Paper or Digital?

Companies often ask one question: Should we stay with out paper records or should we go digital?

The answer is: It depends.

For every company, there are ups and downs to every sort of document management. If your company is debating going digital, you should ask yourself why you want to digitize your records. Here are some of the common reasons to go digital and the common reasons to stay with your paper records.

It's a greener alternative.

That is true. On average, a document is photocopied 19 times. 80% of documents were actually created in digital form and then printed. In your quest to go green, start with the present and the future. GRM Document Management can show you how to have all your current and future records in a web based, password protected Online Records Center. With GRM Document Management, you can nearly avoid paper altogether. It is possible. I store all of my records in the Online Records Center and I've almost completely eliminated the need to print.

Past records aren't quite as clear cut. If your records are sitting dormant in one of our records centers, there is no environmental benefit to digitizing them. The paper already exists and the amount of resources involved in storing an individual box is very small. However, if you are accessing those files on a regular basis, you are adding to the file's carbon footprint, simply because of transportation. A better alternative would be to use our Scan On Demand services. When you need a file that is being scored, have us scan it then and upload it into the Online Records Center.

This video from AIIM has a little more info on going green.



Isn't going digital expensive?

It depends on your usage. If your files are fairly active, the service costs can easily bypass the costs of digitization. Again, if the files are relatively dormant, paper is probably your best option.

Most customers are shocked to realize how inexpensive digital records actually are.

Is digital more secure?

Digital records are extremely secure. Access is password protected and will be granted only to the people designated by the system administrator.

Paper records are also extremely secure. Each GRM Document Management facility has state of the art security. Each employee goes through rigorous background checks and random drug testing. Our barcode tracking ensures that you are able to follow a record throughout the chain of custody.

GRM Document Management secures its facilities against natural and man made disasters, but digital records are stored in not just one, but in two servers, both in areas where natural disasters are extremely rare. For that reason, digital records are more secure, simply because there is always a backup.

Regardless of your choice, the safest place to have your records is offsite. They will be safe from disaster and from employee error.

What about compliance?

To remain compliant, many industries choose to go digital, and some, like the medical industry, must go digital. Digital records offer nearly immediate search, retrieval and recovery. Digital records can be searched by keywords. Paper records cannot.

Many companies are choosing a compromise. They are digitizing newer records and letting older records that are nearing their destruction date remain paper.

Big Day for GRM

GRM Document Management is excited to announce the release of its new website!!! The site is among the best in the industry. The look is clean and modern. The site is intuitive and full of useful information.

It's conveniently designed for both clients and non-clients alike. Clients will love that they can clearly and easily use our web portal, eAccess, where they can have instant, 24/7 access to their inventory and place orders.

Non-clients are invited to browse our website. It's conveniently laid out in a way that is relevant to the user. You can click on your industry or on your need. Our Knowledge Center is filled with industry news, white papers, case studies and general information. Of course, you can always find the blog.

We are also offering a contest through our Facebook Page It's easy and fun! You can win an iPad!

The British Library has taken on an extremely ambitious project...they are about to start a ten year endeavor to make 300 years of British journalism public. The project will involve scanning and cataloging of about 40 million pages of newsprint and microfilms. The pages will eventually be posted online.

The British Library hasn't contacted GRM Document Management for the project, but preserving history through our digital services is one of the things we do best. Our digital conversion services are able to scan and QC thousands of documents at a time, ensuring that the image is not just fast, but accurate. We index the documents in a format that is password protected and easily searchable.

The story reminds me of one that was told to me at a local ARMA chapter meeting. A records manager for a very large, old, multi-national corporation was discussing the benefits of adhering to a strict retention program vs. the historical value of old records. She said that they ran across a challenge recently that seemed to have no precedent and no obvious solution. Then, someone accidentally ran across a record from the 19th century! The record was from the founder of the company who had anticipated that very problem and the solution.

GRM Document Management recognizes the importance of a strict retention policy. It's vital that some records are destroyed at the end of their life to protect both clients and the company. However, every company has records that might be of historical value one day. Talk to GRM Document Management about preserving and cataloging those records for the future of the company.

The 25 Hour Day

I woke up a few minutes late this morning. Traffic pushed back the start of my day a little more. I am facing a few deadlines at the office. My house is never as clean as I would like it to be. I don't get as much gym time as I would like. My dog doesn't get walked enough. I definitely don't get enough fun/relaxation time. I'm not complaining. I wouldn't trade my life for anything. I just wish I had a little more time each day.

Well, it looks like I'm not alone. Some women in Canada are campaigning for the day to be lengthened to 25 hours. It seems that the body's natural clock, or circadian rhythm, is more than 24 hours. A study in 1999 put it at 24 hours and 11 minutes. In other words, if you go to sleep at 11:00 pm on Sunday and wake up at 7:00 am on Monday, your body would naturally want to go to bed a little later than 11:00 pm on Monday and wake up at 7:11 am on Tuesday, and so on.

It sounds like a great idea to me, but it begs the larger question, where would we spend our extra hour? Would we spend it at the office or would we spend it on our lives outside the office, as the movement intends? People in India were the only respondents to say that they would spend that extra hour in the office. I suspect that Americans would do a little of each. Some of the time would be spent in the office, some of it outside the office.

Businesses might love this idea as much as anyone. The recession has forced employees to be stretched to their limit. Many priorities have shifted from the big picture to "We've got to pick our battles". In the records management industry, we see that 'pick our battles' philosophy every single day. For most of our customers, their records management program isn't really broken, so why fix it? There are better ways for their employees to spend their time than on document management.

The truth is, an inefficient document management system can be a tremendous drain on both time and money. On average, it costs $20 to file a document. It costs $120 to find a misplaced document. This doesn't even take into account the fact that employees are being taken away from other duties. An electronic document management system or even an efficiently administered paper records management system costs a fraction of that and allows your employees to focus on the things that really need to be done.



Give GRM Document Management a call. We'll show you how you can add time and money to your business day.

Records Management...Protection in a Litigious World

I don't have to tell you that we live in a litigious society. You follow EEOC standards. You abide by OSHA rules. You dot your "I"s and you cross your "T"s. Still, there is no way to make your business lawsuit proof.

According to the US Chamber of Commerce, litigation costs more than a quarter of a trillion dollars a year. $98 Billion are spent on tort costs to small businesses.

The Chamber conducting a poll asking the most ridiculous lawsuits of last month. Here are the contenders:

* Lawyer selling products on eBay sues customer who left negative feedback
* Cockfighters sue state attorney general and sheriffs claiming enforcement of ban violates their civil rights
* Handyman who leaned his ladder against a branch he was sawing sues employer for injuries
* Lawyer sues state for revoking mistakenly issued license plate that someone already owned
* Man shot in leg during mini-riot at festival sues police for failing to protect him

It is sort of fun to read about silly lawsuits, but each of those businesses and agencies being sued were probably blindsided. Now they have to spend valuable time and money to simply maintain the status quo.

A comprehensive records management program won't prevent legal action, but it can make you much more prepared. GRM Document Management's eDiscovery services are designed to do just that by preserving your records in a secure online repository. The records are indexed and placed into an easily searchable format.

Part two of AIIM's series, Top 10 Excuses for Not Considering Document Management, discusses the subject of litigation and eDiscovery.

Hospital Workers Sharing Your Records?

The medical industry is drifting toward complete digitization. In fact, President Obama's goal is to have all medical records in a digital database by 2014. Whether or not this goal is realistic, digital medical records are the future.

According to a report by Scientific American, medical staff is at risk of inadvertently exposing patients' confidential information simply by using file sharing networks at work.

Using software written specifically for scanning Internet-based peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks, Eric Johnson, an operations management professor at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business in Hanover, N.H., and colleagues recently found confidential medical files, involving thousands of people, including patient billing records and insurance claims containing Social Security numbers, birth dates, medical diagnoses and psychiatric evaluations. (The same type of information could have been found without the special search software, although not as quickly because the researchers would have had to search individual computers on each of the P2P networks they visited.)

P2P users—there were an estimated 10 million of them in 2007, according to an earlier study by Johnson and colleagues—generally think that, because they're just looking to share music, the rest of the files on their computers are off-limits, says Alan Paller, director of research for the SANS Institute. "But there are no defenses once you let someone inside your computer."

Johnson points out that the shift to digital health care records will not be easy. "The (Obama) administration is moving toward a national electronic health care records system," he says, "but the transition is going to be painful. It's not until they understand how to secure these records that we'll be safe." (The new chief privacy officer will have to not only secure new digital medical records but also promote ways to protect existing data.) The nirvana is to store this information in high-end databases systems that are well-secured, rather than in spreadsheets, e-mail and Word documents that can be left on someone's PC, he says, adding: If this cannot be done soon, hospitals and other health care organizations will need to restrict employee access to patient data.

Records in the News - Privacy

There is one issue that is at the core of GRM Document Management's business. It's at the core of our customers' businesses and it's at the core of our customers' customers' concerns...privacy.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has apparently admitted he doesn't believe in privacy. The revelation came from a tweet from a New York Times tech blogger, Nick Bilton. He attributed the quote to an off the record chat with a Facebook employee.

If it's true, I find it a little ironic that Zuckerberg's apparent invasion of privacy came via a social networking site.

It's doubtful that many people will remove their Facebook accounts after reading this. According to Facebook statistics, the site has about 400 million active users, more than the population of the entire US. For millions of people, the site is a social and or business necessity.

There are steps everyone can make to protect their privacy, even on Facebook. As a general rule of thumb, don't post anything you wouldn't want your boss, your mother, your neighbor or your local prison convict to know. Go to your privacy settings and make absolutely everything private. This won't prevent Facebook from selling your hobbies, likes and dislikes, but it will limit the amount of information that's floating out in cyberspace.

Like Facebook, GRM Document Management is a repository of information. Unlike, Facebook, protecting our customers' privacy is our number one priority. Our customers' data is disguised, either by digital encryption or by bar coded boxes. Our centers have the industry's strictest security equipment and procedures. Our personnel are required to be background checked and to have random drug tests. Our customers' privacy is guaranteed.

Iron Mountain Net Income Down

There are many signs that the economy is in recovery mode, but news today was mixed for our industry. Iron Mountain, the world's largest records management company, saw a decrease in net income of 11% for the first quarter of the year. Much of the decrease is being attributed to a higher tax rate. Revenues were actually up 7%.

Overall, I think the news is good for GRM Document Management and for our industry. The fact that revenues were up speaks volumes. Companies are generating more records and are taking steps to secure their records, both paper and digital, by moving them offsite.