Bernstein Data Understands the Challenges Companies Face with Records Management.

Finding and Managing Needles in Haystacks

Personnel files…invoices…employment contracts…financial statements…
Running an organization involves dozens of different types of records and information.
How they are handled throughout their life –information lifecycle management – can have a significant financial and operational impact, either positive or negative. Managing records effectively also helps ensure compliance with various legal and regulatory requirements.

Minimizing Risk and Complexity

An effective Records Management program should track information from creation until its ultimate disposition. Key program elements include a Records Retention Schedule, Defensible Disposal Policy, and associated procedures for information lifecycle management. Without these elements, a business risks serious and costly violations of state or federal laws and regulations, including industry-specific rules such as HIPAA standards for healthcare. Failing to consistently follow a Records Management program means the organization is out of compliance with its own policies and subject to legitimate legal scrutiny by the courts in litigation. No organization would knowingly choose this weak position.

Without a good Records Management program, organizations often default to keeping information indefinitely, including physical and/or electronic records. This can lead to unsustainably high storage expenses, including physical records retained in off-site storage and/or electronic records retained on the premises or in the cloud. Electronic records, while initially cheaper than paper, present their own unique challenges for retrieval and accessibility. And as the amount of data grows in any format, finding that one desired piece – the proverbial needle in the haystack – becomes more complex, costly, and time-consuming.

Managing the Information Life Cycle

How long should company records and information be retained? When and how do I dispose of information that no longer needs to be retained to run the business or meet legal requirements or regulatory obligations?

Defensibly disposing of records and information in the normal course of business is one of the key challenges most companies face. If you do not know how long you are required by law, or obligated by regulatory standards, to retain information it is nearly impossible to know when you can defensibly dispose of it.

Similarly, if you do not have the processes and technology in place to support locating and cataloging records and information, how can you know where the information is being stored to effectively manage its life cycle? Records Management programs work to solve these challenges, helping ensure outside obligations are met along with appropriate internal policies, with processes and guidance to enable the retention, retrieval, and timely disposal of records and information.