Records Management is a crucial operation for every organization, small or big. As the information management is falling under the purview of international authorities, organizations are being scrutinized for compliance and regulations in every country.
A dedicated team for Records management or a vendor partner can ease this task provided that they are competent and process-oriented. If you have been associated with a RMS vendor and are looking for further optimization of your Records management system, then you might consider changing the vendor. For you, this shall come as a strategic move.
However, before you switch to another better performing RMS vendor, your organization needs to take some pointers into consideration. These crucial aspects are listed in the post below. Let’s get started!

1. Form a Committee & Draft RFP

Choosing an RMS Vendor is going to be a long process. It will involve multiple steps and a stringent screening process so that the vendor with the right capacity to meet your requirements gets on boarded. The first step for you will be to formulate a committee of the organization’s stakeholders. The key function of this RMS Vendor screening committee will be to assess the pointers due to which the older vendor is being dropped, current requirements, Key-Performance indicators and on-boarding criterion for the new vendor.

Once this is accomplished, the committee will draft Requests for Proposals or RPFs for prospect vendors. Depending upon the responses, your organization shall have an initial list of screened vendors that will go through the screening process after then.

2. Experience & Track Record

This shall be one of the key factors, not just for partnering with an RMS Vendor but for any other as well. You shall formulate a ‘Minimum eligibility’ criterion for the prospect vendors to match your needs. Your requirements should be specific to your industry and confirm with the productive work culture. For example, a Records Management Service vendor should possess professional work experience with various businesses in different verticals with considerable experience. Also, their experience in your industry should matter more than the others. As a decision maker, you must also carry out the due diligence of their track record. This will include checking them for any red flags like mismanagement, blunders, non-compliance, etc.

Scoring the prospects on the basis of Experience & Track record will help you partner with an RMS Vendor of strategic importance.

3. Security & Administration

Your records are confidential and most of them are sensitive. Trusting a new vendor will take ample amount of professional trust before you hand them over your organization’s blueprints. For that, you can again measure the vendor’s competence by laying down a criterion. An RMS Vendor with air-tight security must have;

• Perimeter Security
• Fire and Flood protection system
• Motion Detectors and Real-time monitoring
• Surveillance

If a vendor is equipped with above-mentioned features, then there are high chances that it is a suitable one. Secondly, you must consider their administration machinery. This will include understanding the hierarchy, internal structure, access to sensitive records, and ease of coordination.

4. RMS Vendors as Strategic Partners

Hiring a Record Management Service Vendor takes care of the security of your data. They not only protect your records from malicious intents, but also against unforeseen dangers like fire, floods, human error, etc. RMS vendors use state-of-art systems to preserve your organizational records for as long as possible. Therefore, your partner vendor will be undertaking a crucial task for your business that is directly related to risk mitigation and aversion. Hence, an RMS vendor will be more of a strategic business ally for your organization and it is important that you treat it as such. A professional RM Services provider works with proper retention schedules, stays updated with the slightest of change in the laws and regulations related to Records & Data, and operate in sync with them. Their functions will add direct value to your company and so the new vendor shall be placed next to your important business alliances.