Source: https://www.ironmtn.co.za/9-steps-to-improve-your-companys-records-and-information-management-2/
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9 Steps to Improve Your Records and Information Management
Home » Information Management » Information Governance » 9 Steps to Improve Your Company’s Records and Information Management Part 2
Feb 23, 2016|Last Updated Sep 5, 2018|IMWebmaster|Comments Off on 9 Steps to Improve Your Company’s Records and Information Management Part 2|Information Governance, Information Management, Records Management
Part 2: Records Privacy, Confidentiality and Security
In Part 1 of, “9 Steps to Improve Your Company’s Records and Information Management“, we looked at five key areas including:
Standardise Company Document Creation
Implement Filing Systems
Management of Physical Files
In Part 2 we cover the remaining four steps:
Archiving and Destruction
Risk Management and Disaster Prevention
In today’s fast-paced business world, having fast access to your documents and records is vital to maintaining efficient production. Digital information has certainly allowed us to improve access, but it has also opened the door to unauthorised users being able to access large quantities of information with the click of a mouse.
Thus, access to your company’s data must also consider who has access and how can access be controlled and data better secured to prevent unauthorised use and intellectual property theft.
Additionally, it is important that you keep in mind the introduction of the Protection of Personal Information or PoPI Act, that will soon come into force and provides for stiff penalties where personal information and privacy has not been maintained with regards to your records and documents.
The rapid growth of information and data creation is set to continue and the need for electronic record keeping will only grow. While there are record types that must be kept in paper format due to legislation, much of your company’s data can be kept in electronic format. Many of your paper documents can also be converted into electronic formats.
Among the greatest benefits of electronic records is the increased efficiency and access to documents from remote locations. Other benefits include use by multiple users, customisable access controls, accountability, and improved ability to recover from disasters.
Once you no longer need to access your records and other documents or data regularly, or it is no longer used but needs to be kept for legal reasons, then offsite document storage and offsite data storage solutions are your safest options for archiving.
An experienced and reliable Records and Information Management company will be able to help you in this regard and should be able to offer highly secure offsite storage facilities, archiving stationary, delivery and pick-up as needed and other important services.
Complying with legal retention periods and optimising your storage costs can be further managed through secure document destruction services once retention periods and the end of document lifecycles have been reached.
Since your data and documents for the lifeblood of your organisation, it is a no-brainer that risk management and disaster prevention steps should be taken as early as possible.
There is, however, some good news. If you have taken the time to follow the preceding eight steps and have seriously committed to improving your organisation’s records and information management programme, then you have probably taken care of a large chunk of what is needed for effective risk management and disaster prevention.
Iron Mountain Records Management Specialists
Iron Mountain is an industry leading Records Management company. The largest privately held company in the industry, Iron Mountain operates and has facilities in major centres around South Africa.
Our years of experience and ability to deploy highly customisable solutions to organisations large and small means that we are a smart choice when it comes to partnering.
For more information about how we can assist you with any or all of the above points, please contact us today.
← 9 Steps to Improve Your Company’s Records and Information Management Part 1
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