Other records, such as expense reports, invoicing, credit reports, and other documents relating to customer accounts are obvious candidates for electronic storage. If the system is too difficult to learn or too slow, employees will quickly retreat to paper. The biggest threat may be people who believe they are storing vast quantities of critical information on CDs and other digital storage media but haven't considered that the lifetime of such media is not always guaranteed. The obsolescence issue is a big challenge. However, the biggest hurdle for most companies is cost of equipment and training and time for implementation.
Unnecessary duplication is a big factor in poorly managed information.
Not only does it take up unnecessary space, it creates unnecessary risk. Instead of five people on a committee filing minutes, one person should be responsible for the master file. Other people can choose to keep a copy, but will not do so by default because they are afraid to throw it away. Every company with computers has an information systems person. While many companies have a person in charge of records retention, they are often brought into the picture only after files are full, or the information is no longer used on a regular basis.