Page 30 - 4188

28

destruction is being standardised across multiple offices and across
country boundaries. The drive for standardisation of approach is
resulting in many major multi-national organisations reducing the
number of suppliers they use in order to impose a single methodology

throughout their business.
The world of document storage has transformed into an industry
that is unrecognisable from its origins, although the paper document

continues to remain constant, in the minefield of acronyms that surround
the technology that has come to encompass a full Records Management
Programme. As part of the wider picture organisations are expected to
have a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) that includes Disaster Recovery

Plans (DRP) all of which need to be safely secured but easy to retrieve.
Enterprise content management (ECM), workflow mapping, digitisation,
hard copy storage web hosting of images and data mining are all part of

the transformation that has come to represent the records management
industry.
After understanding the difference between what needs to be

stored and what does not one then has to start understanding the
different types or records and who is creating them. Most personnel are
potential creators and they all need to understand whether the

information they are creating should be stored securely and
confidentially or securely destroyed. We have all heard of the recent
stories of high profile laptops and information being stolen as well as
identity theft fraudsters who rummage in bins to obtain details of clients

in order to assume their identity. A formal in-house survey to understand
who and where information should be stored can go a long way to
creating a system understandable to all.

The key to designing a successful records management system is to
incorporate the following characteristics: firstly, one needs to be
consistent in the manner in which records are captured, managed and
maintained irrespective of whether they are electronic or paper records.

Secondly they must be accessible to authorized people. One of the
fears that people have when out sourcing records is discussed is whether
their records will be accessible. A good records management company

should be able to guarantee that records will be physically or digitally
delivered to within 24 hours.
Information must be held in a secure environment protect against

floods, fire and intruders. Most records management organisations have
password protected entry into their premises and do not publicly disclose