How Records Management Mishaps Can Spell Doom (NAPSA)—Ever since one major accounting firm was caught after it shredded documents and deleted e-mail demandedbya federal subpoena, resulting in the company’s collapse, you would think most American firms would have re-examined their own records managementpolicies. No company would want to suffer a similar fate, right? In fact, it remainsall too likely your employer or a company in which you invest is vulnerable to becom- ing the next corporate scandal. At a time when most documents are created electronically and many business communications are conducted through email, nearly half of American companies (47 percent) have not adopted retention and destruction policies for such “e-records,” according to a recent survey of 2,200 corporate records managers, sponsored in part by ARMAInternational, the not-for-profit association for records and information managementprofessionals. Nearly six in 10 companies (59 percent) have no formal policy on retaining e-mail. And when it comes to preventing the destruction of documents needed for current or impending legal matters, 65 percent of companies had either no “hold order” policy or one that doesn’t include electronic records, according to the survey. “Considering the very existence of the company can be at stake, it’s remarkable that some companies do not truly support their records management programs,” said Peter R. Hermann, executive director and CEO of ARMAInternational (www.arma.org). “This disregard of such a vital infrastructure leaves many companies widely exposed to disastrous problems.” Ww —— One such example was seen when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fined Bank of America a record $10 million for failing to produce documents requested as part of an investigation. In large part, the issue stems from the management of electronic records falling to companies’ IT departments, instead of the Records and Information Management (RIM)professionals. Often, IT professionals are experts in the hardware andsoftware issues of electronic storage, but not the regulatory and other legal requirements about the information they store. “Companies commonly store records too long, not long enough or not at all,” said Roberta I. Shaf- fer, professor at the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies. “Some vital documents can be destroyed too soon, before they might be demandedby regulatory agencies, such as the SEC. If records are kept beyond their useful life, they can accumulate to the point where searching them— even electronically—becomes far too costly.” The bottom line is that companies need to make sure this crucial part of their operations is in order. Employees, stockholders and companies ignore records managementat their own peril.
