What if … ?
The recent disaster in Cologne, Germany, underscores the importance of disaster planning.
June 5th, 2009 by Melissa Henley
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On March 3, the building housing Cologne’s historical archive collapsed into a nearby metro tunnel.
The actual degree of damage to the historical documents housed in the building is still unknown, with a substantial part of the written records of the city’s history believed to have been destroyed. In fact, recent accounts estimate that 90% of the archive’s records were buried in the collapse and may not be recoverable. The archive’s director estimates that they’ve only digitized a “tiny fraction” of their holdings, which includes the private estate of Nobel Prize-winning author Heinrich Boell.
The historical archive was one of the oldest in Germany, holding 26,000 linear meters of records which included:
- 65,000 charters from 922 AD to the present.
- 104,000 maps and plans.
- 50,000 posters.
- 800 estates, literary remains and other special collections.
- 500,000 photographs of Cologne’s history.
It’s events like these that reiterate the importance of having a contingency plan for your most important records. For instance …
- Do you know what a disaster is? Here’s a hint: it’s not just earthquakes, fires and floods anymore.
- Do you have a plan to handle a disaster? You’d better, because 25% of businesses that close during a disaster won’t reopen.
- Do you know the difference between disaster recovery planning and business continuity planning?
- Do you know how to design and implement a business continuity plan? With only 6% of IT budgets allotted to business continuity, it’s important to know how to do this – and do it effectively.
Our business continuity white paper gives you more information on using document management as a crucial part of developing a business continuity plan for your organization. It’s important to be prepared, because you never know what’s around the corner.
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Author Info
Laserfiche
Staff
Melissa Bender Henley is the lead writer for the Laserfiche marketing department. She is also the editor of the Global Financial Post.