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Why don’t more companies image their records?

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It’s an important question. There are good reasons why an organization should or should not image their records. We can think of three reasons in favor of document imaging:

1. It’s about access. Any record that will be accessed repeatedly should be imaged. This provides users the ability to view a document on their own computer screen without having to go to a file cabinet to retrieve the paper version (or the need to request a box out of storage).

2. It’s about sharing. Some documents and/or forms are used by different people in different locations — each need to have real-time access. Having digitized documents makes them quickly and efficiently available through an imaging system to any authorized user from any place in the world.

3. It’s about time. It takes about 20-30 years before imaging pays for itself. Any records that are going to be disposed of in less than about 20 years should probably not be imaged (unless they are going to be accessed frequently or they need to be shared by many people in numerous locations). If records are going to storage for 30 or more years, they should be imaged as soon as possible. The sooner the records are imaged, the sooner they will start to pay for themselves. While there is nothing more economical for storage of records than boxes of paper on a shelf, after about 30 years, imaging becomes more economical.

Once you made the decision to digitize your records, you’ll then need to decide where those images will reside. We would strongly like to argue the case for storing imaged documents in a cloud. Not only are imaged files large, but they clog up local servers using valuable hard drive space and memory. In addition, it’s important to keep in mind that in 30 years time, technology will have evolved and the formatting of your imaged documents might become a problem.

Hardware and Software Will Evolve

Think about this: It wasn’t so long ago that some of us can still remember 8″ floppy disks that were truly floppy. Then came 5 1/4″ floppy disks quickly followed by the 3.5″ disk. You can’t buy any of these disks anymore and if you have one good luck getting the information off of them. In fact you can’t even get a floppy disk drive on a computer without placing a special order. Sooner or later the same thing will happen to CD-Roms and even USB drives or “thumb drives”.

You can take it to the bank: all systems evolve – Windows 1.0 came out in 1982. In a short 30 year time frame, we can count 13 versions of Windows leading us to today to Windows 7.  By storing the image files in a cloud, the technological evolution and your ability to view your documents in the future becomes the responsibility of the cloud host and not your company.

Many of us have had the unfortunate experience of not being able to open a document that was created  in Office ’93.  If you take the time to image your files, you must take the time to make sure you’ll be able to easily access them in the future. For that reason it’s really important to store imaged files in the cloud.

To learn more about how BIS can assist you with your document imaging needs, please give us a call at 513-721-FILE. We’d love to help.

PaperLESS Office?

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I heard it said once there is no business transaction of any importance that’s not followed from start to finish by a piece of paper.

Is a “paperless” office even possible? Certainly not in today’s world. We all sit at desks covered with paper even as we are all conscientiously trying to use less paper. While we might not be able to eliminate paper in our offices anytime soon, we can continue to reduce the amount of paper we use. I call this becoming more paperLESS. So, what can you do today to help your company boost productivity by reducing the reliance on paper?

This is what we know: We all have lots and lots of paper on our desks and most of it will end up being shredded and NOT retained for future use. That’s because almost all of our paper documents were “born digital” in MS-Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Dynamics, Peachtree, etc. If we need an old record, we simply print it again.

The problem is moving from offices filled with paper to offices that are more paperLESS. Many people try to accomplish this by using a multifunction copier to create pdf files. But then they have no easy way to organize these files for access and retrieval.

True imaging systems allow records to be organized with any number of indexes. For example, customer invoices can be indexed by invoice number, vendor number, P.O. number, date, etc. This way you are able retrieve a specific invoice record by number. You can retrieve all the invoices paid on a particular P.O.; or you can instantly see all the invoices received from a particular vendor during a particular period.

True imaging systems like BISscan™  allow emails, faxes, and other records born digitally to be stored in their native mode (i.e. Word, Excel, etc.) so they can be printed later.

Isn’t that much better than printing documents only to  “pdf” them, and then shred what  have been scanned. Thankfully, there is a better way! BIS provides document imaging solutions that cut costs, save time, and reduce risk. Not only will you eliminate the stacks and stacks of paper that clog your office, you will be able to provide better service to your own customers.

If you want to know more about document imaging, call us at 513-721-FILE; we’d love to help.

 

The Value of a Cross-Indexed Storage System

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Following your Records Retention Policy (RRP) to a “T” can get you into trouble.

Once a company is involved in litigation, all relevant records must be preserved, regardless of the company’s RRP. Having a properly cross-indexed storage system provides a necessary tool to identify all relevant documents.

Case study: Trigon Insurance Co. v. United States, 204 F.R.D. 277 (E.D. Va., Richmond Dist. 2001)

Trigon Insurance Company sued the federal government for its failure to allow certain tax deductions resulting from lost contracts. To defend their case, the government hired litigation consultants, some of which were brought in as expert witnesses.

Because some of the reports entered as evidence were ghostwritten by litigation consultants, Trigon sought discovery of draft documents exchanged between the government and its consultants [by way of Fed. R., Civ. Pro 26(a)(2), which required the production of all materials reviewed by testifying experts.]

Following your RRP during litigation

Unfortunately for the government, the consultants had followed their business’ RRP and had destroyed the draft documents as they had reached their disposal dates. Trigon sought sanctions against the government for spoilation of evidence (i.e., the destruction or alteration of evidentiary materials).

The court held the government had sufficient notice that the documents were relevant to the litigation at hand and construed the document destruction as intentional destruction of evidence. As a result, a strongly prejudicial inference was allowed, which negatively colored the credibility of the expert witnesses. The court further held the government had a duty to preserve the evidence (despite its Record Retention Policy) which, by destruction, crippled the ability of Trigon to cross-examine the witnesses.

As a direct result of this decision, a subsequent case involving the same parties, Trigon Ins. Co. v. United States, 234 F. Supp 2d 592 (E.D. Va., Richmond Dist. 2002), led to a judgement of nearly $180,000 in favor of Trigon.

Cross-indexed is the key

Having a properly cross-indexed storage system would have made it much easier to identify and locate all relevant documents related to this case prior to the destruction schedule specified in the consultant’s RRP. BIS is in the business of helping you manage all aspects of your Records Retention Policy to help ensure costly errors don’t happen.

Does this sound like a records management service your company could benefit from? Call us at (513) 721-FILE. We’d love to help.

How a Records Retention Policy Can Save Your Company Money

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Let’s be honest. At some point in the future, even if you have never been sued before, it is more likely than not that your company will be involved in a lawsuit.

Knowing that’s the case, are you prepared? Having a comprehensive Records Retention Policy (RRP) covering all types of records may help you avoid losing a lawsuit and subsequently costing your company hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.

Case in point: Hollingsworth v. Time Warner Cable, 168 Ohio App.3d 658, 2006-Ohio-4903.

Patti Hollingsworth worked as an audit coordinator for Time Warner Cable from 1989 until she was fired in 2002. In her last few months of employment, Hollingworth suffered from chronic sinusitis, entitling her to time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). During her leave, she became pregnant and a short time later was terminated — allegedly because of her poor job performance. Hollingsworth sued, asserting pregnancy discrimination under Title VII and discrimination and retaliation under FMLA.

No paper trail

At trial, Hollingsworth presented testimony that after the termination, Time Warner destroyed her error logs and erased her emails without reviewing them. Time Warner stated the error logs and emails were destroyed in accordance with its RRP. But testimony at the trial revealed Time Warner’s RRP contained no reference to error logs.

No choice but to pay up

Time Warner admitted that if they had this information it would have helped to prove the case one way or the other. By destroying the error logs and deleting Hollingsworth’s emails, Time Warner forced the jury to weigh the testimony of multiple witnesses in determining whether it had intentionally discriminated against Hollingsworth.

If the error logs and emails had been preserved, there would have been room for speculation. Without them, the jury believed Hollingsworth’s assertion that Time Warner had intentionally discriminated against her because she was pregnant and awarded her $576,812 in damages, legal fees, and back pay.

Plan ahead

BIS can help your company develop and implement a comprehensive Records Retention Policy. By working together with us, you can protect your company against lawsuits.

Does this sound like a records management service your company could benefit from? Call us at (513) 721-FILE.

Email and Your Records Retention Policy

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Do you know where your company stores old email? In the following case study, a major company didn’t even know which emails were being kept or where they were being kept.

Obviously, they weren’t following their Records Retention Policy (RRP) for email. In addition, stored email messages weren’t indexed, which resulted in the company’s inability to limit plaintiff’s discovery demands.

Case study: Boeing Sec. Litig.,  No. C97-1715Z (W.D. Wash. 1997) [This consolidated 13 individual class action suits] (Stipulation of Settlement of November 16, 2001, Exhibit B, Final Judgement and Order of Dismissal With Prejudice, Entered February 20,2002)

Just knowing where isn’t enough

Thirteen individual class action lawsuits from 1997 alleged securities fraud against aerospace manufacturer, Boeing. The case centered on the $4 billion loss in value of shares of common stock. Leading up to a merger with McDonnell Douglas, material misrepresentations and concealment of production problems were discovered.

During a deposition, a plaintiff’s attorney learned the company had warehoused approximately 14,000 email backup tapes in Washington, D.C. If the company had established and followed an RRP for email, this electronic data would have been legally destroyed prior to the filing of the lawsuits.

The plaintiffs issued a discovery request for production of these tapes. Boeing countered by trying to place limits on which tapes had to be produced. Unfortunately for Boeing, this effort had the effect of revealing to the court where the remainder of Boeing’s email backups were warehoused at multiple international sites. To make matters worse, Boeing didn’t know what data was contained on which tape.

Boeing was ordered to restore all of the backup tapes at a tremendous cost, which led to the production of enough damaging evidence that the company settled the class action suits for $92.5 million in cash, among other reparations.

Lesson learned too late

If Boeing had regularly followed a RRP which included email; and had that RRP detailed the location and specific contents of retained materials, this evidence might never have been discoverable. BIS is in the business of helping you understand and effectively manage your record —including your email. We can assist your company in establishing an effective and cost-saving Records Retention Policy.

Does this sound like a records management service your company could benefit from? Call us at (513) 721-FILE. We’d love to help.