Author: Crown Information Managment

Besides financial, physical, and human assets, every business relies on a fourth asset – information. Your company’s compliance management, risk management, and corporate governance have huge dependencies on the quality of your information management practices. Without proper systems and processes, managing your records and information may be akin to taming an insurmountable monster. However, hiring qualified Records and Information Management (RIM) professionals will benefit your business in more ways than you can imagine. 

The experts at Crown Information Management discuss the advantages of outsourcing your records management activities to an experienced information management company. 

Entrust Your Information Management Requirements to the Professionals

Records and Information Management is a science in itself. It is about defining and implementing policies, processes, systems and technology solutions to capture, access, store, secure, retrieve, use, or distribute any organizational records and information. As a business leader or owner, you may design your own protocols for coding, managing, or accessing the physical or digital records. However, partnering with RIM professionals goes a long way in ironing out inefficiencies, and easing your burden of records preservation and retrieval.

Here are some of the advantages of partnering with a SOC1, NAID AAA and PCI Certified company, such as Crown Information Management for your records and information management requirements:

1. Save Time and Resources: Instead of dedicating critical man-hours to their core job, your staff may often spend time in sorting, indexing and filing papers, or retrieving records from a storage facility. Our qualified RIM professionals use proven methods for classification and storage and provide speedy retrieval and delivery as and when you need any records. Additionally, we offer a scan on demand service, where we convert your required records into scanned images for immediate electronic delivery through secure channels. 
2. Improve Security: As a professional information management company, we maintain your records in our state-of-the-art storage facility in Winter Haven, FL, which meets the State of Florida Guidelines for managing your information. 

• We offer a secure, climate controlled environment to store your vital and valuable information that is equipped with an advanced fire suppression systems and a complex watershed system.
• We randomize the storage locations for your records throughout our facility in order to de-risk from unauthorized access or accidental damage. 
• We limit access to your records based on your pre-authorized security list.
• Sophisticated security systems and strict access controls make our premises a much safer option than self-storage units or your office storage facilities. 

3. Remain Compliant: Besides stringent access controls and tracking systems, we provide timely review reports that include retention scheduling as well as suggestions for records that you can dispose of. Our RIM professionals stay abreast of all regulations and industry-specific norms applicable to your business, ensuring that you remain compliant on both preservation and destruction of records. We can safely shred redundant records, hard drives, and digital media in our facilities.
4. Reduce Budgetary Pressures: Every business comes under continued pressure for reducing operating costs. Outsourcing your records management requirement means freeing up valuable real estate and spending less on resources, security, transportation, and moving equipment. 
5. Avoid Liabilities: Your own employees lifting or stacking heavy files and boxes could mean an increased risk of workplace injuries. Delays or an inability to produce required records for legal or audit queries could entail expensive fines or legal action. Relying on our RIM professionals will help you avoid such liabilities and protect your company’s brand reputation.
6. Improve Profitability: Easy and timely access to your records and information would mean you can make critical business decisions more efficiently and on-time. Investing in sophisticated information management systems and technology could translate into more business and improved profitability.
7. Boost Productivity: In-house records management can be a tedious task. From freeing up the time for your staff to eliminating the need for records storage space or infrastructure, we contribute to improved efficiencies and productivity in several different ways

• Our information management systems track your records with key indexing and barcodes, saving you valuable time on records retrieval and business decision making. 
• Through our web access information management system, you can review and monitor a digital listing of all your records, including detailed descriptions, date spans, titles, filing spans, and disposal dates.
• We also help you identify and purge duplicate records and establish a complete chain of custody in line with your access control requirements. 

Hire the qualified RIM professionals at Crown Information Management for all your information management needs. To learn more about our complete suite of services, call 800-979-9545 or contact us online. 

Avoid the Mistakes that Lead to Bad Recordkeeping 

It is the season of the scare-a-fest, and most of us may remember at least one funny or spooky Halloween story from the years gone by. In fact, walking into your recordkeeping room or a self-storage facility could evoke some of those memories or remind you of scenes from the horror movies you have watched. Long echoing corridors, flickering tube lights, stacks of storage boxes, hissing sounds of a stray rodent that has made your space its home, and a monster lurking behind the boxes, patiently waiting for you! 

Whether you are dealing with space challenges for storing your ever-increasing stacks of physical files and documents, or you are pursuing the goal of a paperless office, digitization of records could be the ideal solution for you. However, going completely digital can be a tedious, time consuming and extremely expensive process. The average cost to image a box of records is between $225 and $300, depending on the type of information it contains. If such expenses are prohibitive for your business, or you wish to spread out the expenses over an extended period, a scan on demand service is a cost-effective way to move to electronic records.

Whether the fiscal end of your business is round the corner or a few quarters away, periodic purges of office documents is a critical activity around that time of the year. Besides decluttering the workspaces and freeing up valuable storage space, an annual or quarterly purging can help: 

Identity theft accounts for 65% of the total global data breach incidents. The enormity of cybercrime and the dangers it poses to businesses and individuals is evident from the fact that every 2 seconds an American falls victim to identity fraud. The dollar loss related to identity theft was almost $16.9 billion in 2019. However, these numbers are just a speck in the ocean of the expected cybercrime during the coming months and years. Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, identity theft may transpire into an ever-worsening epidemic that leads to severe business losses and victimizes more people than ever before. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage across the world, countries across the world are struggling with the big decision of reopening schools versus teaching through online platforms. In many states in the U.S., children may continue participating in virtual schools for the foreseeable future. The coronavirus containment measures, and limited scope of extra-curricular activities have led to an unprecedented increase in the amount of screen time that children get, even during the non-school hours. As a parent, if you worry about kids playing online games or browsing inappropriate websites, those worries may be further multiplied now, and rightly so.

While hurricane season in Florida officially begins on June 1 each year, this year the region has already experienced two named storms, even before the season began. Quick on the heels of the first two storms came the third named storm, Cristobal, which also brought sheets of rain in the Sunshine State. With meteorology experts predicting a busy hurricane season ahead, it is time to evaluate whether your business is ready to face the upcoming storms and related disruptions. 

• Do you have a formal business continuity and disaster management plan in place?  
• Can you evacuate your records, files, or business materials in a quick, hassle-free manner in the event of floods or other natural disasters?

The qualified and experienced professionals at Crown Information Management explain how to stay ahead of the storm and keep your records safe and accessible.

Key Considerations for Physical Information Security during Hurricane Season and Beyond

Most hurricanes are accompanied by heavy rains and strong winds. Which means, you need a strategy to run your Florida business in the face of floods, power outages, loss of internet connectivity, system downtimes, or other such potential obstacles.

• Ensure uninterrupted access to your digital information and business applications. Implement a robust business continuity plan that will help you operate from a secondary site with appropriate IT backup systems.
• Safeguard your physical files or records and enjoy easy access or smooth retrieval, even when your office premises are unreachable. 
• Partner with a reliable records management company that offers fire-resistant, water-resistant, temperature-controlled storage facilities, along with timely records retrieval services.
• Create a formal records management framework and prioritization access matrix to prevent chaos and confusion during times of crisis. When your teams have clarity in handling disruptive situations, they will be able to serve your customers in a smooth and uninterrupted manner. 

Being hurricane ready is not just about creating backup plans for your IT applications, servers, or physical records. It is also about reassuring your customers and stakeholders that the company is capable of performing regular operations despite any impediments. Remember to put in place a comprehensive internal and external communication strategy to address these aspects.

Preserve and Protect Your Physical Documents from Hurricanes and other Disasters

At Crown Information Management, we offer an extensive range of records management and storage services to multi-industry clients across Florida. Our state-of-the-art storage facility in Winter Haven, FL is equipped to address all possible threats to physical information security, including theft, accidents, and natural disasters. Our Records and Information Management (RIM) professionals specialize in sorting, coding, indexing, storing, and quick retrieval of paper files, folders, and documents. We also offer tailor-made records management solutions in keeping with your company’s indexing or filing methods.  

Strengthen your physical information security by using the records storage solutions of a SOC1, NAID AAA and PCI Certified company, such as Crown Information Management. Call 800-979-9545 or contact us online to explore our full range of record management services.

In the ongoing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, a vast majority of us continue to work from home. Wherever possible, this arrangement may continue to be the norm for several more weeks or months. In light of this unprecedented and unplanned work routine, the risks of data breaches have gone up manifold. Although most organizations have invested in some form of data security or cybersecurity measures, their effectiveness in a large scale remote working environment is untested. What this means is that you may have to check whether your home office can battle data security threats the same way that your business or organization can.