The emphasis in Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity (DRBC) plans is placed on protecting data, but maintaining and managing document-based communication should also be key considerations. The costs and risks associated with communications disruptions can be just as harmful to your business as an outright data loss.
According to the Gartner Group, fifty percent of small and medium businesses will go out of business within three years if lost data cannot be recovered within just 24 hours. Fortunately, Paperless Productivity® offers electronic document management solutions to assist with fax backup, document disaster recovery, and business continuity planning.
Disaster Recovery considerations are critical when evaluating and deploying paperless document management solutions. Some key considerations:
- Paperless documents, unlike physical ones stored in basements and filing cabinets, are not susceptible to water, fire, smoke, or other damage.
- Likewise, paperless document storage in not location-centric. 'Redundant' storage of paper documents in logistically challenging, costly, and impractical given the low cost of redundant electronic fax backup and data storage.
- Documents are often stored at each individual step of the document workflow, creating 5, 10, 15 or more copies of different portions of the complete document. The complete document is often copied multiple times.
- A data disaster recovery strategy should include an electronic document management solution encompassing backups and redundancy for faxes, scans, emails, PDF's, physical electronic signatures, digital eSignatures, and electronic forms.