s important (e.g. customer contact details, business registration documents, certificates of compliance, deal files, invoices, prospect files, and so on). What can your business really not do without?

• How do you currently store it (on paper, on computer) and where (with a lawyer, in a bank safe deposit box, etc)?

• How often do you need to get at it and what would happen if you couldn’t get at it for any reason (e.g. fire, computer crashes, etc)? Would it matter if you couldn’t get at it for (say) one day, two days, five days?

• Do you have an up to date list of all vital contacts – names, telephone numbers, email addresses - (e.g. customers, suppliers, bank, accountant, lawyer, local emergency services, business/industry group, regulating group)? Is this available wherever you are?

• Do you have secure fireproof storage on site sufficient to hold all sensitive and vital files or documents?

• Do you have access to secure, fire and flood-proof storage away from your business premises?

• What is your “contingency business site” if you can’t get to your business premises for any reason - can you access your vital information there?

• Can you obtain copies of all vital business documents? How easy would it be, how much would it cost you and how long would it take?

• Does your business have the ability to scan documents and store them electronically?

• Do you have the ability to back up what’s stored on your computer(s) to a secure offsite location and to access it from outside the office?

If you answered “Don’t know” or “No” to more than five of the above, your business could be at risk. The good news is, you can take some very simple action right now to improve the position.

The concept of the “paperless office” (which doesn’t exist, by the way) has resulted in “computer complacency”. As long as it’s “on the computer” or “online”, people think they’re secure. However, when you lose your computer due to a virus, “system crash” or to the office being inaccessible, you have a problem.

One answer is to back up vital computer files at the end of every day to a secure external storage device (I do this) which is kept overnight in a separate location. The separate secure device might simply be a memory stick or a portable external hard drive (I have a 1 TB drive which has more than enough space). Don’t forget that Data Protection laws may constrain you on what confidential information can be kept outside the office. Make sure that any data on external memory devices is encrypted or password-protected.

My appointments, contacts and ToDo list are on Apple’s iCloud service, allowing me to access all these wherever I am (as long as I have access to a computer). Equally, Microsoft and other providers offer “Cloud Storage” for a price to which you can back up documents. Your only issue then is whether you want to have your vital information in the hands of someone else. If you have one, speak to your IT service or outsourced provider and see what solutions they have.

Statistically, the longer things run smoothly, the more likely it is that one day, you’ll have a problem. Act now to make sure you can survive.

I have spent more than half my life working in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in the world financial services industry running different service, operations and lending businesses, I started my own Performance Management Consultancy and work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.

Labels: Crisis Management, Customer Care, Financial, Productivity, Risk, Strategy

posted by William Martin @ 20:36