My take on this, from a human perspective.  Human beings are not infallible.
We have good days and bad days.  I have the over 40 syndrome where I walk
into another room and forget what the heck I went in there for in the first
place.  Reputable vendors in the industry have excellent track records for
handling our corporate records and data and have the technology to assist
them.  However, what standard is acceptable to you may be different to
another. Is 100% reliability, with no errors what we pay for.  The answer is
yes, but will we always receive that service level, the answer is most
probably no.  One of the reasons is that we as human beings are not perfect
(although I work with some who think they are) {smile}.

Then there is Murphy's law - trucks break down, people call in sick,
weather, traffic, mix ups, poor labelling, new employees, technology
glitches, power outages etc.  There are many things that can happen that
will affect service level agreements.  Although we pay for perfection folks,
stuff happens.  In life sometimes things happen which are unforeseen and out
of our control.  I always include vendors who provide services to us as an
extended and integral part of our team.  It is important to build a good
rapport and relationship with them.  I like to deal with vendors who take
pride in what they do.  I never expect perfection, but rather I expect them
to do their very best for us, as if I was their most special customer.

In closing, I dealt with Iron Mountain for years and I have always been
impressed by their levels of service, attention to detail and
professionalism.  There is an old expression that goes something like this,
"You work for twenty years and never make a mistake, but you make one
mistake on your last day of work and that is all they remember you for". I
guess it would depend on how big or what the mistake was?  My folks always
taught me that I would be a good person if I learned this one word,
humility.

Have a good day folks.  Keep smiling.


John A. Gervais
Program Manager
Policy and Standards Section
Information Policy and Governance Division
Statistics and Information Management Directorate
Policy and Planning Branch
Canada Revenue Agency
25 Nicolas Street, 16th Floor
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1A 0L5

' 1-613-688-9302
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"  http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/

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