The Demand For Document & Record Management As well As Archiving
Introduction Enterprises are in possession of huge amounts of raw data which flows throughout daily. Some of it is needed, most of it is not. Each document for whatever purpose has its own shelf life and after a while, it is simply not needed for active use anymore. This type of Data needs to be Archived & Properly Managed.
In this article, we will discuss the components and benefits of archiving as well as managing raw data in order to become more productive and proactive.
What is Archiving?
When Data ceases to serve its purpose as an actively used resource and is now only needed for historical, legal or even auditing reasons, it is transferred to a different type of storage mediums which are better suited as Archives. It is usually an important part of a long cycle which Data usually goes through, especially in an enterprise level environment. For one it is separated to different medium types in order to free up space where Data is needed actively and in shorter amounts of time. This boosts the overall performance and productivity of a company when File Archiving Solutions are employed.
There are of course many reasons which explain why you should Archive information at all. These as previously mentioned can be of a Legal Nature, needed in order to prove something in the future, Auditing to make sure that there is a good Data Retention policy at place or even historical reasons for the company. It’s not simple knowing if some type of information is not going to be needed ever again.
A Good Document Management System
When archiving or even simply storing certain amounts of Data, it’s an awful experience to go through if you need to retrieve something that is not organized from a raw pool of information. Luckily things such as DMS exist which are short for Document Management Systems . This type of technology provides an entity with a better solution for the overall management of resources by indexing, organizing, filtering everything in a coherent manner. This usually also includes keeping track who modified which resource and track different versions of a document throughout its life cycle. The life cycle of a management process is usually an easy way for information to be reviewed and linked.
Basically it comes down to what is reusable or not. At the end of a project the users can sign off if certain documents will be used again recently or if they are no longer needed for a fairly big amount of time. This means that each document depending on its timeline can be sorted in to specific repositories, where they actually belong and can get the best usage.
Why Records Management
In order to have a clean maintenance of records throughout the organization for resources and provide valuable data concerning when those records were created, how they were classified or sorted and all the while taking a great concern for their security and eventual destruction is how good Record Management is done. There are different Records Management Policies, but one which stands out is the following:
- All Records Need To Be Listed & Classified
- A Schedule Needs To Be Created For a Retention Time-Frame
- Which Records Should Be Stored & Which Converted
- Which Records are Actually Vital
- Information Disaster Prevention & Recovery
- Which Disposition Does a Specific Document Hold
This is one of the better cycles of various policies & procedures that can be invoked for Record Management.
Conclusion
While there is a subtle difference between Archiving & Backups, Records & Document and the like, the truth of it is, the better you are organized and have the right tools at your disposal the more constructive and cost effective your operation will be.