On 4/29/05, Allen, Doug <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 
> 
> I'm not certain what might be considered to be "industry standard"

 Well, ISO 15489 might be one, and then there's ANSI/ARM 5-2003, and OH 
SORRY.... I thought you were wondering what might be considered Standards TO 
OUR INDUSTRY, Records and Information Management that is.... =)

, but it
> would be unlikely that any storage vendor would provide liability for the
> true value of the information included in a box. If they did so, either 
> the
> cost for storage would have to be higher to cover the insurance costs, OR
> the storage vendor would likely offer your company the opportunity to
> purchase the additional insurance.

 Partly true, but not all true. Yes it would be expensive and you would have 
to have some way of validating what you establish as the value of the 
contents as well... it's not like appraising fine art or wine, or even a 12 
pack of frosty cold Dr. Pepper. However, you can obtain what is known as 
"Valuable Papers Coverage" theough some insurance firms and you're better 
off purchasing that directly and having the insurance company evaluate the 
location you intend to store them to ensure the facility meets the building 
code, has sufficient protection (against fire, loss and theft) and then if 
something happens, it's between the storage provider and the insurance 
following a loss, and you get paid at the level of coverage you purchased. 
 Keep in mind however that in certain circumstances, if the storage provider 
is proven to be liable fro the loss IRRESPECTIVE OF WHAT THE CONTRACT SAYS 
if you can prove the value of the paper (or the cost to recreate the 
informtion reflected on the paper) lost, you have a chnace for a settlement 
FAR ABOVE the $1-$2 per box, just like what happened in the Diversified 
Records Fire in West Pittston, PA where the awards exceeded $21 million to 
clients of the storage provider.

That's not a "bad thing" to my way of thinking, because I don't know that
> any organization insures its own storage facilities for any particular 
> value
> "per box" at all....

 Maybe not, but the expectation when you contract with organizations that 
might possibly identify themselves as something like "the leader in records 
management" is that they will provide protection equal to or in excess of 
that which you provide yourself. And if a firm has business continuity 
insurance and the loss of those papers/records can be demonstrated to impact 
their business continuity, they WILL BE COMPENSATED for that. Organizations 
take measures to make every attempt to avoid any serious damage taking place 
to their facilities and anything stored in them, and you obviously assume 
some level of risk when this happens, but you have to weigh the risk against 
the cost to prevent loss. 

> 
> I was wondering about the contract with my records storage vendor. There 
> is
> a clause in the contract that states that their liability for loss, 
> damage,
> or destruction is limited to $2 a box. Is this industry standard?

 And as Peter mentioned, this is in the terms and conditions and EVERYTHING 
in the T&C is subject to negotiation. You determine what you're willing to 
live with, take exception to the things you aren't, propose different 
language and if the vendor isn't willing to negotiate, look elsewhere. You 
may hear from cetain trade associations that this is "Standard", and in the 
commodity storage business, it might be standard to insure a pallet of cases 
of TP for whatever the going rate of 2-ply on rolls is, but these aren't 
saleable commodities, these are information assets, which is why the NFPA 
has an independent Standard (NFPA232) that covers their protection. 
 The whole issue of "industry standard" in this case is completely dependent 
upon WHAT INDUSTRY you're talking about. As the client, you'r ein whatever 
industry your primary business is related to and as an RIM Professional, 
you're in the RIM industry... then there is the storage provider, who is an 
another completely different industry. This may be a "standard" in their 
industry, but it's NOT in ours.
 Larry

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