Managing Records effectively is not just compliance but has become a necessity for all the business organizations. The exponential growth of data & information, both in digital & physical format, is already making organizations concerned about its accessibility and integrity. The two factors are crucial for time-to-time litigation support, compliance norms, information support, claims management, taxation, auditing and various other reasons.
Though many companies have a ‘Records Management’ Program in place that is supposed to deal with Physical/print records, they might as well be overlooking some Record Management Risks that should be avoided. The same holds true for Data storage by the IT departments.
Here Are the Biggest Record Management Risks You Need to Avoid for Your Organization!
Too Much Reliance on In-House Storage
‘Never put all your eggs in one basket.’ No other English saying can be wiser than this one when it comes to storing all your records in-house. Although convenient, important files and papers, especially the printed ones, often go missing. This can be attributed to the ‘human error’ or employees not adhering to information management protocol/process. Important data can not only go ‘missing’ due to negligence or honest errors, but also due to presence of dishonest employees within your system who will exploit any window of opportunity to grab confidential business information. Moreover, in-house organizational Record Archives often lack fire-safety installations, temperature & climate control systems, and special data storage archives that keep their data safe in the long run. A Professional Records Management company, however, can take care of all your information management needs with utmost care. The best thing is less hassle and enhanced productivity for your organization!
Are You Adhering to Document Disposal Norms?
It has already been covered before, and the fact cannot be emphasized further. Your organization must adhere to the legal document & information disposal norms set in your region of business operation. This is a super-important part of information management as it directly relates to your client/customer & stakeholders privacy. No wonder that the corporate laws of many countries, including India, require you to shred certain documents as per the set disposition dates. Unused papers and files which are no longer needed create a gigantic clutter, and security vulnerabilities that come with it. While shredding tons of physical paper and digital media eats up a lot of time, a professional Paper Shredding Service like ours can help you with timely & secure information disposal. Such a professional service not just takes away your hassle, but also eases your legal/regulatory compliance while saving the environment!
Backup Management
If your information management department is the one that stores the data backup at their homes or elsewhere in the company premises, you might be up for trouble if the data becomes corrupt or subject to mishap. What makes us say so? Backup drives/tapes are often ordinary state drives that can go berserk after a length of time. Temperatures, humidity, in fact fire accidents, or a malicious attack can be some of the worry points about your backup management.
Authorization Access!
Your organization probably hosts a plenty of sensitive documents and confidential information. It is these pieces of documents and digital files that are most susceptible to theft and hacking. Even, they can be unintentionally leaked outside of the company without the knowledge of the personnel. Hence arises the need for assigning authorization access to only select few employees. The reason behind this is to limit the number of human-contact points with the organization’s sensitive information, and control the breach of such data. Several companies have an open policy that does not ‘track’ the access of information by the employees. This makes it difficult to identify the point of breach or leak when the information gets stolen. Thus placing limited access for the personnel will add to another security-layer for your private information.
Protecting the interest of your organization depends largely on how secure and accessible its vital information is. As they say, ‘keeping the confidential words from flowing out is another calamity averted.’ It, thus, becomes imperative that you hire a records management company for assured protection of the interest of your business and its assets.
