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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Notes and memos need a RRP, too

A significant number of asbestos liability suits were brought against Owens Corning, the Toledo-based manufacturer of insulation materials. During the course of these cases, discovery demands from the plaintiffs turned up large quantities of notes and memos dating from the 1940s and 1950s. Though these records could have been legally destroyed during the intervening decades, once they became subject to discovery, they had to be preserved and made available to plaintiffs.

The discovery of these damaging 40- and 50-year-old documents created an insurmountable obstacle for the company’s defense team. As a result of the tidal wave of asbestos litigation, Owens Corning was forced to establish a fund valued at $5.2 billion for those injured by the company’s asbestos. Owens Corning eventually re-emerged from bankruptcy in 2006.

Tough lesson learned

Owens Corning learned a tough and expensive lesson too late. If they had an RRP and followed it, all of the notes and memos from the 40s and 50s ago would have been long-since destroyed. BIS is in the business of helping customer control their records regardless of their format, paper, electronic, or even film.

To get our help, call us at (513) 721-FILE. We’d love to be of assistance.

A well-known company failed to consistently destroy stored documents according to its perfectly acceptable RRP. When this organization saw trouble looming, it tried to go back and fix this. But by then it was too late.

Case study: Arthur Andersen, LLP vs. United States, 544 U.S. 696 (2005)

A Records Retention Policy must be enforced

Arthur Andersen, LLP, was Enron’s accounting firm, and had in place an unenforced RRP. When Andersen’s management saw that Enron-based litigation resulting from an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission was imminent, it directed employees to comply with their previously unenforced RRP. As a result, an untold number of documents were destroyed.

In May 2002, the United States filed criminal charges against Andersen for obstructing the SEC investigation based on its destruction of documents. What would have normally been a legitimate destruction of documents under the RRP became prohibited due to Anderson’s knowledge of the looming SEC investigation. Because the charge was a felony, and felons may not be auditors of public companies, Andersen was forced to relinquish its CPA license, sealing its fate.

After an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which affirmed a lower Court’s ruling, Andersen sought and was granted a final appeal of its criminal guilt before the U.S. Supreme Court. Although Andersen won the appeal and its criminal charges were reversed because of defective jury instructions, it was too late to save the accounting firm. The damage of the lower Court’s rulings forced Andersen—a company that began 2002 as a $9 billion business—to shut down.

Sometimes it’s just not enough

Just having a RRP won’t suffice. You need to regularly follow your policy and comply with your own disposal schedules. BIS is in the business of helping customers understand and effectively manage their records—all of their records— paper or electronic. 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.

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.

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.

But I prefer to focus on disposal rather than on retention.

There are only two reasons to maintain business files:

1. For legal reasons–because you are required to do so by federal, state, or local regulations. You have no choice–you must achieve compliance.
2. For administrative purposes–to help you run a better business. Records worth keeping can help you remember how you made decisions (the spreadsheets you used), what purchases have been made (frequency, quantities, price, etc. from purchase orders), and what employment actions you have taken (from personnel files), etc.
   These help you make good decisions in the future.

If the only reasons to retain records are to comply with regulations run a better business, isn’t it logical that all records should have defined “lifespans”?

In terms of regulated files, you should keep them only as long as you are required to do so.

You get no gold stars for keeping records beyond their mandated disposal schedule.

As for administrative purposes, what value is there in a 25-year-old purchase order (or, for that matter, even a 5-year-old purchase order)? As records age, they become less and less valuable. Think of it this way: “Old is cold.”

The sooner you dispose of unnecessary administrative files, the better off you’re likely to be–especially in the event of a lawsuit or an audit. The less stored material you have, the less there is to be used against you.

So when it comes to business records, remember: keep them only has long as you have to and dispose of them as soon as you can.