Three Common Mistakes that are associated with Document Retention Strategies

By Ian Llado, Account Manager, Optical Image Technology, Inc.

(Note: This article was originally published in the January 2008 edition of Document eNotes)

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In this day and age, implementing a document retention strategy is a necessity, regardless of your industry. Driving this initiative are factors such as compliance, legal obligations such as eDiscovery, preparation for audits, and the improvement of business processes. Although organizations recognize the need to control their content, the actual implementation of this objective can be intimidating—especially for businesses whose processes still include paper.

The sheer volume of business information has increased exponentially since the electronic age, and can be a barrier to document retention and timely retrieval. Even email messages are now considered to be corporate records, and, as such, can be admitted as part of litigation. Consequently, retaining all of your corporate information is not an option. Companies that are able to implement a successful document retention strategy recognize the need for an enterprise approach. They understand that electronic records management is a key component of success. Above all, they steer clear of three common mistakes that are associated with document retention strategies:

1. Failure to enact and enforce a company-wide retention policy

Before implementing any technology measures regarding document retention, it is important to evaluate your system as it currently exists. Do you still have processes that are paper-based? Many businesses have mixed environments, which use both electronic and paper processes. As a first step towards a sound document retention policy, it is imperative that companies image-enable their documents so that they can be managed electronically. This allows organizations to apply rules for a consistent, standardized approach to document retention.

The prevalence in the office of PDAs and even desktop and laptop computers makes it difficult to eliminate the potential for altered and duplicated copies of documents. This, paired with message sharing programs such as IM, can make it difficult to control company information and content. Do you have a policy in place to differentiate and retain communications that might need to be included as part of the corporate record? Does that policy include instant messaging? Educate your employees as to what types of documents should and should not be retained, and stress strongly the dangers of multiple (and altered) copies of documents. In today’s litigious society, many forms of communication—paper, electronic, email and email attachments—are admissible as part of electronic discovery (eDiscovery). Employees as well as management should be well aware of the company guidelines and policies regarding retention. Policies should be documented, enforced, and tested regularly.

2. Substituting a backup system for a data repository

It is not enough to retain information. You have to be able to locate and retrieve it, and in a timely manner. Do you have a reliable indexing system in place? Can you produce documents (including email messages) upon request? Many organizations make the mistake of assuming that a server with regular backups is equivalent to a data repository. Unfortunately, this assumption is extremely short-sighted and can have hazardous repercussions. Costs for manual restoration of information from backup tapes can exceed millions of dollars during litigation cases.

Companies that invest in a true information repository, on the other hand, are able to specify exactly when the system should be backed up, and how frequently. Documents can be copied to off-site storage or to multiple servers at multiple sites, which simplifies and expedites disaster recovery. A repository takes into consideration the entire document lifecycle, ensuring that files are retained for as long as regulations stipulate and purged from the system when they are no longer needed. Documents that are retained can also be migrated from high-speed storage media—available for immediate access during the active part of document life cycles—to low-cost media when access is no longer required regularly. Having such a system in place simplifies data retrieval and at the same time lowers costs. Without a managed data repository, organizations are gambling with their corporate information in terms of both timely retrieval and disaster recovery.

3. Lack of automation in your retention/disposition strategy

Another grave oversight that companies sometimes make is the assumption that they can have a successful document retention strategy without automating backup, archival, migration, and other factors that are associated with successful retrieval. Without automated controls in place, a document retention strategy is prone to human error. Every document that is not purged in a timely manner creates barriers to efficient storage and retrieval. By the same token, documents that have exceeded the active stage in their lifecycles should be moved to a slower, more economical storage medium. Automating this process circumvents the need for users to have to learn retention policies for every type of document.

Successful records management tools include retention schedules, audit trails, logs, move and purge requirements, and other procedures that can be used to control content without the need for human intervention. These qualities help organizations establish document integrity and authenticity. By removing the potential for human error, automation strategies embody a consistent, rules-based approach to document retention. At the same time, they improve information governance and demonstrate a sincere effort to conform with industry compliance requirements.

Conclusion

Organizations have achieved tremendous improvements in efficiency, output, and business process management by converting their paper processes to electronic. Once that milestone has been met, however, it is important to continually evaluate your document management system to ensure that it is meeting your changing needs as well as enabling you to address regulatory requirements. To be successful, make sure that your approach to document retention is twofold, considering both technology and human components. Ensure that you are taking advantage of all of the benefits that your electronic document management (EDM) system offers with respect to document retention, and at the same time, ascertain that you have guidelines and policies in place that will protect and preserve your corporate information.

 

Optical Image Technology offers a complete line of document management and workflow software. To learn more about our hierarchical storage manager and document retention solutions, please contact us (http://www.docfinity.com) at 814.238.0038 or email info@docfinity.com.

 

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