13 December 2007 - Scotland Group Meeting

Physical records: Using Commercial Storage

Records Management Society - Scotland Group Meeting, Thursday 13th December 2007

Heriott-Watt University, Conference Centre, Hugh Nisbett Building, Cedar Suite, Edinburgh

Meeting report

The meeting was opened by Edith Pringault-Adam and Peter Wilson, Secretary of the University welcomed the Group.

The event focused on commercial storage and the delegates listened to 5 witness experiences from users and providers of commercial storage.

The first speaker was Jane Tierney, Archivist and Records Manager for Aptuit Ltd who spoke about her experiences of sourcing suitable commercial storage for records, and her criteria for choosing a suitable supplier. Jane identified the main criteria as:

• Physical location: security of building, access to building, procedures for unauthorized access, proximity to company offices, suitability of shelving, environmental controls, fire suppressant systems, disaster precautions.
• Retrievals: turn around, tracking systems.
• Procedures: staff procedures, training, quality assurance, version control, shredding services.

Jane went on to explain the importance of first drawing up a list of requirements before beginning to look for a suitable supplier, then visiting a variety of different storage companies to compare the market, and finally scoring against requirements. She reminded delegates to ask stakeholders about their main priorities, eg:

Is there a requirement for records to be accessed frequently?

Are fire suppressant systems a necessity?

By pinning down the most important requirements, time in finding an appropriate supplier will be saved.

Susan Mansfield, from Scottish Parliament, then talked about the contract requirements with commercial storage suppliers. She began by stating that it was important to appreciate that records managers were acting as vendor account managers when managing a contract with a commercial storage company, and should seek advice from those experienced in procurement within their organisation as a starting point or enhance their skills in this area.

Susan went on to provide her top tips for securing and managing a successful contract.

1. Always put contract out to tender, as this adds value and provides transparency in the process.
2. Contract must be for a specified amount of time, as without a specified time limit the costs may be increased if you wish to end agreement.
3. Get it in writing, as without a contract signed by both parties, you have no proper agreement.
4. Don't reveal your budget to the suppliers, speak to procurement about negotiation techniques, and take the time to negotiate implementation, pricing and transactional fees for the life of the contract.
5. Be realistic, you need to form a partnership with your chosen supplier, and work with them, not against them. For this you need to trust your vendor.
6. Manage your contract with the vendor. This means validating, auditing and spot-checking, so that you will be able to spot and act on deal breakers when they arise.
7. Know your business processes, setting out your requirements from the contract regarding data storage, destruction as well as your requirements for transport, environmental impact etc.
8. Be sure to speak to your customers to see what they need, and go to the vendor with something you have drafted, don't expect the vendor to fulfil your requirements, as no one knows what these are better than you.
9. Have a great specification, but be straightforward.
10. Negotiate on best value, not just the price, consistent levels of service and the relationship between you and the vendor is just as important.

The third speaker was Cicely Poulton, from Diageo plc, who described the differing storage requirements within her organisation, which has a large number of outlying offices and uses a variety of suppliers, both local and national to meet their requirements. Cicely explained that although her organisation uses a number of different suppliers, she provided advice to those wishing to store records within her organisation, regardless of where they are stored. Cicely also

explained that she was involved in a records consolidation programme, and was encouraging those within all areas of the business to apply retention periods to records held within legacy stores, thus greatly reducing the numbers of records held by her organisation within commercial storage throughout Scotland.

The presentations then moved on to look at the vendor perspective, with Allan Drysdale, from Crown Records Management Ltd, providing his key considerations for outsourcing.

1. Look at the current in-house situation, and establish costs for this
2. Keep the communication lines open with your vendor, and ensure that you are controlling the dialogue.
3. Need to drive the requirement you need, do not be reactive to your current situation
4. Must include length of contract within your negotiations, and be up front about this, not as an afterthought as this will affect when you directly.
5. Think about third party transfers if your business needs change, eg. how much notice is required? What penalties will you be required to pay? Can this be added to the cost of your next contract?

Tony Balaksy from Iron Mountain was next up with a presentation designed to dispel a few myths about records storage vendors. The key points included.

1. Myth: Vendors are in league with the devil; vendors are not your enemy, but do make a profit. They can provide a very useful service if you work in partnership with them.
2. Myth: Commercial storage costs too much; commercial storage does costs however these costs are pay as you go and can free up your own staff to do other tasks rather then records retrieval.
3. Myth: Transport costs for commercial storage are huge; again this depends on you. If you require to see files frequently, think twice about storing them off site if possible, and use commercial storage for files you require to see only infrequently.
4. Myth: The vendor has the control. This is down to contract management, make sure you know your requirements, and get it right first time.
5. Myth: Vendors aren't Records Managers; not all are but most major vendors employ their own records managers, and require knowledge of RM practices, standards and training to deliver their services effectively

After the presentations, a panel, consisting of Jane, Susan, Cicely, Alan and Tony answered questions from the delegates. Edith Pringault-Adam then provided an update on the activities of the RMS, providing an overview of what work will be undertaken in the next 2 years and notified the delegates of the

constitution of the RMS Scotland Group.

She provided outlines of the proposed meetings for 2008, and their themes:

Date: March (all day event)

Venue: Aberdeen/ North East

Subject: Presentation skills, promoting Records Management

Date: June (all day event)

Venue: Yet to be confirmed

Subject: classification schemes, file plans

Date: September (all day event) joint meeting with Society of Archivists Scotland Region

Venue: Edinburgh, yet to be confirmed by chair of Society of Archivists

Subject: standards and long-term preservation

Edith made an appeal to the delegates attending the meeting, that the RMS were looking for suitable venues throughout Scotland in which to hold an event. The venue would be required to hold up to 70 people for a typical full-day event. Any delegates who are aware of suitable venues for future meetings should get in touch with Edith directly with details.

Edith reported back about her meeting with the Scottish Council on Archives, which also covers Records Management. Currently the organisation has no proper funding, and is intending to lobby hard for archives legislation. The Council have put together a press pack and a pack for parliamentarians, both of which will require feedback on these. The press pack will be circulated to members of the RMS Scotland Group for comments.

Edith advised the members of the Group that registration for the Records Management Society Conference was now open, and that the early bird booking for the conference ends in February. Edith also advised the audience that the RMS were looking for speakers for the sessions at the Edinburgh conference. Heather Jack is the contact for this, so those who would be willing to speak at the event should get in touch with Heather at the earliest opportunity.

Edith then proposed the vote of thanks to all speakers, the Archive Records Management and Museums Service at Heriott-Watt University for providing the venue and to Laserfische delivered by RJW Services for sponsoring the event and providing catering.