Business Continuity Management System by Wong Wei Ning Zechariah Shi Jianping

Author:Wong, Wei Ning Zechariah, Shi, Jianping
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kogan Page

Storage and disposal

The essence of an effective documentation management process is to ensure the constant availability of key BCM documents. Like other organizational activities, the BCMS is a document-driven process and requires defined procedures to manage the whole lifecycle of business continuity materials. Regardless of electronic and paper versions of the document, it is important to consider the following factors:

• Storage and retrieval

• Location

• Security

• Disposal

Storage and retrieval

136

Good storage equals good access. A key element in this process is a robust storage and backup regime. Most BCM documents are created electronically and stored in the organization’s central server or the hard drive. They should be arranged and labelled in such a manner that they can be retrieved efficiently. It is important that all sensitive documents follow the corporate policy on the management and dissemination of confidential information or the documentation management guidance described at the beginning of this section. For authorized staff, it is prudent to have their backup version in portable drives, such as USB flash drives and storage media, and a paper version of the plan with them. This provides assurance in situations where their primary place of work becomes inaccessible or they are required to lead the recovery process during out-of-office hours.

Location

Documents that are active should be stored in the most appropriate location for their purpose, which would normally be the place of work for the BCM staff. It is important to have backup versions stored away from the primary workplace, preferably at a secondary location or an alternate office. As a matter of good business management, most organizations should have adequate disaster recovery measures to support such arrangement (details on the subject are beyond the scope of this book). However, a point to note regarding the geographical dispersion of storage locations: whilst greater distance usually reduces the likelihood of two sites being affected by the same incident, there are certain threats such as systemic power outages and viruses that find no borders. Nonetheless, for conventional physical incidents, a few hundred metres is unlikely to provide secured protection for key documents.

Security

137

The degree of security required for storage will depend on the sensitivity of business continuity materials. In most cases, BCM reports, plans and third-party contracts are considered protected materials, which should be stored as securely as possible in order to avoid potential misuse or loss. In particular, paper versions should be locked up when not in use. Electronic documents should be subject to the same restriction of access as protected paper documents. The media upon which they are held, such as hard drive, must be capable of incorporating passwords to restrict access.

Disposal

The process of disposal is influenced by the method in which the documents are stored. Organizations should set out procedures for eliminating obsolete materials from each location and identifying any superseded documents retained for record. Electronic documents should be either stored in the permanent archive or deleted according to the corporate record retention and disposal policy. All deleted records should also have primary and backup copies removed at the same time.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.