This is a great email I got from AIIM.  For those that have addressed or are aware of their growing storage requirements, here are some interesting statisics.  If you don't have a plan in place to manage your documents, Federal can help with that in a hosted ECM system.  In any case, here is the article enjoy and for more valuable resources, become an AIIM member.

We are experiencing a tidal wave of information. The digital universe is growing exponentially, and the analyst IDC predicts the digital universe will be 10 times larger in 2011 than 2006. And, how much will it grow the next 5 years? Exponential growth means the volume of information will be significantly higher in 2015.

"It's Not Information Overload. It's Filter Failure", said author Clay Shirky at Web 2.0 Expo a few years ago. Our task is to identify information of business and legal value, and then manage this over its lifecycle. This is a strong business case for ECM and 60% of new ECM users cite "content chaos" as the main reason for adopting ECM.

It is difficult to manage electronic information when the volume is growing exponentially, and AIIM research found the following issues:

• 47% of Office docs are "Somewhat unmanaged or very unmanaged"
• 52% Emails are "Somewhat unmanaged or very unmanaged"
• 74% Instant messages are "Somewhat unmanaged or very unmanaged"

Sixty-six percent (66%) of those without an ECM system are not confident that their electronic information is "accurate, accessible, and trustworthy". It goes down to 11% for those with an ECM system.

You can prepare for the future by planning for the future:

• How can information of business and legal value be identified and captured by users or technology?
• How long should you keep office documents, emails, instant messages, etc?
• How do you make important information available to users when, where and how they need it?
• What is the required governance structure and technologies for managing information?
• How do you plan for long-term preservation when technology is changing every other year?

Find the answers by attending an AIIM Certificate Program class. Classes are available in major cities throughout the US & Canada, and are also available online.

Register today at www.aiim.org/training or call 301-755-2631. If you have questions, please feel free to email us at training@aiim.org.

An audit of your offsite record storage might reveal a less appealing solution than you would like to have.  For many companies, your document archiving might mean a couple old fire-resistant file cabinets in a closet of your office, and old cardboard liquor boxes and mismatched document cartons sitting on pallets in a rented storage locker in the industrial park.  This kind of neglect can mean your legal file storage makes it harder to produce the right records when you’re internally auditing your company or, worse yet, you need to produce documents for a legal or regulatory subpoena.

This nightmare could be avoided if you’re willing to devote your time, money and resources to revising your document archiving to something more organized, consistent, professional and modern, but you have a business to run.  Working with an agent consultant of an offsite record storage company can get you the same results while you still focus on growing your business.  A reliable and reputable legal file storage firm could help you decide which of their many services meets your needs best, and demonstrate what they can offer you.  After reviewing their offerings, you may discover ways to use your records for more than a storage nightmare in your office.

A quality firm will help you to index your documents, determining what you need to save and what could safely go.  While some of your files can go to secure offsite record storage, your partner could provide good document destruction services as well.  At the storage site, a climate controlled secure warehouse with consistent archival box storage, site security and round-the-clock document delivery and retrieval could be exactly what you need.  And, many companies will even offer vaults for protecting electronic backup media, and could help you convert more of your physical records into more easily maintained and accessed electronic format.

Review your partner’s history, customer lists, and recommendations.  Check to make sure they meet the needs of small one-man offices as well as Fortune 500 requirements, and check the Federal, state and local regulations for data storage and maintenance.  Professional affiliations and trade groups like PRISM International, ARMA International, and AIIM International are all excellent memberships that assure a commitment to current developments and standards in the industry.  After you’ve selected a quality offsite record storage company and worked with them to meet all your needs and requirements, you’ll feel a relief and confidence your original solution may not have been providing.

You’ve got records you can’t safely dispose of.  It could be your own internal documentation or business records new government regulations say you have to keep on file and produce on demand.  Either way, all those hard copy records have to remain organized and stored in a safe consistent manner.  Document archiving takes up valuable office space, and often is not referenced for years at a time.  If your file storage is starting to take over your office, it’s probably time to consider offsite document storage.  A professional document archiving service could provide exactly the solution you need.

A professional offsite document storage service can offer you a solution that moves your rarely accessed documents to a safe, secure location.  A reliable and reputable service will have a climate controlled storage facility dedicated solely to document archiving.  The warehouse will have controlled access, limiting the accidental or purposeful access to your information.  And the warehouse will be designed and located to ensure that the potential for natural disasters and ‘acts of god’ to impact your documents are minimized, even if they can’t be eliminated all together.  Is your office designed to provide this kind of protection for your data and even if can now; will it be able to when your amount of documents has doubled?

A reputable and reliable document archiving service will be able to provide consistently timely access to your data, when you need it.  By working with you to ensure your documents are successfully cataloged as you archive them, you will be able to refer to your document catalog and request the correct archive be delivered back to you for reference.  If you’re unable to produce documents successfully from your archives from your own storage solution, an auditor or government representative is unlikely to be particularly understanding or sympathetic.  An offsite document storage service will help assure that you’ve correctly organized your documents before archiving them, so they can help you produce the documentation on demand.

The key to offsite document storage is selecting a quality, professional document archiving service.  There are many offsite storage services available, including do-it-yourself services that are awfully tempting, but a service that can review your needs, demonstrate how they meet your needs, and consistently do so is a valuable service.  Without their help and faithful dedication to your document storage needs, you’re no better off than you were storing the records in your own office.

When you’re working with legal document storage, you often have security, privacy and confidentiality concerns you need to address.  There may be state and local requirements, and there are almost surely Federal regulations to address.   After years and decades in business, a small office file storage area can transform into a large storage area, and begin to threaten to need a huge storage area.  You are in business to serve the needs of your customers and do what you do best.  Does spending your time and money document archiving really service your customers?  This is probably not what you do best.

Give some thought to working with someone that really does serve their customers by archiving documents, and office file storage is what they do best.  We’re not speaking about hiring a professional archivist for your office – we’re talking about a reliable and reputable offsite document storage company.  By speaking with an agent or consultant from a legal document storage company, you can determine exactly what your needs and requirements are, and then tailor a solution to meet them.  In speaking with an agent, you may discover needs you never knew you had, or solutions you’d never even considered.

For example, you may need to index and store your documents in a climate controlled secure warehouse.  Controlled access and security patrols within the warehouse can meet your security and confidentiality needs.  Pickup and delivery service available around the clock, 365 days a year may be exactly what you have to have to satisfy your own clients.  However, have you considered contracting a company to convert your documents in to electronic images and storing them both locally and in an off-site secure data vault?  These office file storage options could meet your same needs and provide all new options for accessing and using your records.

When you select a firm to work with, be sure to review exactly who and what they are - a quality firm with a solid reputation and great referrals.  They’ll offer a variety of services that can scale from a one-man office to a fortune 500 corporation.  Often, their office file storage services will meet or exceed state and federal needs and regulations.  As a member of one or more regional, national or international trade organizations like ARMA International, PRISM International, and/or AIIM International, they have professional obligations and standards to meet.  All these aspects create a complete image for you to consider when selecting your partner.

The signs that it’s getting out of hand are easy to see.  You need to buy, lease or build more space so you store more file cabinets rather than expand your business.  You hire a full time assistant just to maintain your archives.  Worries that your legal file storage cabinets on the second floor are more than the structural supports can handle are keeping you up at night.  And if fire, vandalism or water damaged or destroyed your files, you’d suffer worse potential financial damage than if the actual tools of your business were destroyed.  These are real concerns, and a reputable and skilled Chicago record storage company can help you address them.

Working with a consultant from a Chicago record storage firm, you can determine exactly what services will store your data in an effective accessible way.  You could work with them to index your files and store them securely in a climate-regulated warehouse, protected from accidental or intentional damage or destruction.  Or you could contract a firm to help you electronically process and store the documents, and archive the data in an offsite data vault.  If you have volumes of microfiche records, racks of electronic records on backup media or even need to reliably destroy years of records no longer required your consultant can help arrange for these needs, too.

These firms make their business from their effective solutions and reputation for delivering the solutions reliably and consistently.  A quality firm will deliver equally for a one-man office as well as a Fortune 500 corporation, and will often meet or exceed the needs and mandates of state and local government organizations as well.  As you work with a representative of a Chicago record storage company, you’ll establish what your needs and requirements are.  You’ll probably discover solutions to issues you didn’t even realize you had.

Work with your agent to define and document your unique solution.  Make sure to go over the Chicago record storage company’s policies and procedures, so you are comfortable with how they handle document retrieval, security and confidentiality.  You may speak with other customers about their satisfaction or issues they’ve experienced.  Tour your potential partner’s facilities, so you can see their methods and quality first hand.  Once you’ve decided and implemented your solution, you’ll find that your office space is better suited to more business instead of more paper.  You can sleep easy, knowing your letter and legal file storage isn’t going to come plunging though your office ceiling

Every day another company experiences a catastrophe, and their place of business is destroyed.  It could be an accidental fire.  The water damage could be from a burst main or a sewer back up.  Even rare threats like vandalism, tornado, flood, or even sinkhole can all wreak havoc on your place of business as well.  And while you’re trying to recover from the immediate damage so you can do business, you’re also dreading your next audit, patent search, or any of a hundred other reasons you needed the many documents you were storing.  Before the worst could happen you need to consider Chicago document storage options.

By contracting a dependable and cost effective data management and archival partner, you can move your stored data off-site.  It will be stored in a regulated environment, secure and protected from damage and destruction.  A reputable document archiving company will offer document storage, indexing, document imaging, electronic data storage, archival box storage, and even document destruction when your files have finally outlived their useful life.  In Chicago document storage doesn’t have to be a difficult issue.  With a few simple calls or clicks, you can review your options and select the best firm for your needs.

What should you look for in an office file storage solution?  First, look for a reputable Chicago document storage firm that comes well recommended.  Representatives should be able to connect you with other satisfied customers.  They should provide you with full details regarding how your documents will be handled, what services are offered, and where they will be stored, including escorted tours of their facilities.  The company should offer scalable services that can serve a one-man office as well as a Fortune 500 company.  Most organizations will also be able to meet the stringent requirements of state and federal organizations.

Most highly regarded Chicago document storage companies will be member of quality local, national and international trade organizations which will help them maintain professional standards and practices.  Such organizations to look for would be ARMA International, PRISM International, AIIM International, and AHIMA.   These organizations also help a company establish and maintain their methods in order to satisfy legal and regulatory requirements for security processes, confidentiality policies, and other sensitive procedures.  Working with the consulting agent of your preferred firm, you can determine exactly what services you will require to assure your historical and legal file storage meets your needs.

Electronic and paper based documents has become very important for companies, as well as the need for them to be kept secure and compressed. There is now a growing and competitive market for document management, with lots of firms offering a wide range of services that will have your most confidential data kept secure and safe.

The concept of an outside service dealing with your document management can make some companies feel a bit unsure but the service is there to minimize the time that it will take to set something up internally. Another bonus from choosing an outside firm to deal with this sort of things is that they are specifically configured to do so, as well as they offer things such as direct access to your files through a simple net connection so that you can get hold of essential documents at given time.

For the best document management it is always worth considering somebody who carries out a service professionally with major bonus being that your data will be held offsite, as well as if disaster strikes a business HQ then they can retain all their data quickly. The response to the worst case scenario is generally as short as three days for a company to receive a full reboot of their data.

Some companies still store a bunch of physical paper documents because not all data needs or can be transferred into electrical form, so document management services offer both physical and digital storage. Of course out of the two one is a little easier to access than the other, hence the advantage to access your offsite documentation through a net connection.

The beginning of document management was back in the early 1980s when paper documents where overrunning the small spaces which lots of business were based, but as time moves so does technology and industry based innovation. With the dawn of the Information Age on the horizon it wasn't lengthy before electronic documents were starting to fill desktops and hard-drives, once again a solution was needed. As a result there's lots of companies putting forth effort to money in on the fact people need backup files for their backup files and so on. Because businesses, if not society, are becoming ever dependent on computers it means data security and protection is an absolute essential, without it the risk of losing confidential and vital information could mean the instant destruction of company no matter how large or small.

We've been in the Chicago record storage business a very long time.  Going on over 25 years now doing document storage in Chicago.  At our very start we used a manual system to keep track of all boxes in and out of our warehouse.  We now have a state of the art bar code system to keep track of all critical documents and thinking about the old way we used to do it, makes me cringe. 

S0 we have seen alot of changes in our industry.  Document Imaging has become a great tool in creating value for our customers.  However, many people view document imaging as a solution for document archiving.  In my humble opinion, that is like comparing apples and oranges.  From a cost standpoint, let's say you have to keep the documents for 10 years.  Storing those in our warehouse for ten years might cost around $30 on average.  To scan that same box of paper might cost anywhere from $100-$200.  Even if you go into that box a couple times, that might boost the cost up to $75.  It is still at a minimum, an extra $25 to scan the box.  So for archiving purposes, put it on a shelf and you save $25 per box.  If you have hundreds or thousands of boxes, that is quite a savings.

However, if you are going to have to access that box frequently, that is a different story.  What is the value of having that information at your finger tips?  Can you create greater customer satisfaction?  Can you conduct more transactions with fewer employees?  Or conduct more transactions with the same number of employees.

If you are going to scan your documents, make sure there is a good business reason to do so.  At Federal we have seem countless physical storage projects and countless imaging projects and we try and find the right solution for your needs.  Sometimes it means scanning everything.  Sometimes scanning nothing.  Sometimes it's scanning on demand.  So, before you decide to 'go paperless', make sure it's for the right reasons.

We are constantly asked about the future of our business.  Everyone is going 'paperless' and what is going to happen when there are no more boxes to store.  Anyone reading this knows, that will not be the case anytime in the near future.  I was reading an article about how over the past fifteen years, the widespread adoption of computers at everyone's desk has made creating documents, printing documents and sharing documents easier than ever and continues to become easier and easier every day.  Because of this more paper is created today than ever before.  

There is a study called 'How Much Information' that was conducted to asses the rate at which information is growing.  It was published in 2002, but the rate at which information was growing was quite astounding.  Simply google 'How Much Information 2002' and you will see some of the incredible statistics on how information is growing at an astounding rate.

Over the next few months we will explore how your growing volume and scope of corporate information can be handled indifferent ways.  We will look at examples of when it's appropriate to simply store the information and when you should scan the information.  Document Scanning can be a very powerful too to create time and cost efficiencies when used correctly.  However, using it for archiving purposes only can certainly be argued.

Welcome to the Federal Record Storage MDMC Blog.  In talking with our customers, we feel we can continually help our clients make sure they are doing the most to protect and archive their mission critical information by helping them keep up with the most recent trends in the industry.  We are going to cover hardcopy document storage, secure document shredding, document scanning and imaging, paper workflow, media and electronic data storage and anything else that is either interesting or of value to our customers.  If there is something you would like to know more about, shoot us an email and if one of our experts doesn't know something about it, we'll tap into our wide and diverse customer base.  Here is to the start of what is hopefully a very helpful blog.