A critical and complicated question that several companies face is whether or not to retain every digital and physical document collected as part of business operations. If you are a highly regulated industry, you have legal mandates to maintain records of customers and business transactions for a fixed duration. However, even if your industry is not legally bound to retain documents, there are a number of advantages in creating a systematic approach for record keeping.
5 Advantages of Storing Business Data Securely
- Preserving Critical Business Records: When you run a company, you tend to accumulate a significant amount of paper-based and digital data. This includes records related to employment, client correspondence, finance, tax, insurance, board meetings and more. A document retention policy will provide clear directions for what data to preserve, along with the manner and duration of storage. The policy will be written after considering business priorities, as well as compliance and regulatory obligations.
- Reduced Storage Costs: Through a structured policy, you may be able to limit the documents and data to be retained and define an upper limit on the holding time. This will not only reduce the cost and space for physical and digital storage, it will also free up some of the bandwidth blocked in data backups and business continuity plans.
- M&A Preparedness: In case your company is involved in a potential mergers and acquisitions (M&A) scenario, you will need speedy retrieval of past documents and records. Your document retention policy will allow you to hit the ground, running safe.
- Safeguards against Litigation: The retention policy defines your company’s practice of categorizing, retaining and purging records after a defined time lapse. Hence, the policy itself acts as a reasonable explanation for destruction or preservation of documents, in the event of any litigation. A well-written policy could also limit the amount of information that needs to be scrutinized or may be demanded. This will undoubtedly save a significant amount of your company’s time, effort and resources, if it is dragged into legal battles. You may also find it easier to retrieve records and information that need to be produced during legal inquiries.
- Legal and Regulatory Compliance: In addition to industry-specific mandates, there are legislative requirements that make it imperative to preserve records related to employment, financial reports, tax, and other important aspects. Your document retention policy will provide a systematic approach to remain compliant with such legislative requirements.
A well-planned document retention policy includes aspects related to its scrutiny and states who should oversee compliance of policy parameters. In addition, it could also specify the frequency and responsibility for reviewing or updating the policy, and formally auditing it.
While certain records may have to be preserved permanently, for secure disposal of all other physical or digital documents, rely on your professional paper shredding company. We offer a host of NAID AAA Certified destruction serviced to purge your records, scheduled routine service and hard drive destruction
Call TITAN Mobile Shredding and speak to our data destruction professionals at (866) 848-2699 today or contact us online to request your free quote.
