The Sequester - NOT for Records Management

We all know the current financial situation our country is in. Agreement was reached in 2011 that our county's economic future could not be maintained if we kept on the current path of deficit spending, particularly in a time of decreased productivity based on the Great Recession. And while all involved agreed that the problem needed to be fixed, there wasn't enough agreement on how to fix the problem.

The merits of spending cuts vs. entitlement program cuts can be argued at length, but the outcome of that agreement just pushed-out the decision on how to resolve the problem to February, 28, 2013. In political parlance, Congress kicked the can down the road. However, they did so with one giant caveat and one that they thought would spur action and agreement on the how they inserted an incentive into that agreement that included deep and painful cuts across the board that would be worse than any of the compromises that had been previously attempted. As of the day after the deadline, that incentive did not create the desired effect, and with the indiscriminate slicing power of a food processer Congress will start chopping a whopping $85 billion from the current federal budget. The ramifications to today's fragile economic recovery are yet to be seen, but the prognosis isn't pretty.

Just like it doesn't make sense to indiscriminately chop your budget, it also doesn't make sense to indiscriminately destroy your records. For that matter, you shouldn't be doing anything indiscriminately with your records including retaining them longer than necessary since doing so can be as bad, or even worse, than destroying them. For keeping records over their retention period, your organization pays for a service you don't need. But more importantly, possessing those records can be even more costly if the data they contain is used against you in litigation. To add insult to injury, in cases such as in 2004'sUnited States vs. Philip Morris, the defendant was ordered to pay a fine of $2.75M for its non-compliance of document retention policies.

What organizations need, in order to avoid their own version of the sequester, is a records management program based on industry best practices that mitigates risks, provides consistent policies, reduces storage volume, and ultimately lowers your total records management program cost. Putting sound records management policies in place today will provide value immediately and avoid bigger problems in the future.

Like the current showdown in Washington proves, your company shouldn't kick the can down the road and end up in hot seat at the 13th hour. By then it's too late, and your risks like the current $85 billion is U.S. cuts will come back to haunt you.

Plan accordingly.

LINK:	http://blog.ironmountain.com/2013/records-management-and-storage/the-s...
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