Re: For those of you with alarm storefronts

["Bob Worthy" <securinc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chris,

Think of disaster recovery and not just burglary. Fire, flood, earthquake,
disgruntled employee,  power surges, hard drive crashes, etc etc can cripple
a company for days, weeks, and even to the point of no return. Financial
info, receivables, payroll info., personnel records and the list goes on and
on are all a must in order to recover to normal operations as quickly as
possible. Don't forget that list of phone numbers. That is something that is
kept on computer and not usually something that is backed up. Insurance
policies and other corporate documents don't necessarily need to be kept at
your office for instance. You will know what is critical to your operation.
Most central station information should be readily available to you through
your computer. That is if you are connected and/or online with your central
station. No need to keep any of that info on site in hard copy. If your
office burns down, get on line from home and all your customers info is
there. Your original contracts are the single biggest asset your company
has. Copy the terms page and signatory page and get the originals safely off
site. Get your computer back up discs off site, leaving a copy at the office
for convenience. There is a big difference in getting back up to full
operation in a day or two as compared to weeks or longer after a disaster.
Some items may never be able to be duplicated. Can you imagine if you were
audited by IRS or State Revenue Department and had no back up? Torturous. A
disaster plan should be written out and tested so that everyone in your
office knows the drill. This should probably be practiced by any size
company.

Bob W.

"CH®IS" <sh@xxxxx> wrote in message news:85opl.13703$Db2.1040@xxxxxxxxxxx
> We're looking at moving our small alarm company into a fairly small retail
> space downtown.  My concern is for the filing cabinets and laptop (with
> DLS on it) though.  As much of a pain it would be to be broken into (nice
> target afterall), it would be a huge disaster to have someone take off
> with our files, many of which have codes and passwords in them.
>
> As such, I'm curious as to what others here have setup for their offices.
> Naturally we'll have an alarm in place and demo cameras recording (who
> cares though).  We may also look into bars or shutters as well.  However,
> the usual tactic is to steal a truck and then ram in into the building.
> In this case, we don't have to worry about the side walls (adjacent
> stores) or the back wall (lousy access), but the front is a typical mix of
> aluminum-framed full-height windows and a glass door.
>
> Also, this place is basically one big room (1200 ish square feet), with no
> interior walls.  I had thought of building a room for the filing cabinets
> as an extra layer, but that doesn't seem like it'll happen.
>
> Any suggestions would be great.
>
> - Chris