The 4 things that you must do to improve document accessibility

Have you ever gone to a different location to access a document?  Maybe a dingy basement or a stuffy storage space?  We have heard it all, believe us (rats anyone?).  Let’s take a look at what impact the accessibility of your records has on you and the 4 ways that we can improve the process.

Let’s start with the impact of inaccessible records.  Specifically, how retaining records in a physical format kills an organizations ability to truly have real-time access to their documents.

You know there is an issue when:

–        Only one person at a time can access a record.

–        Records format only support one location.

–        There is no way to find what document you stored.

–        You are continually asking yourself, where did we put that record?

This is exactly the situation a local Indiana school corporation we visited found themselves in.  Over the years they had grown and currently had multiple building in their corporation…preschools, grade schools, high schools.  All the of the blueprints were stored in the bus barn.  They had over 500 blueprints from the new building, old building, and the building that had been expanded upon.

Because of the silo of retention for these blueprints, they were only able to access them while at the bus barn.  A new official at the school found this situation ridiculous as he attempted to review all of the facilities under his management.  He would have to call to the bus barn and have a copy of the correct print sent to him via his phone.  The situation was exaggerated because there was only one individual who knew how to find the appropriate record.

Even though this situation was at a school corporation it is replayed in organizations everywhere.  Here are some best practices that you can put in place today:

• Provide immediate, necessary access.
• Reduce the number of silos where records are stored.
• Enforce uniformity in the naming of the records.
• Eliminate the subject matter

To avoid finding yourself in a situation like this school corporation, find the bottlenecks in the accessibility of your records from silos, to the gatekeeper, to the appropriate keys.  This process is simplified through technology since it was the manual intervention and monitoring that got you there in the first place

Records are required, they just don’t have to be a risk.  Contact us to see how we can help you.