John's examples are all valid ones- the two I'd like to draw attention to
are #4 and #5 because they are quite closely related.

India (and no I'm not picking on a Nation State or a People) is one of the
centers for imaging in the World and not just the offshore imaging of
business records.  If you've ever done a bulk photo conversion project of
your OWN PERSONAL photos, hopefully you've asked where the work was actually
being done that you were able to get the splendid "per image price" offered
=)   but I digress...

My point was one of the follow-on services on completion of imaging and
indexing projects routinely offered by these vendors is the storage of your
source materials. 

*IF* you have a requirement or desire to retain the source materials
post-conversion,  you need to decide where and how to do this.  The logic
provided by the vendors is, well... you wouldn't want to pay the cost of
return shipping all of these items, then need to re-box them and index them
with pointers for physical storage of these source materials, would you?   
So, they offer you the option of allowing them to provide long term storage
for you.

NOW, don't get me wrong- there are some commercial record centers being
built in Asia and the Sub Continent... but they are NOT being built to US
Standards or specifications for environmental controls or protection from
floods, or other known environmental and natural disaster hazards.  And they
don't have the same fire protection or safety/alarming standards to comply
with either.

I think many/most of us have seen plenty of footage of monsoon season and
the subsequent flooding and landslides in certain countries, along with the
horrible images of damage and lives lost.  

The concept of a facility "outside of the 500 year flood plain" may be
completely lost here, and the opportunity to perform a site visit to
investigate the conditions your records are being stored in rather limited.
 In addition, I've seen photos from a few friends who have been 'back home'
of these large yards of shipping containers that are FILLED with cartons
post-processed source materials that are "in storage" for clients. 

Again, this is NOT intended as a broad brush to characterize all service
providers in a specific location as providing service that is not adequate
to meet your needs or that is costing you more than you should be paying...
but if there is a REQUIREMENT that you retain these records and you MAY BE
called upon to produce them at some time, Caveat Emptor.

Larry
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