Following a number of major fires at schools and businesses in Lincolnshire, organisations across the East Midlands are being warned to protect themselves from the devastating impact of a potential disaster.

At the end of last month eight fire crews from Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire were called out to tackle a blaze at a factory in Skellingthorpe near Lincoln while in April approximately a third of Cherry Willingham Community School was destroyed by fire.

According to Steve Bilton from TBSL in Lincoln, despite regular news reports about major factory fires or flash floods most business owners think it will never happen to them and don't take the necessary steps to ensure business continuity.

Office efficiency experts TBSL supply document management software which can limit the impact of a disaster by preventing organisations from losing important information, customers and possibly even going out of business all together.

"An unexpected incident such as a fire or a flood can wreak havoc on any organisation and make it difficult if not impossible to continue with day to day activities," explained Steve. 

"For example, financial information such as accounts and tax details or employee information such as payroll and personnel files, is very difficult to replace. If you lost data for whatever reason you would at the very least have to spend days if not weeks collecting and reproducing the information.

"Rather than rely on a paper-based filing system to store valuable documents and client information we would advise introducing an electronic filing and document management system such as DocuWare which stores information in one central database."

With DocuWare any type of document, regardless of format or source, can be scanned and stored in a central document pool - for example paper records, letters, faxes, drawings, PC and other electronic files including e-mail.

Using the Internet, the central document pool is available around the clock to any authorised user, no matter where they are located in the world. This means if your computer equipment is stolen or damaged by a flood or you can't access your premises you can still access data on your customers and suppliers.

Not only does DocuWare eliminate the need for paper-based files and keep your data safe and secure but it also improves efficiency by enabling users to retrieve documents within seconds helping companies to increase their profits and decrease their costs.