Many councils continue to run the gauntlet when it comes to protecting their valuable hardcopy records. Most sophisticated businesses have a daily offsite data backup solution but, when it comes to physical records, they have no disaster recovery (DR) strategy at all.
Recent events in Tasmania and elsewhere around Australia remind us that a DR strategy that incorporates records and information management is imperative. There is no doubt that many of the buildings destroyed in bushfires or floods around the nation would have contained critical corporate records.
Human Resources (HR) is one area that tends to create large volumes of hardcopy records. An employee’s file is typically made up of signed physical agreements, various pieces of correspondence, evidence of employee inductions and many other documents. How would your organisation respond if all of that valuable corporate information was lost?
The cost of digitising corporate hardcopy files can be significant. That said, what would the cost be to your organisation if a fire destroyed your building and all your physical records.
Government entities have a particular responsibility to ensure that precious public records are protected. It’s pleasing to see that all tiers of government are addressing this issue and the digital conversion of public records is occurring more and more frequently.
Why is it that most of us readily insure our premises and other physical assets, but tend to ignore what is arguably our most valuable asset — our corporate information? While the building can be replaced, in many cases the knowledge cannot.
Acrodata is a leading provider of records and information management solutions to local government, including large-scale digitisation projects.
*Copy supplied by Acrodata
