Grandma’s dining room table, the fake Christmas tree, motorcycle parts, and all of the clothes we hope to fit back into—these are all great things to store in a Public Storage unit. Despite the convenient 24/7 access, the free first month, and the friends you can meet at the units, your firm’s confidential information should not be there. Information, especially paper records, deserve special attention. There are also some risks associated with this storage method that don’t include privacy breaches.

1. Identity Thefts and Accidental Privacy/Confidentiality Breach

In today’s world, a unit full of medical records or boxes of tax forms are more valuable to the bad guys than pallets of flat screen TVs and fur coats. The bad guys know that these files are golden on the open market and your lock will hardly slow them down. Some units have common, open ceilings. They may share an access door, or are merely located behind a fence. Many of us are on the hook to report or notify clients/patients when a potential breach occurs just as much as actual violations. Resolution of these issues has been known to cost firms up to $200 per incident.

2. Environmental Risk – Neighbors, Fire/Sprinklers, Floods

You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your neighbors. The same goes for self-storage units. It has been reported in the news across the country that many units are used for meth labs, makeshift apartments, gambling, and/or party hangouts. Other neighbors may be upstanding citizens or business operators; yet, still expose your information to unnecessary risk, such as landscapers with gas tools. Still more, some units are built in unacceptable areas such as flood plains, grandfathered in contrary to modern fire codes and may either share or not even have sprinklers.

3. Unproductive Organization and Retrieval Process

With very few remarkable (and expensive) exceptions, a storage unit simply can’t be used to effectively manage information at the file level. Full boxes stand a chance of being found, and re-found after use, but files hardly ever make it back to their home cartons. If you think they are where they are supposed to be, but haven’t inspected lately, you may be in for a surprise.
Without extensive shelving, planned growth, labels, etc… it can be a nightmare to organize in this manner.

4. Costly Workers Comp Injuries

The average banker box weighs 35 pounds and tends to get crushed after 4 to 5 of them are piled on top of each other. In order to maximize the value of the rent for a unit, people tend to pile them “high and tight”. Extracting a file or box from this Jenga setup can be extraordinarily dangerous to anyone—let alone an inexperienced office worker. Even worse, if the staff members responsible for “fetching” records are not covered by health insurance or workers comp, like volunteers or interns, you may be opening yourself up to all sorts of expensive claims. This risk alone is enough to justify transferring from a public storage unit to a professional records management facility.

5. Detours that Cause Lost Productivity

In the process of discussing the risks of using a public storage unit, it is quite common to hear that staff members tasked with the responsibility of “fetching” records are not happy about it. And, since there is little supervision and a lack of other volunteers/victims, the folks heading to the unit give themselves a nice little break in the day to go shopping, meet friends for coffee, schedule quick doctor appointments and more—in exchange for their efforts. Admittedly, others are willing to do this work on their way home or into work. But, these good boys and girls are the exception.

Biased Summary

Corodata has made a living for over two decades rescuing firms from storage units based on the cost to store the material alone, but these factors push the value we provide into outer space. We know that many of you chose a storage unit because you didn’t know about our industry, and we accept the blame for that. It is never too late to make this right, and we’ll get you out of there without so much as you lifting a finger after unlocking the garage door. We look forward to helping you like we have so many before!

We have been peppered with messages about paper wiping the earth of its trees for years, and trained to feel guilty about keeping paper around. However, there is a lesser-publicized point of view—where back scanning of archived paper is actually much harder on the environment. Read on for a great green debate on the topic of keeping your paper archives versus scanning them.

Corodata offers both Paper and Digital storage, so this message is delivered with no intended bias as a discussion featuring a lesser publicized view of the topic as it directly relates to our industry. Facts in this area are hard to verify given how politicized and commercialized the argument is on so many fronts.

The Case for Paper

Without getting romantic about the feel of a book or making jokes at the expense of computer challenged friends—for many reasons—paper is still a very important material for most commercial enterprises.

Some people still like to use it, others still have to

Whether it is invoices, QC records, employee applications, medical visit notes, purchase orders, contracts or just receipts for expense reports, paper is used each and every day by all of us. Of course there is an electronic alternative to all of these uses, but we are not all ready or equipped to pull this off, so we have to make due for now. Recognizing this reality, the question becomes what to do with after its primary use is absorbed – namely, how do we store and potentially access later for review, audits and the like?

Paper mills are more responsible than ever

Lastly, paper mills are not simply ripping through forests until they meet water. They are responsibly replanting and continuously harvesting this land, as a crop more than a resource. Certainly, there is energy used to do this and must be factored into the debate.

The paper has already been printed

To be blunt, the damage to the tree has already been done. Scanning at this point wastes energy and resources, such as coal, electricity to power up scanners, pc and server usage plus all the parts, materials and deliveries used to manufacturer these machines, and lots of money. Scanning can run up to 10 times more than the lifecycle costs to add, store, and destroy a carton, and is paid up front hurting cash flow.

The Case for Scanning

Limiting Scanning to simply the Green debate may arbitrarily diminish the other values that scanning brings to an organization. There are a handful of exceptions to this stance that may apply to your firm.

Information is instantly available

Our experience tells us that organizations require access to information on an incredibly shrinking scale over time. The highest, yet still not very high, retrieval rates are in the first twelve months, with rates plummeting thereafter until the retention period has lapsed. The argument that scanning keeps vehicles off the road, saving gas, simply doesn’t hold water (or gas) in this case.

Anywhere in the world

Easy access and redundancy are great reasons to scan. Real time conversion of paper to digital for workflow purposes can lead to some great efficiencies and productivity as well. This component of scanning is not to be ignored, but pretty weak as part of any green initiative given that the paper is required to start and always printed.

Recycling only works if paper is recycled

Once paper is created, it begins its defined lifecycle: it becomes printed material, and then sits—in a pile, file, or box–until it is needed. Paper can only give back to the earth again when it is no longer needed, and it is shred and recycled. It’s the perfect lifecycle if you will.

The long and short of it: the choice is yours

• Scanning can be a great solution and Corodata is here to help
• If scanning isn’t right for you, there is a great chance our traditional records management solution is a great fit.
• Scan on Demand retrieval makes a great hybrid tool for many as well.
• Tell us where you stand on this great debate

Riding shotgun alongside the huge increase in shopping (both online and in stores), the crazy schedules many keep, and the increased communication between friends and family is one major hassle that no one deserves – to have your identity stolen.

The identity thieves are keenly aware of how our behavior changes, when our guard is down, and when to strike. They prey on our good mood, our giving nature, and the massive avalanche of commerce and communication taking place that no one seems to be able to manage.

A great article from Identity Guard highlights the methods used by thieves, some ways to avoid these Grinches, and offers some scary statistics. In just the much sung about twelve days before Christmas, nearly a quarter million Americans will suffer from identity theft.

Just a few of the horrible tricks that you should watch out for:

Read our 4 Things You Can Do at Work to Prevent ID Theft guide.

Perhaps no topic is more discussed in the information management world these days than Retention Scheduling. Digital data is being created at an exponential rate and the costs to store, manage, and maintain it are growing even faster in some cases. Hard copy inventories need just as much, if not more, attention. With the exception of a few legislated industries, people everywhere are asking, “When can we destroy this material without getting into trouble? How do we establish the right schedule? HOW and WHO will execute our plan?”

Timely (so as to avoid excess storage costs), proper (for privacy and security reasons) and legally defensible retention scheduling, whether for paper or electronic data, is a challenge for organizations regardless of firm size. Making matters worse, most of us are left to our best judgment and hope that the decisions made will hold up in court, in practice, and most importantly- in business with clients and prospects. If you ask yourself, “What would a negative news story cost our firm in terms of new business?” – the size of this issue explodes.

How do we establish the right schedule

Before you Execute the Plan

The most logical, yet sometimes most problematic place to start a retention process is at the beginning of the information’s lifecycle. Only if you have a great record of what type of information is in your inventory, can you expect to make sound, lasting decisions regarding its lifecycle. If you are lacking this critical detail about items in storage already, you will want to ask for help. Vendors, such as Corodata, can help in many ways regardless of the location of the information. A database, rather than a simple log, of details that includes robust query features makes this portion far more manageable.

Once you have your plan in place, complete with inventory details, a legitimate retention plan is on its way. Implementation is now a realistic, annual goal.

The Challenges of Creating a Proper Plan

The Answer: Make Your Own Rules & Stick To It

The only truly defensible retention policy is one that is written, practiced regularly, developed from sound (if not 100% accurate) advice, and part of a firm’s regular common practice. Records of training, an audit trail of performance, and destruction being done in a timely manner according to the schedule are all parts of a sound defense. Your adversaries are going to look for inconsistent, “convenient” failures as a way to back you into a corner.

Avoid injury, lost productivity, and save your group money and risks.

Corodata is ready to help you with this process:
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