Abstract
Commercial records center (CRC)
business has evolved from what began as a repository of mostly inactive,
records into a much more interactive, high technology relationship with its
client. With latest technologies, CRC now offer very sophisticated
computer-base indexing, disaster recovery and etc. this article will elaborate
about how commercial records center will benefit an organization in their
business.
Keyword: Commercial record center,
business records, management, storage
Introduction
Records
are an essential tool of good business and efficient administration. They will
provide information for planning and decision making also the evidence of
government accountability (National Archive Australia). Records management is
known for professional practice as it is managing the records of organizations
using the records life-cycle from the process of creation to disposal. This
life-cycle includes identifying, classifying, storing, securing, retrieving,
tracking and destroying or permanently preserved the records. The purpose of
records management is part of an organization’s function and primarily
concerned with the managing of the evidence of an organization’s activities as
well as the reduction of risk associated with it.
A
record can represents as a proof of the existence. It is either created or
received by an organization in pursuance or in agreement with legal
obligations, or in the transaction of business. Records can be either tangible
such as paper documents like birth certificates, physical medical x-ray or
digital information such as electronic office document, data in database,
e-mail and etc. Records may be covered by access controls to regulate who can
access them and under what circumstances.
Record
center is an organization that can store and manage all records such as
financial, legal and business documents. Record center usually will manage and
support the whole records management process, from records collection through
records management to records disposition. Commercial record centers are facilities
which provide services for the storage for paper records for organizations. In
some cases, they also offer storage for records maintained in electronic
formats. Commercial records centers provide storage for paper records and some
offer average temperature controlled storage for sensitive non-paper and vital
paper media. There is a skill organization for commercial records centers.
Benefits of Commercial Record
Center
It
is undeniable fact that there is a business records that need to be retained
for legal, administrative and operational and there is no need getting around
for storage. There are several reasons that exist for value in using commercial
record center. The several benefits why organization should store their records
in a commercial record center are:
·
Space Cost Saving
Office space will be
expensive and fills up quickly when it is used to store paper document. However,
a commercial record center will offers more economical solution for storing
records. By storing records, an organization can be able to eliminate real
estate leased and cost.
·
Authorized and Secure Destruction
In commercial record
center, they will have procedures in place to ensure the records are
systematically destroyed and only with appropriate authorization reducing the
chance of reckless, selective and personal destruction of records. Commercial
record center will ensure the organization’s records will not be destroyed
prematurely or retained longer than needed. They also will protect the
information from unauthorized access and physical damage from fires, floods,
and natural disasters (Podraza, 2014).
·
Optimal Retention Management
According to Richards
Office Records Management, 2016, knowing how long to retaining records is
important as keeping them safe from disaster and unauthorized access. A
commercial records center is staffed by records management professionals who
categorize and index your files according to the business and industry’s
document retention requirements. A commercial records center will ensures the
business documents are always safe, secure, properly managed, and easily
accessible.
·
Facilities and Service Capabilities
Commercial record
center will provide a level of protection that hard to find in other storage
facilities. Most facilities are designed and dedicated to records
management. Thus, fire prevention,
climate controls and security are of utmost concern. Most commercial records
centers offer much more than simply storage. Mostly they will offer full suite
of records management services, including storage, pickup and retrieval,
scanning, records destruction, media storage and media destruction.
Function
of Commercial Record Center
·
Authorize records disposal schedules for
the organization that keep records after consulting in commercial record
center.
·
Approve disposal of the records, in
consultation with the client/organization of the commercial record center where
necessary.
·
Provide centralized intermediate storage
for their client to keep the records.
Challenges
·
Organizational and Personnel Problem
Record center must
ensure their staff to have passable academic qualification and experience that
combines skills of information technology and also in information management,
business system analysis and any skills that related. Record overload becoming
worse as registries in the public sector attempted to deal with excessive
quantities of paper which could be destroyed or sent to centers designed for
the storage of inactive records or to the National Archives.
·
Technology
There are some
important decision-support documents are in the form of multimedia
presentations and spreadsheets which have assumptions that embedded within the
electronic version that are not easily willing to print out. The problems
related to saving such important types of records are typically not addressed,
and so the records are lost. There are also new formats of record material
including computer generated, motion picture and television films which all
requiring skills, procedures and storage environment in a part of the world where
there are extreme variations in temperature and humidity.
·
Level of Risk
In developing the
records disaster recovery plan, record center should assess the changeable
force of each risk to which their records may be subject. Risks may range from
minor flooding affecting perhaps only one or two offices in a facility to a
major fire that may cause major damage to the entire facility and its contents
(Barry, 2003). Generally, water, fire, and smoke damage should receive
particular attention as they are the likely the main problem that will damage
records stored in an agency facility. If chemical agents are either stored in
the building or are contained in its operating systems, the potential damage
these might cause should also be addressed during the planning.
Conclusion
As
a conclusion, commercial record center is important and reliable for any
organization to keep their records without having any problem in managing their
records. With commercial record center, an organization can have benefits that can
help them in organizing all of their business records effectively. An
organization or individual do not have to worry about their records because in
commercial records center will have qualified staff to handle all of the
records using the right method which is the record life-cycle.
References
Barry, R. (2003, June 9). Record challenges.
Retrieved September 22, 2006, from the World Wide
Web: http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles
Burlington Massachusetts. (n.d). Functions and
services. Retrieved June 14, 2016 from
http://www.burlington.org/residents/archives_services.php
Faber, M. J. (2001). The evolving commercial records
center industry. Information Management
Journal,
35(3), 4-9.
Podraza, A. (2014). Benefits of using a commercial
records center. Retrieved June 14, 2016 from
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140425163840-46254388-benefits-of-using-a- commercial-records-center
Richards Records Management. (n.d) You have to store
your records in a commercial records center:
here’s why. Retrieved June 14, 2016 from http://www.richardsandrichards.com/you-have-to-store-your-records-in-a-commercial- records-center-heres-why/
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