Many organizations believe as long as they can access their data, it's not lost-and if the data can be accessed, it can always be transferred to another RMIS vendor. Unfortunately, this couldn't be further from the truth. Just because data is in an industry format doesn't ensure it can be easily interpreted. Raw data are like words and databases are like languages. Just because someone knows how to speak English doesn't mean he or she knows the meaning of all English words or can understand the meaning of complex sentences and paragraphs.
Open formats do provide some degree of security in that the data is accessible.
But they offer little assurance that the data will be able to be interpreted, transferred or used as intended. There are, however, other options. New ways to protect data are beginning to evolve. Some firms now offer data-interpretation and evaluation services. Under these arrangements, companies pay a one-time fee to have their data transferred to an open interpretive format.