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How Should Offsite Storage be managed?
Home » Information Technology » Offsite Storage » How Should Offsite Storage be managed?Offsite storage, which is storage of critical documents at a location other than at the office or business site, should be limited to a secure location. The boss’s house is a better solution than in the basement of the office, but there are also much better solutions to offsite storage.
Document storage and retrieval companies range from those who only store hard copies of files and documents to those that also assist in digitizing those documents and making them available, with notice, via the web. Whatever way your business chooses for offsite storage, a corporate management policy of those documents and data must be implemented before allowing them to leave the premises.
Consistent labeling of all documents and data must be planned and followed. Researching the reliability of the document storage company and its facilities must be completed, and security measures within the company must be designed and followed in order to ensure that all the information contained in the stored files is kept confidential, safe, and available should it be needed. A planned retention and destruction schedule should be maintained for documents that will only be kept for a predetermined amount of time, and the method of destruction should be agreed upon before storing the documents.
There are document management companies, who specialize in construction of document management plans, who can assist you in setting up your company policies for this process. If you already have a document management plan in place but feel that it is inadequate for your current needs, these companies can also evaluate your plan and offer helpful suggestions for changes in policies.
More than anything else, offsite storage must be managed, not merely stored with an
out of sight, out of mindmentality. Offsite storage must be an active plan for maintaining irretrievable documents and data in the event of a catastrophic event.
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