Hi all,

I would like to add on to your list.

My experience is that it is best to have a good relationship with all of
your vendors. Often vendors know each other (it is a small world) and can
iron out differences without causing great amounts of pain to their client.
For instance, my old vendor charged the pull fee, removal and pallatization
and the new vendor gave us a significant discount on the pick-up and new
storage to offset the costs we needed to pay to change vendors.

When I consolidated boxes from various vendors, I tried to proceed in a fair
way so that we could all remain collegial. Although the vendors were
disappointed to lose business, I did make it up to them by giving them some
destruction orders to help ease the transition. I was also honest with them
why I was removing my inventory which was not due to any service complaints.


That being said, it still was not an easy process. Here are some lessons
learned:

   - Destroy all eligible boxes and, if possible, let the inventory that
   will be destroyed in a certain period of time stay at an old vendor so that
   the transition is cleaner and less expensive. You don't want to move boxes
   that you will destroy within perhaps a year, as it will cost you more to
   move them and then destroy them.
   - Validate your inventory and metadata prior to moving boxes. We created
   a step-by-step process so that we could troubleshoot if something went awry.
   - Get all of the details of charges prior to moving the inventory. We
   were able to offset costs by sharing information and allowing the new vendor
   to be involved.
   - Know the terms of your payments. The biggest challenge I had was
   coordinating the last payment to the old vendor so that they would release
   the inventory in time to not incur storage fees for the upcoming month
   (generally they charge prior to the month of storage, so you "pre-pay"). I
   did end up hand delivering payment so that we could move forward, which was
   an inconvenience, but eased the process.
   - Make sure your users are aware of inventory transition delays. The last
   thing you want to have to address are in-house requests because your
   inventory is in limbo. Make sure you are clear when a moratorium is in place
   and have a work-around in case of an emergency. Which, always comes up
   during these scenarios.

If there are other specific questions, please pass them on so that we know
how we can guide you further.

Good luck,

On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 8:29 PM, Peter Kurilecz <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 9:42 PM, Walters, Caroline (cw8de) <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > I am interested as well - we are preparing an RFP for storage and knowing
> > past problems changing will help us in the review and to ask better
> > questions.
> >
>
>
> if you are developing an RFP you should review the following publication
> from ARMA
>
> Guideline for Evaluating Offsite Records Storage Facilities
> This guideline is a practical tool for organizations to use to evaluate
> their storage needs, determine whether their business practices make
> outsourcing the best decision, and assess the ability of vendors to
> meet storage requirements.  It includes checklists for records security and
> protection, service levels, contract terms, and cost comparisons. It will
> facilitate the user's development of:
>
>   - A customer profile
>   - A request for information (RFI) process
>   - A request for quote (RFQ) process
>
> Purchasers get free online access to a form-enabled, editable Microsoft
> Word
> version of the checklists they may customize and distribute as their RFI or
> RFQ for vendors to complete and return.
> --
> Peter Kurilecz CRM CA
> [log in to unmask]
> Richmond, Va
> http://twitter.com/RAINbyte
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/RAINbyte/
> http://paper.li/RAINbyte/rainbyte
> Information not relevant for my reply has been deleted to reduce the
> electronic footprint and to save the sanity of digest subscribers
>
> List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
> Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
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>



-- 
Christine M. Figueroa, MLIS, CRM
Records and Information Manager
Newport Beach, CA 92660
[log in to unmask]
714.402.9110

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