Gilmore Blog https://www.gilmoreservices.com/blog/topic/data-destruction

Why partner with a shredding company when you can just buy a shredder yourself? I mean, document destruction is as easy as grabbing some files, putting them through the shredder and calling it day, right? Well, not exactly.

As your business grows, a filing cabinet is often not enough to contain all of your important records. Threats like theft, prying eyes and environmental dangers like mold or water damage can seriously harm your important documents and put your business at risk.

Packing a storeroom with boxes or renting a storage unit may seem like an easy fix, but is it the best way to keep your important records, and business, safe?  

As a small business owner or office manager, you take security seriously. Following a retention schedule and destroying documents when the time is right are just two ways you can protect your business and your customers from identity theft and other crimes. But, these steps are also critical to remaining compliant with federal, state, and local laws.

The rapid development of technology means the road to obsolescence is shorter than ever. While many businesses wait for computers to break down before replacing them, that’s not always the most efficient policy. Once computers start to slow down, productivity and employee morale begin to suffer.

Protecting your business’s data is critical to the continued health of your company. Financial and employee records, and other proprietary data stored on hard drives needs to be protected whether that data has reached the end of its lifecycle or not.

Hard drives hold your business’s most valuable information, including proprietary data, financial statements and employee records. While the use of hard drives are widely prevalent and often necessary, the value of this information can create a problematic scenario when it comes time to upgrade your company’s hardware and increase technological efficiency.

Unfortunately, you can’t simply throw a hard drive in the trash at the end of its useful life and hope the information it contains will remain safe.

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.

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.

If you’re thinking about partnering with a records management company, it’s a good idea to learn how the company operates and what exactly it can do for your business. After all, you’ll be relying on that company to handle, store, and securely dispose of your company’s sensitive physical or digital documents, so you’ll want to know what the company does and how it can help.

Have you ever wondered what a records management company actually does in a typical day? Here’s a hypothetical “day in the life” to help you learn just what can be accomplished in eight hours.

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.

Long gone are the days of strictly handling paper files.

Depending on the industry, the possibility of litigation can be a major threat in the back of a business owner's mind, and it’s not always possible to completely avoid difficult legal situations.

If you've ever invested hours into putting together a jigsaw puzzle, then you know or can imagine the frustration that comes from finding that a piece is missing.

Not only does it leave a glaring hole in the finished product, but it prevents you from seeing the full picture and it robs you of the satisfaction that comes from finishing the job right.

High tech equipment can be relatively inexpensive these days, and far more people know how to use it than did just a few years ago. That’s why identity theft and many other types of privacy crimes have become so commonplace: the information is widely available and some security measures aren’t consistently up to the task of keeping sensitive information safe.

Many business look to secure document shredding to stay compliant with current records laws and regulations. While document destruction is necessary, records management compliance involves more than just making sure your business records are properly destroyed.

In fact, there are helpful questions to ask yourself to ensure your records management system is fully compliant. As you go through the list, be sure to answer the questions as accurately as possible to keep your business on the right track.

Some people have many reservations about the future. For others, the future represents potential for positive things to unfold. When we’re looking at the future of document destruction, advancements in technology and standards for record keeping can make it something to be both excited and also cautious about. Are you prepared for the future of document destruction?

High on the list of what helps businesses remain successful is proper information management. In fact, one misplaced document could put a business like a financial agency, law firm or medical practice in jeopardy. Though one lost document greatly impacting a company might sound extreme, the power of sensitive information can’t be overlooked. With so much to appreciate about a thriving business, it’s important to protect documents that, if lost, could derail an organization dramatically.