When most think about managing their business’s records, retention concerns are the first thing that comes to mind. The core component of keeping records, after all, is usually the “keeping” part. But records management is about more than just retention and storage, even if those concerns take up more than their fair share of the limelight.
Simply put, providing access to these records matters as much as simply storing them. The ability to recall and produce records when they’re requested represents a key part of any sound records management policy.
The Costs of Access
Access to records matters, and requirements are different across industries.
The access component of records management is particularly important in businesses and industries – like healthcare – where retention periods are long and stored records are more likely to be requested in the future.
Unfortunately, producing records to fulfill such requests under time constraints can represent a costly aspect of your business’s records management process.
This is because while it does represent a serious obligation, fulfilling records requests as a function of your business doesn’t produce any significant revenue to offset its costs. Due to various factors, there’s no real way to use records requests as an opportunity to generate revenue to recoup the expense of fulfilling requests.
An Alternative to Costly Records Request Response Processes
A simple and effective way to reimagine your business’s records management processes and achieve a new level of efficiency in fulfilling records requests is to engage with a Scan-on-Demand service with record management professionals like Secure Records Solutions.
This opportunity is especially useful for businesses dealing with large paper record sets, and particularly for those who have recently acquired legacy record sets from another business or organization. All businesses that must fulfill records requests, however, can benefit in some way from implementing a scan-on-demand service.
Finding Savings with Scan-on-Demand Service
The first impulse of many records managers when approaching legacy paper records sets is to scan. Digitizing records, after all, is an important step in retaining the viability of old paper records and the ability to access them.
The problem, however, is that this process is almost always prohibitively expensive. And even in cases where the costs aren’t too much to swallow, it’s still unlikely a business will ever see a return on the investment of scanning an entire paper record set.
A more efficient solution would be to scan only what’s needed when it’s needed. Luckily, indexing records and implementing Scan-on-Demand service allows businesses to do just that.
How it Works
When partnering with professional records managers like the team at Secure Records Solutions, implementing a Scan-on-Demand service starts with indexing all the records within a given record set. This means organizing the physical paper records themselves, and then storing them securely until they’re needed.
Scan-on-Demand services then allow for digitizing (through scanning) a specific record at the point of request and sending it to the requesting party in a matter of minutes or hours.
The service also allows companies holding large paper record sets to avoid the cost of digitizing the entire record set in anticipation of individual requests – a huge savings opportunity.
Things to Remember
It’s difficult to anticipate records requests – both in their origin and volume. Digitizing several thousand records in a set when only a few dozen from within that set may ever be requested is a recipe for inefficient spending.
Meanwhile, indexing and Scan-on-Demand allows for greater savings through avoiding excess costs of digitizing the entire set, while ensuring total ability to recall any record at fast turnaround times to stay compliant with requests and take care of customer or client needs.
When performing these changes in partnership with SRS, you receive the same benefits that all SRS clients receive. Namely, you’ll work with experienced professionals who know records management as well as anyone and offer the best in customer service.
And as always, all records stored, indexed, scanned or otherwise handled by Secure Records Solutions are kept in our secure facility and handled only by NAID-AAA certified professionals.
If you’re interested in revitalizing your business’s records management processes by implementing a cost-saving feature like Scan-on-Demand, the team at Secure Records Solutions is standing by ready to help – contact us today!
