Precast Inc. - July/August 2008 - (Page 48) manager/bookkeeper leaves, she makes a backup, swaps the hard drives and takes it home, so we always have a backup of our computer files.” The company also has a large fireproof safe in which to store important paper documents. “We also use an off-site storage facility for documents that are over two years old,” he adds. “We store documents here for years three through seven to meet government requirements.” In mid-2005, the headquarters building of Capital Precast Ltd. (St. John’s, Newfoundland) burned to the ground. Computers, office equipment, employee records and all of the other vital records were destroyed. Staff spent the next two months trying to reconstruct the vital documents. “It was only because of the help of our suppliers and others we know in the business that we were able to re-create our accounts payable and invoices,” recalls Hedley Blundon, president. Since that time, Capital has implemented a number of steps to prevent future tragedies and protect important documents, such as loss prevention strategies, multiple backup systems and a wireless Internet connection to transfer data off site. “For example, before the fire, we had a series of backup tapes that we would take to a remote location every night,” says Blundon. “The problem was that no one ever checked them and, when we tried to retrieve the information after the fire, we found out that they were all corrupt.” Now the company has a policy by which all of the backup tapes must be checked once a week. “We also back the information up to our mainframe office every night,” he adds. “This system thus provides double redundancy.” The company maintains paper records in its office for one year, and then takes them to a safe and secure remote site, which has a sprinkler system. They are then stored there for six more years. “After that, we destroy them,” he says. When Utility Concrete Products LLC (Morris, Ill.) built its new office building about five years ago, it also built a 400-squarefoot, fire-resistant, concrete-block vault on a concrete floor to store important documents. It has hollow core slabs on the top, and is tied together with reinforcing into the floor, through the masonry and into the hollow core. “We try to operate as close to paperless as possible,” says Philip Burkhart, vice president and general manager. “With as many as permitted, we scan all of our paper documents and place them in electronic storage. All of this electronic storage is kept on servers within the vault.” Utility Concrete has five data processing servers, which are also in the vault, and all of the company’s business information is stored there. The servers are all firewall-protected from hackers, and the company also has a second layer of software that backs them up. The software also scans the systems to make sure there are no viruses. “We regularly make sure the software is updated with the most current antivirus software,” adds Burkhart. Two servers are backed up on tape. These tapes are rotated BOOTH 1455 THE PRECAST SHOW 48 JULY/AUGUST 2008 | PRECAST INC. http://www.waminc.com http://www.waminc.com
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