Gilmore Blog https://www.gilmoreservices.com/blog/author/jim-beran

Keeping business operations streamlined and running smoothly is a key goal for many business owners. After all, as your business grows, so too do clients, responsibilities, and business documents.

Business documents may include the paper documents you house on-site, or the electronic records you keep for each new customer. Managing records is a necessary aspect of many businesses, but keeping them organized and secure over time can present an unforeseen challenge for many business owners and administrative professionals.

The world today is practically overflowing with information. From mailed publications and credit card offers to emails and digital data, document and information management can be overwhelming.

That said, it’s all the more reason why records management professionals need to prioritize document storage strategies. After all, while you may have tried "winging it" with document storage in the past, that just won’t cut it any more.

When you hear the word “destruction,” you may automatically think the worst. After all, you spend your days working to protect your important documents — not destroy them.

Business owners, office managers, and administrative professionals know that as a business grows, so do the business records. As a company brings on more business, secures more clients, and serves a greater community, the essential paperwork can literally begin to pile up—from medical records to financial documents and anything in between.

Many companies may know they need document shredding services. After all, with identity theft statistics on the rise, you’ve likely already begun to devise a confidential document destruction plan in order to keep your client and patient information — as well as your company’s reputation — protected.

In the modern business world, information is always growing. This makes it challenging to keep up with proper records management and document storage requirements. What’s more, laws and regulations requiring that records be kept for a certain amount of time before being destroyed can add to the confusion of how to properly handle certain sensitive documents.

And of course, storing boxes of paper documents in warehouses or paying commercial rental prices to store them can be particularly frustrating.

When you throw something away in a dumpster, chances are that you don’t stop to wonder if that trash could eventually fall into the wrong hands. But whether it’s a banana peel or old business records, just tossing something in the trash isn’t as secure as you think.

If your company needs to shred a piece of paper for data security purposes, it’s as easy as running it through a personal paper shredder, right? Not necessarily.

While some businesses may be able to get by with a personal paper shredder and a few dedicated employees to shred documents here and there, your business may need something more reliable.

After all, when the amount of paper begins to build, or sensitive information is at stake, shredding in-house can go from convenient to complicated in no time.  

If your company regularly deals with sensitive information, then you know the importance of secure document storage. This is especially true when official business paperwork or private patient records need to be stored for several years in order to align with document compliance standards.

These days, it seems there is a do-it-yourself option for everything. You can make your own candle holder from a glass bottle, or remodel your own bathroom with a few tips from YouTube.

There comes a time in every business' lifespan when the need for certain updates is necessary. Whether you own a hotel, restaurant, hospital, or bank, the process of making crucial business changes can be stressful. It comes with the growing pains of running a successful company.

There are plenty of situations that can arise in business where proper preparation makes it possible to successfully meet the challenge and overcome it.

Spring is officially here, and at Gilmore Services, that marks the start of a new Shred-a-Thon event to securely and conveniently shred your sensitive information! Gilmore Services is proud to partner with the BBB, WEAR3 and Cat Country 98.7, to offer complimentary shredding services to help our community organize, reduce clutter and protect their identity this season.

There are a thousand different things a business owner or office manager needs to think about every day. While legal document management is extremely important, it’s not something you want to have to worry about among other urgent matters. And it’s certainly not something you can afford to spend hours or days figuring out.

You wouldn’t entrust just any company to maintenance your car or mortgage your home, would you? More often than not, you’re going to research to confirm that they are licensed and have the proper certifications in place. If they don’t, then the search continues until you find a secure business or a trustworthy partner.

Sometimes it can feel like there is just not enough hours in the day. Imagine having a couple more hours to file away finished projects and help cut down the growing stack of files piling up on your desk.

As an experienced records management company, we offer many tips for protecting your business and your customers through proper records management practices. With identity theft and other privacy concerns constantly in the news and new regulations affecting different industries all the time, every company needs to allocate time and resources for handling business records. 

Long gone are the days of strictly handling paper files.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: The world has gone digital!

While a formal records management plan needs to include document destruction at the end of every record’s lifecycle, destroying a business document before it has reached the end of its retention period can be a costly and time-consuming mistake.

I recently finished watching Marvel’s “The Flash” on Netflix. For anyone who doesn't know the basis of the story, it begins with a man-turned-superhero who receives the power of super speed after a freak lightning strike.  

It’s crazy to think of a supernatural human who can accomplish tasks in the blink of an eye. Just think, if you had these powers, everyday records management assignments could be completed well before lunch. Imagine all of the time that would be available to channel toward more demanding job responsibilities.

With another year almost over, it’s time to make those New Year's resolutions again. We're not talking about your typical personal resolutions, but instead, we mean your business records management resolutions. Methods of handling records are constantly changing to better protect your sensitive information. Now is the time to get serious about records management for your company and know what big movements to look out for in 2016.

Going paperless does not necessarily mean completely eliminating the use of paper. It sounds a bit backwards, right? Instead, document scanning is an option that can allow you to expand the use of individual documents simply by converting them into digital files. Imagine high priority documents that, instead of being passed around, can be easily accessed by a computer.

With technology becoming more prevalent in professional environments, now is the perfect time to understand how to leverage the benefits of document scanning.

If you’re part of a busy medical practice, handling sensitive paper records can be a time-consuming and arduous aspect of the job. Because there's so much paperwork required for every part of the business, from insurance documents, to patient files, to prescription records, to invoicing, and more, keeping up with it all can be a full-time job in and of itself.

If you’re in charge of records management at a law firm, there's no doubt the role can be demanding, and at times, stressful. After all, who knows better what kind of legal issues can result from poor document management than someone working at a law firm?

Running a successful business is a lot like juggling. You need to keep a lot of different things in the air at the same time, which means you’re in constant motion. Sometimes, to save the majority of these items, you need to let one or two drop.

It should come as no surprise how quickly paper accumulates in an office environment. Businesses handle hard copies of contracts, invoices, billing, and other sensitive information daily. These documents can be easily accessible in-house in a conveniently located filing cabinet. But the reality of storing every single document at one location is nearly impossible.

All components of a machine must be in working condition in order to deliver maximum results. For example, a vehicle cannot run efficiently if it is not properly taken care of. The car requires gas, routine maintenance, and a regular oil change. The process of maintaining business records is similar to keeping a machine running smoothly.

Just like the materials we use to create vehicles today have become more economical and efficient, so have records management processes, and the old-fashion days of searching for boxes for a single hard copy document are over.