Joyce

My experience is that it's almost impossible to set any sort of agreeable
cash value on records. Value to whom? For what purpose? And 'value' changes
over time. Are we talking about cost to create, or re-create if lost? I've
had experience with litigation where one document, electronic or hard copy,
could have saved A$800,000 (talk about a one-line EDMS business case!). No
storage company would agree to insure for that sort of exceptional
situation, and insurance companies have cunning ways of deciding not to pay
full value, or at least strining payment out through years of court battles.
And what about all your electronic records?

Offsite storage companies here in Australia mostly agree to insure for the
value of the box and paper in it, so the most you'll get is a few dollars a
box. This is simply laughable. It comes with the service so it's there,
but a trivial amount of cash won't be much benefit if you lose the lot. The
only thing that makes sense to me is not the physical materials costs, it is
the ill-defined, variable and uninsurable intrinsic value.

So my advice is, do enough on the insurance side to prove due diligence on
your part, but put all your effort and money into business continuity and
disaster recovery. If the records are so important, duplicate them, it's
easy electronically, less so if hardcopy. Don't push your storage company on
insurance, make sure they have provable and tested BCP / DRP in place eg
standing contracts with Munters or similar for rapid response freeze drying
and so on.

Glenn

Glenn Sanders MRMA
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Australia

These views are mine alone. They may or may not be those of any
previous or present employers or clients. I don't know. If I'd asked
and they'd agreed, I would have signed it "Harry Peck and Co and
Glenn". Or whatever. But I haven't, so I didn't.

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