Really these are two separate considerations which sometimes might be
beneficial or necessary to have provided partially or completely from the
same vendor.  If a company is using offsite storage for materials which they
require to be shred, the workflow and throughput costs are sometimes better
with the storage vendor.  However, your company should be comfortable with
all the aspects of the relationship which are significant to your company
and this may differ some but would include the terms of the contract such as
pricing, destruction method, liability, statement of work, etc.  It can be
convenient to use the same vendor, but that doesn't mean it's beneficial.
The services should be evaluated separately and understand that the
shredding/record destruction industry is still maturing their business and
process model with regard to personally identifiable information and all the
system and audit requirements which may be required by statute, regulation
or implemented as best practice.  There are still some shred services who
may store materials for long periods and in locations which could compromise
the confidentiality of the records to be destroyed.  I always go onsite to a
facility before I ever sign a contract with a company to tour the location,
if possible read their work standards and see the operation in process.  

The most common benefit is that you may get better pricing by having more
lines of business with one vendor just don't do it only for the pricing as
one incident of lost records, or exposed confidential or personal data could
easily outweigh any marginal price difference.

When negotiating a records storage agreement, be careful to watch the
permanent out costs and how they are tied to destruction costs.  This is a
great point to negotiate so you aren't getting charged an out fee and a
destruction fee.  Once you negotiate this as low as you can, compare the
costs of picking up materials qualified for destruction and transporting
them to another vendor for destruction.  This may be preferable if your
storage vendor's destruction methods aren't mature enough for your
requirements.

Also consider that you may have many destruction jobs which aren't related
to your record storage vendor so remember shredding can be used as a
bargaining chip to get better pricing at a later date if you have volumes of
destruction for your offices, distribution centers, customer sites or other
locations.  

And since much shredding may not be of offsite records, keep your shredding
deal terms short if you want to continue to negotiate with other companies
as this industry matures.

Good luck to you, but be sure you evaluate vendors on each line of service
to be sure they meet all the requirements and practices of your business
before you assume doing them all through one is beneficial.

-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Johnson Jr., Earl
Sent: Tuesday, February 09, 2010 4:41 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Shredding and offsite storage--same vendor?

Good afternoon,

I'm just curious as to how many of you use the same vendor for both records
storage and shredding services?  I understand that management of both is
probably easier when working with the same vendor for both services (even if
they contract the shredding out to a third party), but for those who use
separate vendors, what's your rationale?  Are there benefits to using
different vendors for each of these services?

Feel free to respond on or off-list if you like.

Thanks.
Earl

Pipeline Records and Information Management Excellence... Get PRIMEd!
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Earl Johnson, Jr., CRM  |  Corporate Records Manager
Colonial Pipeline Company  |  1185 Sanctuary Parkway, Suite 100, Alpharetta,
GA 30009
Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>  |  Office:
678-762-2586  |  Blackberry: 404-402-4420
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