Richard Lawson

How important is the safe keeping of paper and electronic records to businesses these days?  And as a consumer, how important is it to you that a company looks after your personal information to a high standard?

I’m guessing (and hoping) that most of you will view both of the above questions with considerable importance. Breaches in Data Protection are big news, so, why is it then that I have seen companies across all manner of industries perform abysmally and sometimes illegally when managing our information?

The answers are rarely simple but through my ARchive Services blog I will attempt to enlighten and amuse you on what we, a professional Records Management company, have seen and heard in the pursuit of blissful Records Management compliance.

We’ve got plenty of storage space onsite!

This was a comment from the owner of a thriving business. The staff working there had a different view of things and invited me to see for myself. I walked into their office and immediately saw a pyramid of cheap stationery boxes collapsing into one another against the back wall. This was in full view of any client that walked through the front door causing headaches (and eye sores!) to the Office Manager.  I was told that there was no order to these boxes and they had no way of knowing where any particular file was.

After explaining that the owner of the business was happy with the current situation because it wasn’t costing them anything (methinks it has cost them several prospective clients who have quickly exited the building after seeing how they ‘look after’ their files) I was given a tour around the other rooms of the building to see the remainder of their archive.  I found files tucked away with the electric meter, boxes in cupboards that were being used for other purposes and to take the biscuit so to speak, a few boxes were even in the kitchen sink.  It was at this point that I realised why I hadn’t been offered a cup of coffee!

All’s well that ends well and the office staff managed to persuade the owner to use our services and are safe in the knowledge that all files and boxes are now traceable by barcode.

The Verdict

The above is only one example and, humour aside; it is genuinely worrying just how many organisations fail to properly look after your personal information.  It seems that an efficient and secure method of filing is not built into the company structure and is often only addressed in response to disaster.

As mentioned earlier, this trend doesn’t discriminate against industry. I’ve come across poor archiving in Education, Legal, Medical and Finance and if I were to name names, I’m sure you’d be shocked. I won’t of course, but the next time you give your personal information to a company, perhaps you’ll ask them exactly how they look after their archive...I would!

I’m often asked what services we offer for scanning a clients documents and converting them electronically. You may be surprised to learn that I rarely answer them directly. Instead, I interrogate casually question them as to their reasons for pursuing this modern method.

For the most part, modern businesses demand to know exactly how much their spend will be for a particular project above and beyond anything else. With the turbulent financial issues our World faces, it is easy to understand why this is. However, the questioning approach I have adopted in recent years has revealed some pretty interesting points, points that show that many companies enter into this electronic realm with their eyes wide shut. Here are a few examples:

What are your intentions for the original paper material once it has been scanned?

Astonishingly, the majority of businesses that responded to this question hadn’t given this question any consideration at all. A selection of available options could be to; destroy scanned items immediately, destroy after satisfactory quality control period, keep files/boxes securely in storage until their expiration date or return all items to the client. I’m sure you can appreciate that each of these options – and the list is by no means exhaustive – carries with it its own inherent costs.

How often do you retrieve files and/or boxes from your archive?

The obvious reason behind asking this is to establish what level of service the client requires. Many respondents only envisaged a miniscule retrieval requirement.  This could be as low as none or once per year. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that there may be more cost effective methods of managing this type of archive!

How many people currently have access to your documents?

Swiftly followed by:

How many people need access to your documents?

I really enjoy the feedback that these questions generate because you get both ends of the spectrum.  On one hand there are companies that store all of their business records – all types for all departments – in one room on site. Hundreds of employees could at any time during the working day waltz (yes, other forms of dancing would work too!) into this room and access, or worse still, tamper with files that they shouldn’t have access to.  So while their answer to the initial question “How many people currently have access to your documents?”

could be in excess of 100, they may want to restrict access to a handful of authorised employees who in turn would only be able to see information relating to their own department as their response to “How many people need access to your documents?”.  This insight proves its value when tailoring a package for our clients.

Similarly, the reverse of the above is seen quite often too. A company with several sites (usually meaning multiple storage rooms for their archive) wants to give centralised access to more staff at multiple locations. Very useful information again and all too often overlooked by the end user.

Have you considered what viewing method to use?

Ok, so you still want to scan all of your records.  How are you going to access them?  If you’ve not actively considered this question, now would be a good time to do so.  For example, if everything is scanned to disc(s) will you be able to search for keywords?  Does each page pass through an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) phase to allow you to search by keyword right down to the page level?  Does your supplier keep a backup in case of disaster? Will the scanned images be indexed, using Regional OCR, Global OCR, Single Page OCR or meta tags, or will the images be simply downloaded onto CD or DVD as one file/image that you would need to read in its entirety to locate relevant information? The list could go on, and that is without even touching upon web based repositories, perhaps I’ll save that for a separate blog entry!

So, can it be cost effective to scan every bit of paper your company has created and will go on to create in future years? The reality check answer to this question is a very loud no I’m afraid. A completely paperless office (although perfectly achievable technology wise) just isn’t viable because you’re not considering what information is essential for your business to retain. When you hear of a company that is having success with a scanning system, please keep in mind that although they may be having a bulk amount scanned for them, they have most likely selected key departments and/or document types for conversion whilst managing any remaining paper in house or in a secure storage facility. Scanning can be really cost effective and valuable to businesses across all industries but a clear idea of what you want and why is essential in my humble opinion.

Finally, it appears to me that a company considers digitising their archive not because of the efficiency it can certainly provide but largely due to the mythical perception that scanning is the “done thing” in modern business circles. If this rather limited view is one that you have held, may I refer you back to the beginning of this blog for a second read before any rash decisions are made.