Whiteboard Animation Records Management Solutions

Monthly Newsletter on Identity Theft & Lawsuits: How it can affect you and what to do about it

Welcome to Offsite's Monthly Newsletter! Here you will learn ways to help your company safeguard it's most important asset, it's data and save money in the process! View this email in your browser Brian Olson & Gerd Poppinga Owners of Offsite Data Depot Identity Theft & Lawsuits: How it can affect you and what to do about it Whether your concern is searching through them, erasing them, recovering them, or organizing them, Offsite Data Depot can help you. We are your local experts in data storage, document scanning, email filtering, online backups, climate controlled vault storage and shredding. We service all of northern Nevada and have many options when it comes to records storage and management. We are here for you!     In our Offsite Newsletter/E-Blast We have info on Identity Theft/Lawsuits and what to do about it! You'll have access to our social sites found at the bottom of the page Our next newsletter will be focused on Office efficiency and how to make it work for your company These doc storage mistakes could mean big trouble! Almost any piece of paper that goes through your business may be a target for discovery in a legal suit or identity theft and it’s getting harder to figure out which seemingly routine papers you can safely toss. Most companies now have some system for archiving electronic documents, including email, at least to some extent. But paper documents are often dumped into file folders or heaven forbid, the trash. Most companies have shelves, even rooms overloaded with such records. Q: What is the main legal aspect of document management that most companies miss? A: If your company gets into a lawsuit, there’s a good chance that there will be some kind of discovery process, where you will be asked to produce all relevant documents relating to the issues in question. In recent years, courts have allowed plaintiffs to make major demands on companies with so-called “fishing expeditions.” And it’s not just Fortune 100 companies that have this problem. It’s really important that corporate documents be readily and speedily retrievable. That’s a good reason why all your paper documents should be either in electronic form and in searchable format, or in s secure storage facility.  The way to do this is by setting up procedures for identifying important documents and converting them into searchable electronic format, using scanners or multifunctional with a software product like those Offsite offers, which will help you convert, direct, and save the documents. Depending on the size of your firm and the paper you generate, you may then want to add a high-end document management system.. Q: How do I prove that I haven’t altered or hidden key documents? A: There should be documented set of procedures, and proof that it is regularly used in an orderly and predictable manner. You need to show that the untampered-with “original instance” of each document is what’s available. The next step involves keeping records of who handles and has access to documents, including paper documents. That means controlling workflow. Users should be logged in when they use a copier, multifunctional, or scanner, just like they are logged into a PC. More and more copier-multifunction let you ask users to log in with a password or authenticate using an access card. Combined with the right software, this can let you know who is accessing which documents, who is archiving them, and who is copying, printing, or emailing them. Faxing is a special issue. Companies are more and more turning away from using standard standalone faxes, which are hard to control access to and log activity from. Scan-to-email, properly logged in, is one solution. Network fax, where incoming faxes are routed to email and where documents like Word files are send via fax lines from the desktop is another trackable solution. Q: Is it worth the trouble and money to put these steps in place? A: Discovery can be a major time and money sink, even if the discovery turns up nothing to help the plaintiff. Assigning personnel from your company means that they stop doing whatever else they are doing — and searching through (confidential) files is not something you want to entrust to casual employees, who might not even know what they are looking for. Having junior attorneys or paralegals from your law firm do the discovery is certain to be even more expensive. Furthermore, the possibility of major fines for having missing and inaccessible documents can be substantial. That can put the company in jeopardy of fines or lost lawsuits. For most companies, the payoff in setting up clear digital conversion and archiving systems is worth the effort, simply to reduce risk and costly catch-up.   What's the Solution? Offsite provides comprehensive, policy-based records management services Offsite implements compliance-grade Records Management programs for its customers. Offsite’s Records Management services provide: All the features and benefits of Offsite’s Records Storage services, plus Classification, retention and destruction management per customer schedule 24/7 consolidated view and access via secure web portal Management reporting to ensure compliance, monitor services and control costs Expert account staff available to help you manage records consistently The minimizing of Identity Theft by shredding and scanning your records in a timely manner Stay tuned . . . .  Our next Newsletter/E-Blast will focus on Office efficiency and how to make it work for your company Which do you prefer, a hallway cramped full of boxes or a professionally managed records center where you can access your documents easily and store in a secure location? Video on Offsite's Records Management Services Our mailing address is: 550 Mallory Way Carson City, NV. 89701 Bus: 775-888-9933 Fax: 775-888-9180 Email: sales@offsitedatadepot.com unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences Copyright 2013 Offsite Data Depot LLC, All rights reserved. You are receiving this newsletter because you signed up or opted in directly. This makes you awesome. Share Tweet Share +1 Forward to Friend

2014: The Year of Records Storage & Management

As 2014 is upon us, I would like to take a minute and think back on the somewhat crazy year that was 2013. While a number of good things happened throughout the course of the year, that’s not what sticks in my head. Maybe it’s because our duties are helping businesses keep their information safe through offsite records storage, but what flashes through my mind when I think about 2013 are fires, earthquakes and floods, all the kinds of things that can stop a business in its tracks.

Between hurricanes like Sandy, huge fires out west, powerful tornadoes and fierce spring storms, the past year was a banner one for disasters, and that means that 2014 and the upcoming years are the perfect time for businesses and organizations to take a good, hard look at their physical records and decide what they can live without. For most companies, the answer is none of it, and thus begins the road that will inevitably lead them to offsite records storage.

Records management is often a forgotten aspect of business, particularly in small and midsize businesses, which nobody seems to think about until something goes wrong. This thought process invariably leads to significant issues, as many of the important pieces of paper get buried under boxes in some random storage closet where it could take days to find them when they are finally needed. Or even worse, the records get left in some completely unsecure location where they get damaged or stolen.

This may all seem like a minor crisis from the outside, but jobs can be put on the line when some of these important documents go missing. There have been many studies that have investigated what happened to businesses after suffering a major loss of business data. These surveys found that 43 percent of those businesses were impacted immediately; 51 percent were closed within two years and only 6 percent remained after that point.

That’s what makes offsite records storage such a promising endeavor. The process enables companies to entrust their documents for storage in a completely secure location, safe from issues like natural disasters, sabotage, leaky pipes and indoor fires. And by effectively classifying each document, a company will know where they are and what they relate to. Those stored records are then always available on short notice should the company ever require them, and there’s even an option for retrieval through an electronic format when time is truly of the essence.

With everything that’s happened this past year, and with the next year not looking any calmer, now is the time to stop worrying about records storage and put your trust in the professionals. A theft or natural disaster is a tough thing to manage through, but it’s a little bit easier when you know your important information is just a call or click away. Let us do the worrying for you!