Finding The Right Record Information Management Partner

Is it difficult for your company to keep up with the amount and complexity of the digital and physical records it has to maintain? The response is a resounding yes for thousands of businesses. You must keep records in a methodical, accessible manner that complies with stringent information security and privacy standards due to operational and compliance requirements. 

However, manually managing records is costly, ineffective, labor-intensive, and prone to error, which is why many businesses use an electronic records management system.  

An electronic records management system lowers the cost of document management while assisting organisations in more effectively achieving their operational and regulatory goals. But which record-management system is best for your company? In this post, we look at five elements of electronic records management that you have to think about before making a choice. 

What Is a System for the Management of Electronic Records? 

Ingestion, storage, and disposal of records are all managed by electronic records management systems, a software solution. In addition to offering safe storage and access, they automate some of the trickier processes involved in compliance records management, including document searches, chain-of-custody reporting, encryption, and secure document destruction.  

Businesses should anticipate that the electronic records management solutions they use will make gathering both digital and physical documents easy. This includes options for immediately scanning physical documents or scanning them as needed, as well as for quickly delivering hard copies or digital copies. An electronic records management system should offer user-friendly online interfaces for accessing, finding, and producing reports in addition to storing documents. 

Important Attributes of an Electronic Records Management Systems 

Systems for managing electronic records differ greatly in terms of their level of sophistication, usability, and tools available. If your company is thinking about implementing a record management system, we advise you to search for and enquire about these five essential aspects with possible providers.  

Tools for Flexible Access Management 

One element of a thorough record management system is the safe preservation of sensitive data. To support corporate operations and meet auditing and reporting needs, your staff must also have quick and easy access to records. Access must also be strictly regulated using an identity and access management system that enables organisations to grant authorised users with granular rights.  

Ensure that a electronic records management system provide facilities for finding and adding records, requesting record delivery, and creating reports.  

Industry-Specific Compliance Capabilities 

One of the main problems organisations have with record management is regulatory compliance. A wide range of legal obligations and regulatory norms apply to sensitive data. Depending on the type of data, the restrictions vary and are often updated.  

With features like chain-of-custody management and reports, record retention and destruction schedules, and compliant digital storage and record delivery systems, your electronic records management system should be able to assist you in staying in compliance with pertinent laws throughout the document lifecycle. 

Plan for Record Retention 

Just as important as how you store records is how you get rid of records. Businesses are required by regulatory standards to retain documents for a certain amount of time after which they must be safely disposed of. Whether records are physically stored, saved on a cloud platform, or stored on tapes and hard drives, the technique employed to delete them depends on their form. 

Make sure to ask about record retention scheduling and secure destruction when you are researching an electronic records management vendor. You may anticipate them to provide one-time and recurring paper document shredding services, as well as secure digital storage media destruction 

Decide which electronic record management system is best for you. 

There are many more aspects that electronic records management systems should have in addition to the couple that we have focused on. A few of these additional features include priority delivery for both electronic and paper documents, scan-on-demand services, and a physical location close to your businesses.  

Visit our Records Management Services and Document Storage Solutions or get in touch with a record management specialist right away if you’re looking for an electronic records management system that incorporates all these features and more.