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Categories Archives: Document Scanning and Imaging

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.

You Only Have to Keep Personnel Records for How Long?

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Pop quiz: How long do you have to keep personnel records?

Correct answer: Only one year for former employees. That’s it.

Most executives are surprised by the short amount of time such files need to be kept after the termination of an employee. What seems to fall under a simple disposal schedule is often complicated by the fact that old personnel files may contain records pertaining to defined benefit plans or even health records, which should be kept in separate files.

For most businesses, the stored volume of old personnel records is inconsequential when compared to the volume of other business records being stored–so they sit around gathering dust. But have no doubt: Old personnel records can be the most dangerous files in a company’s possession.

Years ago, the most frequently filed lawsuit against a business was for product liability. That’s changed in the last dozen years or so. Now, the most frequent action taken against companies has been for adverse employment action. In particular, retaliation complaints filed with the EEOC during 2010 have increased 99% over 1997.

Whether it’s the EEOC or plaintiff’s attorney that reviews or handles a matter pertaining to employment action, you can bet the first thing reviewed will be all stored personnel files. Why? Their objective is to try to demonstrate a pattern and practice of discrimination.

When it comes to actions pertaining to personnel practices, I’ve heard there are only two kinds of employers: Those who have already dealt with personnel inquiries or lawsuits already and those who will have to deal with such disruptions in the future. Which category does your company fall under?

The best way to help you defend yourself against false allegations pertaining to employment practices is to limit the volume of old records you have in storage. In the physical world, doing this is quite difficult and very time consuming. In the digital world, deleting old personnel records is as easy as the click of the mouse. BIS’ imaging application, BIS4HR, can help you do a better job of controlling your stored volume of old personnel records quickly and effectively.

If you’d like to learn more about BIS4HR, please give me a call: (513) 721-FILE.

Staying Ahead of the Curve

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Back in February, I mentioned the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. One of the key components of this legislation requires businesses to maintain their payroll records indefinitely.

In the physical world, this requirement can become expensive and time-consuming as more and more records accumulate. In the digital world, not only is keeping the records easier, but so is maintaining them.

I predict that at some point judicial clarification of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act will better define and enable businesses to dispose of payroll records after a specified timeframe.

Companies who act now to digitize their payroll records will be in a much better position when this clarification is handed down.

Our imaging application, called BIS4HR™, was developed specifically for HR records. With this application, making changes to disposal schedules is quick and easy. In the physical world, such changes are much more difficult because someone has to touch each box containing the physical records. In the digital world, records can be deleted with the click of a mouse.

Deleting old records is not the only thing made easier by BIS4HR™. Once records are digitized, they can also be retrieved with the click of a mouse. I know when I am writing performance reviews, I want to see what I put in previous reviews. When we had all paper personnel files, I had to physically retrieve the material I wanted to review. Now I can use BIS4HR™ to view what I want from anywhere in the world via the Internet.