May 26, 2006—Office Depot, global provider of office products and services, is launching an educational campaign called Disaster Preparedness: Advice You Can Depend on to Weather Any Storm. The program, which features an online brochure and a Web cast, offers lessons learned from the company’s first-hand experience and underscores the critical need for businesses to take serious measures for disaster preparedness—from natural disasters to daily threats such as computer viruses and power outages.
Office Depot, citing statistics from the Association of Small Business Development Centers, noted that 43 percent of businesses damaged in a disaster close for good, and that figure rises to nearly 60 percent after one year.
Having weathered four major hurricanes in 2005 alone at its corporate headquarters in South Florida and across nearly 100 of the company’s Gulf State store locations, Office Depot is using its real world experience to provide businesses with practical solutions related to disaster preparation.
Office Depot’s Disaster Preparedness initiative features an online brochure available for download, as well as a free online seminar for small business owners.
Disaster Preparedness: Advice You Can Depend on to Weather Any Storm offers recommendations on how businesses can protect their people and data, preparation checklists and guidelines to get started. It covers such topics as helping employees navigate personal issues, from damaged homes to personal injury, and protecting data by making a back-ups of all data.
Prevention is considered an important part of disaster recovery, says Office Depot. Its free online Web seminar is entitled “Disaster Planning and Recovery Strategies for Your Business,” featuring Tom Serio, Director of Global Business Continuity for Office Depot, and Jon Toigo, Office Depot Disaster Preparedness advisor. The Web cast is slated for Tuesday, May 30, 2006, from 4:00-5:00pm EDT. To register, go online.
