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Subject:
From:
"Johnson Jr., Earl" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Records Management Program <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 6 Nov 2007 11:01:47 -0500
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Good question Gerard, here's my take on it:

(1)     What should the new vendor do if they believe that the old vendor has lost their clients records?
I think the new vendor should immediately inform their client--who hopefully has a Records Manager in place, to help resolve.  There could be a number of factors in place that the new vendor may not be aware of, that might explain the discrepancies.  I also don't think it's a good idea for the new and old vendors to communicate between themselves on these kinds of problems without the client being represented via a conference call, meeting, etc.  IMHO, bottom line is open communication between all parties is key!  At this point it goes beyond blaming anyone, you need to figure out what happened to the missing records... you can assign blame later.

(2)     What should the new vendor do if they find records belonging to a 3rd party in a delivery for their new client?
Believe it or not this has actually happened to me with a previous employer, and after verifying that these were not our records, the new vendor returned the records to the old vendor with an explanation.  Based on the old vendor's embarrassment about it all, nothing else needed to be said or done.

(3)     What should be done to ensure the chain of custody reflects the errors described in (1) and (2)?
Again, I think the biggest thing that would help is keep communications open between all parties and resist assigning blame when things go wrong.  The new vendor should always keep the client in the loop on outstanding issues like this and help to maintain a spirit of cooperation in resolving any issues that come up.  Periodic review and adjustment (as needed) of the move-out game plan between client and new vendor might help too, assuming there was a strategy developed in the first place.  Changing offsite storage vendors is more than about moving boxes from one to the other, the entire process should be managed and each box in the inventory--regardless of status, should be accounted for.  While the old vendor may not be happy about losing business, I'd hope that their professionalism would allow them to help work towards resolving outstanding issues and problems that come up.

Thanks.
Earl

Records & Information Management (RIM)... Trust us for success!
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Earl Johnson, Jr.
Corporate Records Manager
Colonial Pipeline Company
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Office: 678-762-2586

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