ABSTRACT
It was interesting to note that of the 22 companies surveyed (see Chapter 6), most lacked any robust form of tracking and managing documents that had been placed with outsourcing suppliers and instead depended upon the suppliers to keep track of what was in storage and its disposition. Those that had made an effort to track documents from within their own resource were largely dependent upon a paper-based system or rudimentary IT programme, none of which integrated to any large extent with their supplier’s archiving records. In my view, given the intrinsic value of the material that has been
placed in third-party storage, it is at best foolhardy to depend upon the supplier to keep an accurate record of transactions, particularly where records may be stored individually or as boxed items with no indication of the contents. Further, it is bad practice to give a supplier any indication of the nature of stored material, over and above what is necessary for the purpose of audit. Certainly in the case of personal information, commercially sensitive information or sensitive government information, such disclosure serves to add to the risk. In order to ensure firm control of stored records, I formerly worked
in conjunction with a team of IT system developers to devise a web-based application solution, predicated upon the following user requirements and in conformance with the business information retention policy. Below is an example of the benefits of investing in such an application,
which can:
Streamline the records management process.
