ENSURING SUCCESS DURING TIMES OF CHANGE

In today's corporate environment, mergers and acquisitions, relocations and other types of business transitions are more common than ever before. According to Industry Week magazine, mergers and acquisitions hit an all time high in 2006. The International Facility Management Association (IFMA) notes that, nationwide, more than 850,000 companies relocate in a given year.

With corporate transitions becoming a common occurrence, mid- and high-level managers will likely have to manage a significant business change that could impact their current document and record management structure. Successfully controlling information assets during a time of transition is essential to maintaining business continuity and preserving the state of an organization.

The Impact Of Change

Staying organized and maintaining compliance is a daily responsibility for any organization, but it is especially critical during a time of transition when the physical location of materials or company infrastructure is in a state of flux. During a major transition, a company must maintain its integrity and a level of trust with its public. In fact, losing just one vital record during a transition could have a lasting impact on an organization, both from a financial and a corporate intelligence perspective. When a record is misplaced, costly personnel time is spent locating or re-creating the lost file and research has shown that the cost to re-create a misplaced file is about $100. In addition, while employees focus on the lost record, productivity declines as their priorities shift away from other, more important, responsibilities, including maintaining continuity during the time of transition.

Valuable management time is also wasted when decisions cannot be made because historical data is unavailable. Since 90 percent of corporate memory still exists on paper, the liability attached to a misplaced file can have an enormous impact on a company's ability to keep business moving during and after an organizational change.

Disorganized, lost or misfiled records resulting from a business transition can have a significant impact on the integrity of information management processes and an organization's overall level of compliance. If regulatory guidelines require the immediate retrieval of specific records and the information cannot be located during or after a transition, a company becomes subject to legal and governmental penalties and may also suffer a loss in credibility from the public's perspective.

Outsourcing For Success

The responsibility of managing internal processes and extensive record inventories before, during and after a major transition can seem overwhelming. By outsourcing some or all of your record or informational management needs and partnering with an outside professional, you can stay on task with minimal disruption to your business.

Outsourcing provides an experienced staff person or manager that is solely focused on the records management portion of your transition, without the associated costs of additional staff and training. Because an outsourced project is set at a specific budget, you can plan your financial and personnel resources accordingly. Most importantly, outsourcing shifts accountability outside the company to someone who must provide successful project results and meet an established time frame. Combined, these benefits positively impact your efficiency and ensure business continuity throughout a transition.

Keeping critical records organized and document management processes intact during a time of change can help an organization resume or maintain operations all while remaining productive, profitable and compliant.