Steadying The Stream Of Business Information

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. Operating businesses has changed considerably in this new Information Age. A major part of this is properly managing large sums data both efficiently and responsibly – something many organizations have excelled at while others have struggled. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Steadying The Stream Of Business Information.

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Business has changed a lot over the last couple of decades, with loads of new technology entering the world which can make the lives of companies far easier. Some have been able to embrace this change, while others have struggled to keep up with it, and the different adoption times of each business have created a mess of different information which you have to be able to process. To make this easier for you, this post will be exploring some of the best ways to steady the stream of content coming into your company.

File Management

Keeping file systems clean and tidy is a job which most people find very hard. Much like keeping aspects of your life in order, achieving this sort of goal when you don’t know much about the machines you’re using can be a real challenge. To overcome this, a lot of companies have started to give their teams file management courses. While this sort of effort will cost you money, it will be worth it once your teams are all using the same methods to keep their machines clean, as this will save loads of time.

Make A Copy

When you first receive a document, the first step you need to take will be to create a copy which anyone can use. This should always be digital, and should be in a format which is widely used, but this can be achieved using a simple scanner and software like Office 365, making it nice and easy to get started with. Having all of your documents in the same format is a great way to make it easier for your team to use them.

Secure It

As your handling data for your business throughout this process, the work you are doing is likely to be subject to data protection laws. To make sure that you’re compliant, any sensitive documents need to be secure, as this will help to prevent prying eyes from seeing what is inside. Both Windows and macOS have the ability to handle this natively, making it nice and easy to get started with your existing files.

Put It Somewhere Safe

Once you have your documents copied and securely formatted, it will be time to leave them with someone who can be trusted. Document management services provide you with an easy way to keep you data safe from criminals, while also enabling you to find what you need with incredible ease, and this is something which can’t be said for a lot of other options. Taking storage out of your own hands is an easy way to improve this whole process.

With all of this in mind, you should be feeling ready to get started on the time you put into the information which comes into your business. A lot of people struggle with this sort of work, finding it hard to know what they need to do to keep their information in order. In reality, though, you already have the tools you need, and simply need to get started.

Business Information: Backup Data Solutions

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. In today’s digital and information-based world a critical component of any organization is a data backup strategy, and there are tremendous potential dangers from not having one. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Business Information: Backup Data Solutions.

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Picture by Christina Morillo

Data backup in America appears to be rare in the US, as according to Nationwide Insurance 68% of small to medium businesses don’t have a disaster recovery plan in place, even though Small Business Trends highlights that 140,000 hard drives fail each week. This is a surprising fact to behold, in a world where information is power, a business without its customer credentials, tax and account details, sales and so forth, is a business that would cease to exist should it’s data become eradicated or lost in a disaster.

For businesses that rarely survive the mess caused by losing data, by the time they’ve clawed back any customers and credibility they once had, they have most likely lost unnecessary time and money in the process. This post identifies the importance of backing up your data to prevent issues within your organization. Because whether you’re a startup business, medium business or large company, data matters to you and your company for continued growth.

Potential Disasters
Business information could fall victim to a number of threats such as:

Fire or flood
Thiefs
Lost Files
IT Breakdown
Hackers

In response to the above scenarios what do you have in place currently to protect your data from a devastating fire, a hard drive failing or hackers accessing your online resources? Beyond protecting your information, by use of burglar alarms for thieves, fireproof cabinets for paper documents, and cybersecurity software, if these plans failed to keep your data intact, how would you regain vital information?

What Should You Back Up?
If you’re unsure about what information you should be attempting to back-up, it should include everything that is vital to the business’s survival. Such as customer details, business accounts and taxes, sales information and any data stored on behalf of customers. For example, for a law firm, this would include client case files, both ongoing and archived files. Archived files must be retained on behalf of the customer in case the information needs to be reviewed in the future.

If keeping a copy of physical files appears impossible to store due to a lack of space. an alternative option to this would be to transfer your paper files to digital form.

Backup Location
There are two routes to consider utilizing for backing up your files. Business owners should aim to keep a local on-site backup, easily accessible day today and an off-site backup, in the event the business premises is invaded by a disaster rendering all information useless. The backup source you use depends on the type and size of your business.

For instance, a freelance website designer could keep an external hard drive in the office with a backup of all of their tax files, website projects, and customer details, while also maintaining an external hard drive replica at home or even a disc.

In contrast, a private hospital would have a more significant amount of data, which is exceptionally confidential requiring sturdier backup than an external hard drive. In this scenario, a manager may instruct for all paper files to be copied and scanned, and transferred to companies offsite data server.

Large data servers can store masses of data which is housed explicitly in a secure environment to keep data safe. Preview info about iConnect Montana for a comprehensive, detailed explanation on what offsite data servers inhabit to help gain knowledge on how to best backup your business information.