subject: When Records Are Archived, Are They All Kept In A Contiguous Area? [print this page] In order to make companies feel safe about storing their records with a document records management service, it can be helpful to shed some light on the basic processes that these companies use for storing business records. These companies are experts in their business, and they do everything they can to ensure that records are not only stored in an organized fashion where they can be easily located, but also in such a way that they are very secure.
Both the organizational and security measures in place at an archival company require that they do not keep all the files from a single company in a contiguous area. In most companies, the arrangement of the files will be in what appears to be a completely random arrangement. They will simply store every new file box that arrives at the facility in the most expedient location. Files are stored this way for several reasons.
The first reason is that this provides a much great protection from theft. These types of facilities are very well protected from theft, but the threat always exists to some degree. By ensuring that all the files which belong to different companies are kept separated, the records companies ensure that if theft ever did occur that a thief would have no idea where all the files belonging to any individual company are located.
Storage companies actually identify files using a unique bar code system and computer database. That way, they can easily look up files to locate them, or scan any files they are looking at to know whose they are and where they should go. This keeps them perfectly organized even when the files from a company are all kept apart.
Disaster protection is another reason why files from companies are not kept together. First of all, the chance of any disaster happening is quite slim. These companies take every precaution and use state of the art equipment to help and make sure that no fire or other disaster can ruin the files which they are looking after. However, if something did happen, they have systems to contain the damage to a single area. If a company had all their files in a single area, a single company might have their records completely wiped out. When they are spread out all over the facility, it helps ensure that if damage occurred each company storing files with the company would only suffer tiny losses.
