Richards & Richards

Fires, floods and tornadoes are very real threats to your business continuity. In the event of disasters like these, without proper contingency plans your critical business data can be severely compromised or completely lost. Fortunately, most disaster recovery plans include preparations and protocol to account for such natural disasters. And luckily, most businesses aren’t affected by natural catastrophic occurrences. Actually, there’s a higher likelihood of your data being affected by seldom-considered, everyday threats.

Are you prepared for everyday threats?

Have you thought about what would happen if you accidentally deleted a critical business file or application? How would you handle the random crash of a server? What if the person charged with taking the company backup home left it in their car on a hot and humid night, rendering the data unreadable? Would you be able to recover from your computer network being hacked?

These are very real everyday threats to business data that can be just as devastating as any natural disaster. Your disaster recovery plan should recognize and plan for such risks. You can begin by asking yourself key questions such as:

Solutions to enhance recovery goals

Once you’ve identified areas of weakness, you can look for a remediation plan that takes into consideration all possible scenarios. This may include implementation of the following solutions:

Serving businesses in Nashville for over 25 years, Richards & Richards offers a comprehensive suite of data protection services. For more information about how we can increase the scope of your disaster recovery goals, please contact us by phone or fill in the form on the page.

With all of the warnings we get about identity theft, how seriously do we heed those warnings? One of the most obvious ways to combat identity theft is by frequent password changes. Yet, how often does that happen?

Changing passwords is a chore. Most programs at your workplace need one. In order to get anything from a website you need one. You even need one to unlock your smartphone.

It seems to be a pain but changing your password should be a part of your normal procedures for both your work environment and home environment – especially if you do any on-line banking. Most experts recommend that you change your password every 90 days or so. But if this seems too much, I would recommend that every time you change the clocks for daylight savings time, you change your passwords (along with your fire alarm batteries). The password should include upper and lower case letters, numbers and some punctuation. These are the hardest passwords to figure out. Make sure you don’t base your password on any personal information, like family members or birth dates. There are programs that you can buy that will manage your passwords for you, so that all you have to know is one password. By changing your password regularly, you are taking an important step in keeping your personal information secure.

Getting your identity back after it’s been stolen can be a challenging thing. So, change those passwords.

While paper may never entirely go away, technological advances have certainly made it easier to reduce the amount generated within the office environment. Desktop scanning devices enable one to easily convert a handful of hardcopy documents to digital images, and even ordinary printers are now equipped with scanning capabilities. These tools can certainly help save time and help businesses become better organized. It’s no wonder that many companies hope to go paperless altogether.

Scanning a file folder full of paper is not the same as converting your organization’s entire collection of records, however. Many companies begin large scale scanning projects only to abandon them shortly after they’ve begun. They simply don’t have the time, internal resources and expertise to achieve success with scanning projects of that magnitude.

It’s important to consider the various steps and factors that go into any scanning project so that your business doesn’t get in over its head. A systematic approach is necessary when dealing with corporate records which often represent your business’s most valuable assets. The problem with scanning projects is that important documents can easily be misplaced, mislabeled and misfiled. Keen detail needs to be applied in order to ensure that scanned records are properly sorted, labeled and indexed, both prior and subsequent to being converted to digital files. Additionally, a review process needs to be incorporated to make sure that all data is captured. It’s also imperative to plan how you’re going to manage your electronic documents.

In short, these kinds of precautions are probably not your organization’s core competencies. Some companies may try to skirt this reality by hiring seasonal or temporary staff to assist with scanning projects without realizing likely cost overruns or compromised data. They may not have the proper knowledge nor have your organization’s best interests in mind.

The best solution is hiring a professional document scanning partner who can implement the proper procedures, standards and expertise necessary for achieving success. Past performance, records and information management knowledge and the ability to provide a full scale document management solution are all key factors in deciding which scanning and imaging partner to choose.

Consider Richards & Richards: for over 25 years we’ve provided businesses in Nashville with comprehensive document scanning services. For more information about how we can help your organization achieve success with its next scanning and imaging project, please contact us by phone or fill in the form on the page.

Congratulations! You’ve worked hard all these years and now it’s time to relax and sharpen that golf handicap. But before you hit the links in pursuit of a PGA card, you have some unfinished business to take care of. While you’re out on the golf course, your patients still need access to their healthcare records.

In essence, your responsibility to meet HIPAA requirements doesn’t end with your retirement. It’s still your duty to make sure that your former patients are able to request and receive their medical information as necessary. This can definitely present a challenge for closing your practice. As a result, in order to be compliant with HIPAA regulations, you need to consider where you store your records and who will protect and manage them.

Ultimately, you need to appoint someone to fufill patient records requests on your behalf. Finding the right person with whom to entrust that responsibility is no easy task. Fortunately, a professional records and information management company can make sure that you maintain compliance with HIPAA regulations well into retirement.

They’ll help implement an offsite solution for you that allows for the secure storage, tracking and quick retrieval of your patient files. Prior to the closing of your practice, your patients are notified where and how they can request and receive their patient healthcare information. They simply make a request directly to your chosen vendor for their patient healthcare records, which are then securely and efficiently delivered directly to them. It’s a simple process that requires no extra work on your part, so you can truly enjoy your retirement.

Richards & Richards has helped the healthcare industry in Nashville meet compliance regulations for over 25 years. To find out more about how we can help your medical practice, please contact us by phone or fill in the form on the page.

From crowded urban areas to rural country roads, self storage facilities dot the landscape of America. For a relatively low cost, items can be easily stored and leisurely accessed at will. As a result, more small businesses are turning to self storage to address their document retention needs.

Let’s face it, office space is expensive. Revenue spent on maintaining and storing files is better spent on generating more business, which makes self storage seem like a no brainer. But with a multitude of risks, self storage is one of the least secure and reliable options for your confidential records.

One of the biggest problems is the lack of oversight and control at self storage facilities. Unlike a commercial records center which is designed exclusively for document storage and staffed by screened, trained professionals, virtually anything can be stored in a self storage unit. Since items are not inspected upon their arrival, this can include flammable and corrosive material. The proximity of units to one another means that the items on the other side of the wall from your records may be a potential fire hazard.

Similarly, self storage units are notoriously leaky and moldy. This can prove disastrous to archival documents and files that may need to be retained for several years to meet compliance and legal standards. A professional Records and Information Management company has to meet strict fire protection and building standards in order to alleviate potential risks from fire, water and mold.

Additionally, the lack of comprehensive security systems and unregulated access represents one of the biggest risks of self storage. It is no surprise that illegal activity and theft has become rampant at self storage units. With identity theft becoming such a lucrative business, sensitive and confidential information contained in business records stored at self storage units has become an easy target for thieves.

A professional Records and Information Management company specializing in the security and preservation of business records is the most reliable option for the long term retention of your documents and files. For over 25 years, Richards & Richards has provided businesses in Nashville with quality Records Storage services. For more information about how we can help meet your retention needs, please contact us by phone or fill in the form on the page.