With all the stories of lost media, breakdowns in the records 
management programs for securing records, lost lap tops, etc. we have 
gone from one vendor proclaiming Sigma Six accuracy to a day to day 
RAIN reporting that makes you question whether we as a society have any 
management skills at all with regard to information management.

I have a presentation scheduled in a few weeks and I want to talk real 
world so I would like anecdotal reports of the state of the art in 
records servicing.

Now if I was Peter I would create a great Zoomerang survey and solve 
this riddle but for a short and sweet quality check could I get a few 
RM's to respond to the following:

In the last year,

How many times have you asked for a box or file that could not be found 
on the first request?
How many times did you request a boxes or files and the wrong one was 
returned or additional files not requested accompanied the delivery?
If a box or file was misplaced, how long does it take to get the right 
one back?
Deliveries used to be - Request it in the morning and it was on site by 
the afternoon or the following morning. Delivery windows have 
increased.  If you request a box at 10:00 AM on Monday, when would it 
normally arrive with certainty?

....and while this may not be your responsibility, it is part of the 
records management process and you should keep track of the metric as 
part of records management so you would have to request this of 
IT........?

How many times is a tape/cartridge requested that it is not able to be 
delivered in the required time period?
How many tapes/cartridges are misplaced for some period of time during 
a year?
Are tapes/cartridges ever lost?
Is a pick up ever missed where a 4:00 PM pick up does not occur until 
the following day?
Do tapes/cartridges ever come back with signs of distress, damage, or 
moisture exposure?


I am not looking for a researched and documented study but just off the 
cuff replies to refer to versus the articles to see what the condition 
of the industry is.  You can send the replies to me at 
[log in to unmask] since failure rates by company name should never be 
public knowledge.  I am not going to keep the emails just the data.

If even answering these questions makes you queasy, just tell me that 
as that speaks to the industry as well.

Hugh




Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
[log in to unmask]
(610)  756-4440    Fax (610)  756-4134
WWW.FIRELOCK.COM

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