Record Management is one of the most crucial aspects of a business. Not only does it drives efficient business operations, Record Management is also directly associated with risk management, litigation and compliance.
However, the qualitative effectiveness of an organization’s RMS is dependent upon the resources allocated to it and the degree of operational efficiency of those resources. Storage space is one of them!
Ask any company and there are good chances that they will complain about the space utilized by critical records in-situ. And, the underlying problem is most likely the inefficient management of record storage space, or improper forecasting of the storage needs.
In this post, we will tell you about the steps to improve the Efficiency of your Record Storage.
Estimate Storage Needs Precisely
If you know how much storage you have and how much you will need in the future, the management will become tireless in handling your records. To do so, simply ask yourself the following questions keeping your business needs in mind.
1. How much space do you need currently and in the future?
You will be having a daily inflow of ‘n’ number of files/records/documents and almost all of them will be crucial to your business. How much you need now and how much space you need to expand into in the future can be estimated with simple math. Ask your teams about the daily ‘rate of inflow’ of documents and files. Then calculate how much space the daily fresh documents utilize. You can then arrive at the correct estimates for record storage space.
2. What does your workflow map look like?
A workflow map is nothing but the knowledge of how the documents or information flow within your organization. You will need to find out which teams use a particular type of document frequently, when they use it, and how accessible the documents are. This will help you prioritize the storage of crucial documents while the others can be temporarily stored ad-hoc.
3. What are the required security measures?
Your storage space must be guarded by a security system and the size of which will be determined by the size of the storage and the grade of the security. For example, a simple passcode access Record storage security system will take up less space and it is suited for small businesses. A larger, more sophisticated system will take up more space but also guards a larger number of your confidential documents.
4. What are the likely Future Events?
Are you going to relocate the present office? Are the business and the team size going to expand? Is there any merger coming up in the future? If the answer to any of them is a ‘yes,’ then your record storage needs will expand manifolds.
Follow these Simple Steps to Improve the Efficiency of your current and future Record Storage space
Step 1- Eliminate
It might have been a while since you securely shredded the old documents. The first step will be to eliminate the present clutter by shredding all the documents that have completed their lifecycle. You can also consult a Professional RMS vendor for Secured Shredding services and Record Storage consultation.
Step 2- Reduce
You must reduce the physical storage of documents wherever possible. For example, your receipts and books of accounting can be scanned for digitization to make significant space. Moreover, you must move your critical documents into the safety of off-site storage that are run by professional Record Management Services. Apart from being cost effective, they will substantially reduce your in-house storage.
Step 3- Make the Workflow Efficient
Faster access to the crucial information within your office will make the workflow more efficient as the teams will have better coordination and collaboration capability. In fact, organizations that use Cloud services or off-site servers for managing their information are much more productive. You can also train your teams on Records and information workflow by setting standard processes.
By answering the above-mentioned questions and following the steps mentioned afterwards, you can boost the efficiency of your present record space. Your company always has an option for consulting the RMS experts for anything related to the matter. Good luck!
