Defining Document Management

By Bill   Thomas

From my “DocuBLOG”   column

Bill works for USA-ONE   Interactive

What exactly is document management?

A document management system also known as DMS is a system of computers that is used to store and track documents of an electronic nature. These could either be documents created on a computer or images of existing paper documents. Today document management systems are becoming more and more viable especially for small and medium businesses as it cuts down back office costs to a large extent and it also improves the efficiency of its staff.

Areas of functioning for Document Management systems

The concept of document management is pretty much the same whether it is done in an informal or formal manner. The informal manner would refer to a paper based method and the formal manner to a structured and computer aided system. Any document management system would need to address the following areas:

Location: Location would involve aspects like document storage.

Filing: Filing as the name suggest involves the method in which the documents are filed – the organizing and the indexing to make the documents easily available to the end user.

Retrieving: Defining how the documents will be found.

Security: Making sure that the stored documents are only accessed by authorized users.

Disaster recovery: Recovery of data and documents incase of a disaster.

Document retention: The time period for which the document needs to be kept and how these records and documents can be managed.

Archiving: Preserving documents so that they can be used at a later date.

Distribution: Making sure that the people who need to access the documents have hassle free access.

Workflow: Establishing rules and formats for passing documents from employee to employee or employee to client.

Authentication: And most importantly making sure that the documents being stored are authentic.

Components of a document management system

All document management systems have certain fixed components that are an integral part of its structure. Here are the list of essential components that every document management system should have:

Metadata

Integration

Capture

Indexing

Storage

Retrieval

Distribution

Security

Workflow

Collaboration

Versioning and

Publishing

5 Tips On Choosing A Managed Hosting Service

When you get managed hosting, it is important to realize that there are many options available to you. As for what managed hosting is, it is hosting that is managed by someone other than you. This is actually the most common form of hosting because everything is kept on an external server, which makes such tasks as disaster recovery a lot easier. And what’s great is that there is a wide range of managed services that you can take advantage of.

So here are 5 tips to help you choose a managed hosting service:

- You must check the Internet for reviews on the company. This is necessary because you want to see what others have to say. If they are experiencing a lot of down time, don’t get good customer service, do not have the necessary tools available to them, are experiencing issues with the controls being user friendly, or other issues, you may want to look for another company.

- Look at the managed services that are offered. Can you get such things as a shopping cart? Are you able to get an SSL certificate that certifies your site as secure to do monetary transactions? What about MySQL databases? Are you able to utilize these? You also want to make sure the managed hosting service is one that provides you with FTP service and various other things that you find you may need. Every person has different needs when it comes to their hosting.

- Call their customer service and ask them questions. See how well they know the answers and see how you’re treated. How you are treated is representative of how you may be treated in the future. The knowledge of their employees is important because there can be some rather complex situations that come about. If they can’t handle it, then you could be looking for long periods of downtime. Managed services should keep this from happening.

- Ensure that they take your payment method. Some take credit cards, while others take PayPal. Some take both. It depends on how you want to pay. You can also take a look at the payment structure. Will they allow you to pay monthly? How about every 3 months, 6 months, or year? You need to be able to pay whichever way makes you feel comfortable. And make sure you take a look at what is included with each plan. This is important to make sure it is enough.

- Take a look at their controls. Make sure that you’re going to be able to get into the website controls when you need to. Although these are managed services, it is important that you are able to know what is going on. If you’re paying for it and the website is yours, then you have a right to do what you need to do when it needs to be done and to know what is going on within your site.

So keep these things in mind. Managed hosting is a great service, but you want to make sure you understand what is going on. If they are speaking Greek to you, then you may want to move on. If you can’t tell heads from tales or up from down, then you’re just better off checking out someone else.

Just make sure that you find the managed services that are right for you and not what everyone else says. Everyone has a different level of comprehension, so it is important to go with a company that is easy to comprehend. So think about this and make your decision from there.

Hurricane Forecast 2008 – Hurricane Preparedness And What We Can Do To Avoid A Disaster Like Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane forecast 2008 – Hurricane Preparedness and What We Can Do to Avoid a Disaster Like Hurricane Katrina.

What is in our hurricane forecast for 2008?

The following hurricane preparedness article is very forward thinking and an open mind just may play a critical role in saving us all someday.

Glen B. Stewart has a far reaching yet proven perspective on preparing for deadly hurricanes. This evolutionary approach will rewrite history. In fact his global team will peacefully interact with as many turbulent and destructive forces of nature as possible. From now on.

This is where he needs your help ñ Read on

A typical hurricane is a force of nature equal to the energy of thousands of nuclear explosions. Mankind has finally experienced a breakthrough in peacefully dissipating deadly hurricanes throughout the planet.

For today again the Stewart principle will be a peaceful guardian angel in reducing another hurricane. This remarkable process has saved as many as tens of millions of lives in the past three years alone.

Shockingly enough – Mankind now has the capability to peacefully turn the deadliest category five hurricane into a windy storm. Amen to that!

What can a general public to prepare themselves to fend off a deadly hurricane in 2008?

Remain calm and have total confidence that you now can be part of hurricane reduction meditations. Picture this – using law of attraction principle to attract calming peaceful hurricane dissipation throughout the storm.

Do What?

Hurricanes are massive bundles of spinning turbulent energy. Knowing that our goal is to attract peaceful stillness over the hurricane. Picture your intentions being a serene blanket of peace for example. This type of approach is far more effective when you’re meditating.

A positive focused intention throughout the day will fortify your focused meditations. The best approach is to meditate for 45 minutes or so the positive healing intention directed towards the oncoming hurricane. The management team and so limited though perhaps take a walk to something that clears the mind.

Glen personally contributes at least three or four of these concentrated meditation sessions for each day of a known hurricane crisis. He meditates with healing energy intentions at random times along with his students globally.

This will act as like a healing energy blanket harmonics by overlapping positive intentions globally ñ This is the Stewart principle of synergistic energy healing.

Imagine that you’re sending focused peaceful intentions to the divine. The divine in return magnifies your intentions. These positive energies are part of a life-saving spiritual contribution extending deep from within your soul. Imagine that these positive healing energies are combining globally to manifest a healing difference.

The best way to develop these abilities is to meditate for 20 to 45 minutes daily. A new daily meditations that focus with a single intention that is strictly actionable. This focused healing intention can be applied with a fair amount of training.

Energy healing additionally has been used for healing a person or even positively changing weather patterns. Both the practice in a healer have roots in all ancient cultures have been called many things. Names like shamans, medicine men and seers described these sacred, finally enabled healers.

Fast-forward back to today ñ Energy healing is very much alive in a totally unanticipated yet urgently needed way. Besides the quest to share with the Western world values of holistic health and energy healing. Energy healing is about to receive the award of uncommon valor ñ for saving lives globally with hurricane reduction abilities.

This evolutionary approach will free mankind once and for all from deadly forces of nature. Local national and global disasters such as hurricanes tornadoes tsunamis and violent storms will now be within our grasp. As more One With The Winds students become trained our abilities to protect ourselves at the local level will now enhance the preparation against our toughest challenges.

The hurricane forecast for 2008? The first time in modern history we have control over the deadly Hurricane disasters. For the person is capable of believing in his abilities of connecting to the Spiritual Divine ñ this is precisely what God had in mind…

For those who realize the importance of this information click on the links in my resource box below.

Disaster Recovery /Business Continuity Test Evidence Report

Disaster Recovery /Business Continuity Test Evidence Report

 Assess the following five scenarios:

 IT and Data communication loss – Scenario One  

This is a situation where you loose all IT and Data Communications, IT Infrastructure, E-Mail Service, access to information stored electronically, IT support service, inter organisation building communications, other external communications, voice communications, fixed line (Internal (Private) and PSTN (Public)) Telephone Services, mobile telephone services.

Building loss – Scenario Two

This is a situation of unavailability/loss of part or one or more buildings which can occur through environmental incidents such as fire, water damage, explosion etc.

Building Access Restrictions – Scenario Three

Normal access to buildings may be denied or restricted through a range of factors including the utility failure scenario, civil unrest in the area, police cordons from terrorist incidents, building occupation, etc.  Access to the organisation’s building(s) may be: temporarily accessible but not usable, not accessible at all.

Utility Failure – Scenario Four

As the organisation is dependent on water, electricity, and gas utilities.  If any of these fail because of problems, then the affected building(s) could have to close (e.g. if there was no water a building may have to close on health grounds).  In this circumstance, it is likely (although not guaranteed) that temporary access would be possible to retrieve equipment and documentation. Related to this utility failure scenario, the consequent effects could be lack of lighting, heating, and a usable physical access security system, thus rendering the building(s) unusable (although probably accessible temporarily).

Staff Unavailability – Scenario Five

Staff (including contract support, such as the supplier of support service/helpdesk IT support staff) may be unavailable for a number of reasons, including: significant loss of life (e.g. through fire, explosion), widespread failure of public transport through a major incident or industrial action, adverse weather conditions, widespread illness (e.g. an influenza epidemic), mass resignation or other form of industrial action.

 

Obtain answered to the following questions:

 

If the office is inaccessible, how far is the recovery site in kilometres?

Is the recovery site fully equipped with stationery, telephones, printers, PCs, TVs, desks?

Would it take less than one hour to retrieve off-site copies of critical recovery data?

Has all staff personal telephone numbers been updated for call cascade?

Can the recovery site give an assurance that separacy /diversity services are in place in the wide area network?

What is the organisation’s emergency telephone number for staff to call?

How effective is the call redirection?

Can the organisation confirm, where mirror systems are used, that backup devices and software are in place to manage backups from a single replicated system when the primary has failed?

How long will it take to have recovery of all aspects of critical IT systems and restoration of connectivity to critical networks including tests of critical computer systems and associated hardware in event of a disaster?

Does the recovery site have a Disaster recovery plan?

Confirm if the organization’s IT security elements include the following elements: Firewalls, encryption, Anti-virus products

Confirm if IT environment humidity, ventilation and air-conditioning are controlled.

Confirm if IT environment is protected by fire detection and suppression.

Confirm if Power can be provided by generator(s) for at least three days using on-site stored fuel.

Confirm if physical access to critical areas and floors is restricted by guards’ presence. 

The test result should be recorded to show  whether everything worked as expected, and if it did not, what happened and why, and what deficiencies were noted in the plan and its action task lists, supporting facilities, locations, etc. Record details of any revisions required to the plan and/or supporting facilities, locations, etc. 

The Death of Management

“You cannot treat a patient if he doesn’t know he is sick.”
- Bryce’s Law

INTRODUCTION

Epitaph:
“Here lies the body of ‘Management,’
Who at one time moved mountains but was put to death by
government regulations, social mores, office politics,
and general apathy. R.I.P.”

I have a good friend who was recently elevated to the job title of “Systems Manager”
at a large Fortune 500 company in the U.S. Midwest. As someone who has been in
the Information Systems field for over 30 years now, my interest was piqued and I asked
her how big of a staff she was going to manage and what kind of systems she was
going to be responsible for administrating. She told me she had no staff and her
responsibilities primarily included going to user sites and helping them setup their
laptop computers with office suites and pertinent Internet software.

This is certainly not how I have come to understand the concept of a “Systems”
person or, for that matter, a “Manager.” What she described was more of a technical
or clerical role as opposed to one of management. But I guess the times are changing.

I always viewed “management” as a people oriented function, not a mechanical
function (which is why “man” is used as part of the word). I define it as, “getting
people to do what you want, when you want it, and how you want it.” But perhaps
I am beginning to date myself as more and more “managers” are appearing with
fewer and fewer people involved. Even though the title is flourishing, I contend
true management is becoming a thing of the past.

WHY IS MANAGEMENT DISAPPEARING?

First, we have to understand that managers are in the business of conquering
objectives and solving problems in the workplace through people. If we lived in a perfect
world where everyone knew what they were suppose to do and when they were suppose
to do it by, there would not be a need for managers. Inevitably, this rarely occurs as
people are social animals and rarely agree on anything, particularly on how to perform
a given task. Hence, a manager is needed to establish direction and referee. As such,
managers are the field generals for their departments.

There are three basic attributes of a manager: Leadership, Environment, and Results.
Let’s consider each separately and how they have evolved:

LEADERSHIP

To properly coordinate human resources, an effective manager should always be at least
one step ahead of his staff. This requires visionaries who inspire confidence in their troops
and can set them marching in the right direction. The problem though is that little, if any,
planning is being performed in corporate America. Instead, we are content to react to
calamities as opposed to looking into the future and trying to anticipate problems. As
a small example, we are now embroiled in a tempest over the Hurricane Katrina disaster
in New Orleans. Engineers have long known that the levees used to keep the sea out
of the city were inadequate for a category four or five hurricane (Katrina was a category
four). In fact, I saw a documentary on this very subject just weeks prior to the disaster. Now, we
have local, state and federal government agencies rushing to correct the problems (and
doing a lot of finger pointing in the process). As costly as it would have been to fix the
levees, it would have been a spit in the bucket when compared to the costs to clean up the
aftermath.

In the corporate world, Detroit is reeling from the types of automobiles now being
imported into this country. Asia has stolen Detroit’s thunder who now finds itself
offering cash incentives to stem the tide. It is no secret America has developed an
ever-increasing dependency on foreign oil, and is now saddled with an aging oil
refinery infrastructure and a shaky economy. Why then was Detroit surprised to see their
market share take a nose-dive in favor of quality fuel-efficient automobiles from overseas?

The point is, our planning and leadership skills are at an all time low. Why? Because
it is easier to react to a problem than to do a little planning; easier, but costlier. Let’s face
it, planning is hard work and, as the old adage goes, “You can pay me now or you can pay
me later, but you are going to pay me.” Planning is a projection into the unknown and involves
a certain level of risk that most people are not willing to assume (and are afraid to do so).
Consequently, our society is more interested in safety nets than in taking risks. I guess this
is why I admire gamblers who mentally calculate their odds for success and are unafraid of
taking risks.

Nonetheless, American competitors (and our enemies) fully understand our weakness as
planners and are not afraid of taking the risks that we balk at. As a result, they will continue
to take advantage of us until such time as we get some serious leadership.

ENVIRONMENT

In order to set workers to task it is necessary for a manager to establish a
suitable work environment. This includes:

Defining the location of the workplace, hours of operation, and corporate
policies to be observed (e.g., payroll, benefits, performance reviews, etc.).

Defining the methodologies, tools and techniques to be used by the workers
in their assignments.

Defining the corporate culture – Although this is normally defined by the company overall,
the astute manager establishes the ethics, customs and social intercourse to be observed
within his area of responsibility (a subculture). By doing so, the manager has defined the
code of conduct in the department denoting what will be tolerated and what will not.

As part of the corporate culture, the manager defines his own personal style of
management, for example:

The types and level of discipline, organization, and accountability
expected from the workers.

Will the manager try to micromanage everything (top-down) or empower his people,
delegate responsibility and manage “bottom-up”?

How employees are evaluated and rewarded; by accomplishments or by
political maneuvering.

The manager’s objective is to create a homogeneous working environment whereby
everyone is “rowing on the same oar” towards common objectives. Unfortunately, the
problem here is that our society is now more inclined to accept rugged individualism
as opposed to team effort. For example, employees are commonly rewarded based on
individual initiative as opposed to group effort. Between this spirit of individualism
and government regulations that embolden employees to resist the company, loyalty and
teamwork are at all-time lows and apathy and restlessness permeates corporate
America. Such spirit disrupts the harmony of the work environment, thus compounding
the problems of the manager.

RESULTS

Ultimately, the manager is charged with the responsibility of producing a product or
performing a service. As such, the manager must establish and prioritize
assignments, and assure they are accomplished in a timely and cost effective
manner. This requires managers who can articulate assignments and coordinate
resources towards this end. Sounds pretty simple, right? Then why are we failing
in this regard? Three reasons:

Managers are more interested in gamesmanship than actually producing
anything of merit. They have developed a “fast track” mentality whereby
managers have little interest in their current job and want to advance to the
next plateau in their career. “Long-term” planning is no longer measured in years,
but rather in months or weeks (a “long-term” project is now considered three to
six months in length). Consequently, managers are primarily interested in quick
and dirty solutions which will see them through their tenure of office, but will
create burdens later on for their successors. Managers now spend more time
scheming and maneuvering than worrying about getting the job done. What’s the
sure sign of such a manager? He/she knows the latest buzzwords and is always
“politically correct.”

Managers are no longer results oriented, Instead, they are more focused on
the process or mechanics of getting a job done. Although it is desirable to be
well organized and precise in our work effort, it is for naught if you cannot
deliver what you are charged to produce. The manager needs to be focused
on deliverables, not mechanics (with apologies to the ISO 9000 folks).

Managers no longer hold people accountable for their actions. This is due, in part,
to government regulations that are more concerned about the rights of the
employees as opposed to the manager’s. As a result, managers spend less time
managing and more time supervising people. Understand this: there are substantial
differences between management and supervision; the two are most definitely not
synonymous. Supervision is much more “hands on” with employees being continually
watched and directed in their work assignments. Managers should manage more and
supervise less, and employees should do more self-supervision. Unfortunately, this
philosophy is not in vogue these days. Workers no longer seek responsibility and prefer
to be told what to do thereby they cannot be held accountable if something goes
awry. This alone says a lot about our society and is worrisome to me.

Let us never forget, unless you can deliver what you are charged to perform, you
are a failure as a manager. Consider the numerous coaches and managers in
the world of sports who have been fired over the years, not necessarily because
they didn’t run fine programs, but because they lost sight of the end result: winning.

CONCLUSION

What I have described thus far pertains primarily to large corporations. Management
is still alive and well in small businesses that are not encumbered with bureaucracy
and need to manage simply to survive. I have also been primarily describing corporate
America, but many of these bad habits are creeping into the management style of Asian
and European companies as well.

Now and then, I like to make an analogy between management and dieting. There
is nothing magical about losing weight; you simply watch what you eat and get some
exercise. However, millions of dollars are spent on the latest diet craze, usually to
no avail. The same is true with management; you simply need some leadership,
organization and follow-up and you will get the results you want. However, it
seems companies today do everything but manage.

Beyond this, our social fabric and government regulations discourages
effective management. Instead of discipline, organization and accountability, we
are more concerned with nurturing free-spirited individualism, gamesmanship, and
chasing panaceas. In many cases, managers are inhibited by the press who
scrutinizes decisions, particularly in the government sector. Fearing to make
a bad decision, managers suffer paralysis and nothing is accomplished.

Bottom-line, corporate America is no longer managing; instead, we are playing
games or as I like to call it, “Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” In other
words, as the ship is going down, we tend to focus our attention on everything other
than saving the ship or passengers. In the past we have talked about Theories X, Y, Z
for describing different styles of management. Perhaps we should describe today’s
management style as “Theory Zero.”

What is needed is someone who isn’t afraid of taking the reigns and is allowed
to run the department to produce the necessary results – that is the job of a
manager. Let me give you a small example. Recently, I attended a meeting for a
nonprofit organization who wanted to draft legislation for the association. The
meeting started out pleasantly enough but quickly slipped into an uncontrollable
series of arguments. I could tell by the confused look on the faces of the attendees
that the meeting was out of control and so I grabbed the gavel and brought the
meeting to order. I next divided the group into subcommittees to discuss the
different issues and gave them a deadline to produce a rough draft of the
legislation. Within each subcommittee I appointed a chairman, a secretary,
and someone to research the legislation. I then went outside to smoke my
cigar. When I came back to the room, bedlam had been replaced by quiet
organization. The legislation was drafted according to my instructions and the
members left the building saying it was one of the best meetings they had
attended. Why? Because a manager took the gavel.

One last note which I will specifically address to my colleagues in the IT Industry;
In my 30 years in this field I have never encountered a technical problem that
cannot be conquered by good old-fashioned management. I’ll bet this is true
in any industry, not just IT.

Consider Ip Telephony From a Disaster Recovery Point of View

Unplanned downtime—Power Outage, Acts of God, Fire, you can name them small and large but all cost your company revenue. Preparing to recover your voice system can be intimidating and costly until hosted IP PBXs.

Here are some best practices to help your organization meet its Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) as it applies to your Voice applications.

1. Highly Reliable Telecommunication Carrier Infrastructure

Most providers will center their presentations around Disaster Recovery solutions based on what to put on premises for back up and redundancy. This is all in an effort to eliminate single points of failure. Before mitigating single points of failure at your location it is important to assess the resiliency and redundancy of your telecommunication provider’s network. Is it redundant? Does it have single points of failure? How many soft switches do they maintain? Are their switches set-up to be geographically diverse? In a properly architected Hosted IP PBX model that is built for redundancy, (multiple switches at many locations with live failover) you can almost assure 100% inbound call capacity.

2. Where is the Call Control (Inside or Outside your building)

If the call control is maintained in the building than imagine the limitations. Someone needs to be in the building, someone needs to call a PBX maintenance person, then the typical two hour call to the local carrier, and then wait until the numbers are re-routed to your desired hot-site.

Lost time means lost revenue and added customer frustration. For many for have experienced this situation in the past it is not too hard to imagine

The ability to maintaining call control out of the building and using a network model as described above can immediately satisfy most of the telecommunications continuity needs. But the real value is giving the company or the IT department maximum control over the telephony infrastructure. With this added control you NEVER miss a call. Allow users to reroute their calls to cells phone, home office numbers, and recovery sites or wherever you choose and most importantly whenever you choose.

3. Component Redundancy.

Vendors will stress this point. While it is critical to have properly architected on-premise redundancy but in regards to telephony, buying twice as much equipment still does not protect failures outside your building. In a well planned hosted model, with the right network architecture, as describe above, will by design mitigated most single points of failure with NO NEED to buy extra hardware eliminating the customer from the responsibility and the cost to secure their infrastructure.

4. Ability to Work Remotely.

If an event precludes workers from working in their usual offices such weather, illness, family issues, or a regionalized disaster. Remote office features allow your employees to work from home comfortably while not incurring extra costs to your company. Your customers will not realize your employees are working from home since they will not change their calling patterns (dialing and receiving calls from the same numbers as they did prior to the disaster). Your managers will also have the ability to monitor what their employees are doing just as if the employee was working from the office (call stasis monitoring, call reporting, etc).

5. Consider This… Two plausible scenarios with a hosted service like Alteva’s that will change the impact any disaster has on your business.

Your sales team is the life blood of your company. The T1 goes down to your building and you are told it will take 4 hours to get back up. In a customer premise on-site PBX, the customers dialing your phone number will receive a fast busy signal. However with Alteva this is not the case. With Alteva, your sales team is still getting calls because the call control is not in the building. All calls are being answered by the auto attendant then as your customers enter in their extension they are routed to a cell phone that is simultaneously rung with your staff office phone. Your customer does recognize an outage and your company does not recognize any revenue loss normally associated with a phone outage.

You have a fire in the building and it is a catastrophic fire. You have a lot of work to do to rebuild and get the company back on its feet. Because you have chosen Alteva service, during the fire your calls were still being answered by an auto attendant. You decided to have your calls routed to another number and it happened instantly. Within two days you had your people working from home. Your voicemails were intact, your people were sent new phones and they just plugged into their high speed home connections. Of all things you had to deal with, because you choose well by choosing Alteva, the phones were the least of your headaches.

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Understanding the Beginning of Business Continuity Plans and Disaster Recovery Plans

Entering the computer age, a disaster recovery plan was a concept and not much else. The idea was that a plan would be in place for the day when things went wrong. This worked at the time when computers in world numbered in the 100′s – there were not more computers than people in an office.

Organizations got bigger and computer departments were suddenly as big as the sales department, more IT consultants were bringing in more hardware and software and no one really noticed the day that computers had a greater value than the people in the office.

In that first phase when there was a mainframe, a form of backup was done on a regular basis, the backed up material was moved to a safe location and the idea was that if the mainframe went down, then spare time could be used on a different mainframe in a different location.

Now a 50 person office has 75 computers; at least.

Now there is a complex telephone system that is just a little gray box with some wires coming out of it, and no one cares what it does because it works.

All those little wires pass through a closet that was originally built just for the wires, but hey, with the space issues this company has we may as well stock paper in the closet; or the corrosive cleaning material.

The main frame is gone and instead of having one machine running everything important we have a lot of little computers each running a little task that collectively replaced the main frame.

Imagine; that mainframe used to do 50 tasks and now those tasks are spread out over 50 different PCs. Everything works because the computer kid set it all up. Then he has a falling out with his girlfriend, the secretary. Better for him, he got accepted into University 200 miles away on an athletic scholarship. Or, his parking is taken away because of some reason that made sense to the decision maker. For whatever reason he is no longer in the company and things run just fine.

What is the expression; things run just fine until they don’t?

Suddenly the person that left is understood to be the most important person in the company, because things either slowly stop, or just drop dead. If the computer guy left in a bad mood and in a hurry he could have just switched some cables. If he had time he could have programmed your data based to erased itself after running a backup (and he set the backup to not save anything).

Your phone lines can be switched so all calls go to the lunch room, or the presidents office or just randomly to different extensions. Most expensive scenario, all inbound called are forwarded to another country. Worst scenario, all inbound sales calls are sent to your competition.

The Business Continuity Plans and Disaster Recovery plan is not something sold “one size fits all” and in fact almost all plans fail because of the impossibility to consider all the possible aspects of future failure and issues.

This is no longer the beginning of the computer age, and a disaster recover plan must be part of your business plan. I should not say it here, but an acceptable option at Managing Director level is to not have a plan because of any number of reasons, but a decision must be made.

The idea behind a modern Disaster Recovery plan is the Business Continuity aspect. When things go wrong, and they will, business must continue as close to normal while an effort is made to return the office to normal.

Disaster Preparedness for your Pet: After a Disaster

On many instances it is after a disaster, rather than before or during one, that pets can really suffer as this is when they are often abandoned or escape and have to fend for themselves. Read on to see how you can prevent this.

After a disaster

Feeding: if pets have been without food for a prolonged period of time, reintroduce food in small servings, gradually working up to full portions.

Environmental hazards: downed power lines are a danger to wandering pets. Survey the area surrounding your home to identify any contaminated water. Dangerous animals and snakes may have entered the area as a result of floodwaters to feed on the carcasses of reptiles, amphibians and small mammals that have been drowned or crushed in their burrows. They pose a threat to you and your pets.

Behavioural changes: look out for any changes in your pets behaviour in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Post-traumatic stress may make a placid friendly pet aggressive or defensive. Familiar landmarks and scents may have been altered, causing confusion for your pet which could result in them getting lost. Therefore, dogs should be leashed and outdoor cats kept indoors for the few days after a disaster. Maintain close contact while they re-adjust to their new surroundings.

Lost pets: check animal shelters daily for lost pets. Notify neighbours and all local veterinarians. Immediately place lost animal notices at eye level in your surrounding area, containing a recent good quality photograph. Check and post details on websites (see Emergency Contact Information, above).

Other Types of Pets

-Small mammals (rabbits, ferrets, hamsters, gerbils, rats, mice, guinea pigs): evacuate as per a cat, using a secure, covered carrier or cage to reduce stress. Remember to bring appropriate food, bedding materials and exercise equipment.

-Birds: evacuate using a small and secure covered carrier. Transfer your bird(s) to a standard cage on arrival at your prearranged evacuation site. Covering the cage with a sheet or towel may reduce stress. Birds should be kept in a quiet area, and given fresh food and water daily. Suggested additions to the evacuation kit are as follows; necessary dietary supplements, a plant mister for hot weather, a hot water bottle for warming birds in cold weather, a perch, paper towels to line the cage and toys.

-Amphibians: these must be transported using water-tight plastic bags (as used for transporting fish) or plastic containers with snap-on lids. Place small ventilation holes in the upper wall or plastic lid. If making holes in plastic ensure there are no bits of sharp plastic jutting out that may cause injury to the amphibians fragile skin. If possible, keep to one animal per container.

If the amphibian is terrestrial or semi-aquatic, use just a small amount of water, moss or soaked cotton wool. If totally aquatic, fill the bag/container with de-chlorinated water (preferably the water the animal was living in to minimize stress).

Monitoring of water & air temperature, humidity and lighting will be necessary while the amphibian is at the rescue centre. The enclosure should be quiet and away from vibrations.

-Reptiles: if small, evacuation can be accomplished using a pillowcase inside a secure transport carrier. Transfer on arrival to a secure cage at the evacuation site. Suggested additions to the evacuation kit; any necessary dietary supplements, water bowl for soaking, spray bottle for misting, heating pad, battery operated lamp, batteries and handling gloves if necessary.

Helping wildlife

-Do not approach wild animals that have taken refuge in your home: racoons, opossums and snakes often seek refuge from floodwaters in peoples homes, and have been known to remain there once waters recede. If you find yourself in this situation, open doors and windows to encourage the unwanted visitor to leave. Provided with an escape route, the animal will probably leave of its own accord. Should it stay, call your local animal control office or wildlife rescue service.

-Do not corner wild animals outside or try and rescue them: call your local animal control office. If stranded on an island after flooding, which has suitable shelter, you can leave appropriate food for the species. Approaching a wild animal may scare it into jumping into floodwater to escape, thus endangering it.

-Do not try and move a dead animal: animal carcasses can present a serious public health risk. Contact your local emergency management office or health department for instructions.

-If bitten by an animal: seek immediate medical attention. Rabies is transmitted this way and can be fatal if the antidote is not administered quickly enough.

Is Your Home Business Prepared for a Disaster?

If you’re like most people, you probably started with wonderful ideas of fulfilling your dreams, to be successful and to take charge of your own destiny.

I hope you have achieved those or are well on your way.

You wouldn’t think of starting your business without a business plan and you shouldn’t even consider marketing your product or services without a marketing plan. A solid business plan and marketing plan are your roadmaps to help you to know where you’re going, how to get there and to achieve your goals.

Nobody likes to think about what would happen if those accomplishments were suddenly pulled out from under you, yet unfortunately it does happen.

Do you have a plan if an event such as a hurricane, tornado, fire or simple computer crash should happen to you? If not, then it’s time to start thinking about adding a business continuity plan to your list of things to do. What is a business continuity plan? Simply put, a business continuity plan is a set of planned and documented procedures that will help your business back on track in the event of an emergency.

If your business is managed from your home, both your residence and your livelihood are at risk due to unexpected loss. Natural disasters are not the only risk factors. As devastating as it is to think someone else was in your home, robberies can happen anywhere.

Something as basic as a hard drive crash can cripple your home business indefinitely. I recently spoke with two people in the last month that had said that they experienced hard drive crashes and lost everything.

When you think of how much time, money & effort you have invested in your home businesses, it only makes sense to make sure it is protected and can survive an emergency.

Wedding Disasters Solved

Getting married is such a wonderful and happy time. Planning the wedding and all the events surrounding that day often bring such joyous moments; however, it’s not uncommon for everyone to experience some less than desirable situations along the way. Often these situations are not life and death; however, in the mist of all the wedding planning, stress levels may be elevated. For many this stress impairs their ability to calmly deal with the most minute of disasters.

Here are some common disasters that brides experience and what you can do to deal with them and maintain that joyous feeling your wedding should bring.

• The invitations are printed incorrectly and there is not time to reorder them. Consider purchasing blank ones that you can print yourself. It is better to send homemade ones then ones with errors. Request that the company show you a proof prior to printing.

• The dreaded “stain” on the dress disaster. For lipstick or beverage stains, try white chalk, baking power, or baby powder. You can also try the stain pens new to the market but the others seem to work pretty well without harming the dress. Also, try to conceal the stain with your flowers if feasible. To avoid this mistake put your dress on at the last minute and ban all potential stainers from your room once you are dressed.

• If your ring bearer or flower girl develops stage fright right before the ceremony, you can try bribing them with a parent seated at the front encouraging them along. You may even need to use a treat such as candy if appropriate. If that doesn’t work, you can have the parent or someone in the wedding party walk with or carry the child down the aisle. If you are concerned this may be a problem, consider having a back up plan.

• You plan an outside wedding and it rains. Call around to see if you can rent a tent. As a last resort, you can send for umbrellas. It is very important to have a plan B in place for outside weddings.

• The best man forgets the rings. You can always borrow rings from family and get the official rings later. In order to avoid this, ensure the rings are with someone you trust. If need be, have someone bring them to the church and then give them to the best man.

• You run out of food or space at the reception. Inform the point person of your catering company or reception space. They often plan for such disasters and can quickly remedy the problem. Seating can usually be managed by rotating guests to sit as others dance and mingle. Make sure you utilize RSVPs and consider padding the guest list by five people. You can also call people that have not sent in their RSVP by the given date prior to the wedding.

• Problems with the band or DJ. Hook up an iPod or MP3 player to the stereo. Usually one of your guests or wedding party will have one with music choices that are often mutually shared by other guests. Be sure to confirm dates and times a week before the wedding and have phone numbers available to contact them the day of or if there are a problems.

• Problems with the wedding cake. You can send someone out to purchase the best looking cake or desserts available. Nowadays, cupcakes are in vogue. Remember to confirm a few days before the wedding with the baker and maybe again the morning of the wedding.

• You receive a gift without a name tag. You can always look for information inside the package if it was mailed from the store. If not, try to pair the guest book signatures with handwriting or match the names with those that have already given a gift. If you can narrow down you can contact them if you know them very well. If not, have friends or family gently mention in conversation that you are very distressed because you received a gift without a name and really want to provide a proper thank you. Often through the grapevine you will find out who provided the gift.

Just remember that no matter what happens or what disaster ensues, at the end of the day you will be married. That is what it is all about so consider it a success. For additional tips on how to avoid wedding day disasters visit www.verysupersexylingerie.com.

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