So the paperless office is yet to materialise, staff are creating more and more business records all of which have to be managed to meet strict retention policies and Government regulations, so where do you start, or how do you re structure your existing systems to get the most for your money?
There are three solutions to managing your records, as follows:
Off Site Records Management
All records after a short period of being held on site in filing cabinets etc. are collected and stored off site, usually with a third part supplier. With this comes the benefit of economies of scale, the release of valuable office space that is no longer occupied by on site archive facilities and the security associated with removing your company records from City Centres. However there are some drawbacks – waiting overnight for the return of a document or the cost of having it returned the same day may not be acceptable, the overall cost of transporting documents back and forth and the geographical restrictions defined by location.
ERM – Electronic Records Management
Again, as above once the records are only required for reference, they are usually collected by a third party provider, prepped, scanned, indexed and finally integrated into your ERM system for retrieval. While this can provide for instant access (once scanned) to your records there is a high price to pay. It is fairly labour intensive to prep, scan and index documents, even with today’s technology, resulting in a lot of expense to convert your business records. Once converted, do you rely on the systems you have in place and dispose the originals, or as in most cases, put them into deep storage at additional cost? Why go to these lengths when you will most likely only ever retrieve a maximum of 35% of archived material?
Sterling Archives Total Document Management Solution
Get the benefits of Options 1 & 2 for less than the cost of Standard Off Site Records Management!
The Sterling Archives Total Document Management Solution explained.
Once your documents are ready for off site archiving or imaging we collect them from your offices and put them into storage. It is after this stage that things get different – when you require a document to be returned, you will receive it within a couple of hours, to any location that you can access your email from, all for less than having the original file returned the following working day! Further benefits are that you are then free to deposit the returned electronic image into your ERM system for future review, therefore, you only ever incur the cost of retrieving a document once, and you only pay for the conversion of the documents you need, when you need them.
About Sterling
The Sterling Data Group is leading the way with data management services. It is our mission to protect our client’s information while assisting clients with compliance and in areas of regulation. After all, Our Business is Your Peace of Mind. Information owned by your business will be in various formats, varying in importance with various retention requirements.
Sterling offer records management – both on and off site, electronic data management in the form of encrypted online backup and recovery services, backup media management services, disaster recovery support and the secure destruction of data. Working with Sterling will enable you to drive down costs, manage the risks associated with data management, retrieval and retention while becoming compliant with regulatory bodies relevant to your business.
