While Florida’s warm weather, sandy beaches, and stunning views make for year-round appeal for visitors and residents alike, the hurricane season is no fun for local businesses. Since 40% of all U.S. hurricanes hit Florida there is always the threat of storms, floods, fires, and other devastation to life and property every year from June to November. Whether you have a small retail establishment or a sprawling corporate office, it is important to ensure that your business is ready for the hurricane season ahead. This would mean instituting a proper Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and Disaster Management (DM) matrix that can minimize operational disruptions when powerful hurricanes hit the shores of Florida.

The experts at Crown Information Management offer some tips on reviewing your BCP and DM plans before hurricane season begins.

Protect your Business from Disruptions in the Face of Floods, Storms or Hurricanes

From power outages and loss of internet connectivity, to system downtimes and inaccessible office premises, there may be many recurring obstacles in running your business during the hurricane season. Keeping your business afloat would require systematic backup plans to protect all the data and information related to your operations, customers, employees, contractors, and other stakeholders. 

• Disaster Recovery (DR) Plan: This tactical plan defines how to restore your technology systems and platforms, and business data in the event of a disaster. 
• Business Continuity Plan (BCP): This plan focuses on internal and external communication, facilities management, human safety, and data integrity through a strategic risk management framework.

While you may have put together a formal BCP and DM for your businesses, here are some aspects to consider:

• Do your employees understand their respective roles in the implementation of the BCP or DM? 
• Do you have a secondary site that you can revive at a moment’s notice in order to run your operations uninterrupted? 
• Do you test your BCP and DM matrix periodically to understand if it activates successfully when actually needed?
• Have you provided adequate training and sensitization to ensure that the general staff understands how to conduct themselves or communicate with customers or stakeholders when the BCP and DM plans are in effect?

Formalizing the policies and creating strategic plans on paper is a great first step in protecting your business. However, the most critical part is to ensure that the people responsible to activate these plans understand their individual roles and responsibilities when such a time comes. Whether it is IT, human resources or the facilities management teams, or even the business leads, everyone should be able to operate in a smooth and seamless manner to prevent chaos and disruption to your business. 

Keep your Physical Records Safe and Secure with Crown Information Management

Unpreparedness on BCP or DM could lead to several potential problems, including labor, production, or operational issues, customer dissatisfaction, and erosion of brand trust. Additionally, the loss of physical or digital information can severely impact the success of your business. 

At Crown Information Management, we specialize in records management and storage and offer systematic storage of physical information at our state-of-the-art facility in Winter Haven, FL. Our extensive range of services includes sorting, coding, indexing, filing, quick retrieval, as well as Scan-on-Demand facilities. As a SOC1 Level 2 Report, NAID AAA and PCI Certified company, you can count on us for efficient and hassle-free storage of your physical records during and beyond the hurricane season. 

Call 800-979-9545 or contact us online to learn more about our various records management services. Our qualified and experienced information management specialists will be happy to offer tailor-made solutions for your business.