Companies have more options for storing essential paper documents

Paper is a fact of life in business some types of businesses handle larger volumes of papers and files than others. But for those companies with office space taken up by piles of files or rows of file cabinets, there are solutions available.

Bill Reed, owner of Reed Properties Inc., which has Culpepper Record and Archive Storage, 3510 S. Culpepper Circle, has one solution. The new, 40-unit storage facility is designed specifically for the storage of companies' files and papers.

"I don't think there's anything else like this facility in Springfield. A few do have climate control, but this facility is designed as an office-type building," Reed said.

David Ricci, president of Ozarks Document Specialists, located at 830 Foxtail Dr. in Ozark, said, "Our main function is to copy medical re-cords for different doctors' offices. Our secondary line is as a value-added reseller of Compulink Management Center Inc.'s LaserFiche software, which provides clients with a document imaging method of storing documents electronically.

"We can put 15,000 pages onto one CD. That's the equivalent of six file cabinets holding letter-size paper," Ricci said.

John Elkins, business division sales manager at EDCO Group Inc., 1351 N. Belcrest Ave., said, "EDCO specializes in document conversion, storage and retrieval."

Storage options

Elkins said determining the best way to store a document is to consider two things the length of time the document needs to be kept and the frequency with which the information will have to be retrieved.

"Typically, if it is a long-term retention period greater than five to seven years you can justify the cost of converting paper files to microfilm, another (medium). Microfilm is the only storage (medium) other than the original document that is accepted anywhere in the world as a legal document versus an electronically generated image," Elkins said.

"Hard copy storage would be shorter, less than the five- to seven-year retention period, with low to no retrievals. Kind of out of sight, out of mind. We probably have close to 75,000 boxes in storage for our local customers," Elkins said.

Elkins recommends electronic storage for those documents that need frequent retrieval.

The efficiency gained in the retrieval process should more than offset the businesses' additional conversion costs.

Trends

"It is common in health care, customer service documentation, and many insurance companies to use an electronic storage system because it is easy to pull files up and answer questions where if you have to go back to the paper copy or microfilm it can be slower," said Elkins.

"For the longest time 90 percent of our health-care customers would ask (that) we destroy the originals once they were on film and after they'd reviewed it. More and more say they want that paper copy retained," Elkins said. He added, "This is what I would call a belt-and-suspenders approach to document management, and in most cases would consider it unnecessary. However, in a litigation-happy society, many clients feel it's better to be safe than sorry and find this to be cheap insurance."

Ricci added that since the Sept. 11 disaster at the World Trade Center in New York, more businesses are looking for the type of systems offered by Ozarks Document Specialists.

"If a business is decimated by a tornado or a terrorist attack, that's your livelihood. Businesses have to assure customers that they can retrieve databases and records. With CD storage, they can assure customers they can do that," he said.

Costs

Filling needed office space with boxes and file cabinets can be an expensive waste of space, Reed, Ricci and Elkins each said it can be more cost-effective to store records offsite.

At Culpepper Record and Archive Storage, Reed said, costs range from $75 to $200, depending on unit size.

Ozarks Document Specialists' costs depend on what is needed "whether you want us to come in and scan and archive, or put a whole system in place so your staff can do the scanning and archiving," Ricci said. He added, "We charge as little as 5 to 10 cents per page, but it varies depending on the work needed."

At EDCO, Elkins said, storage costs are based on a per-box, per-month rate with volume discounts from 30 cents to as much as $1.25 per box per month, with additional fees for retrieval service.

Converting documents to microfilm costs about 3.8 cents per image, depending on the amount of preparation needed to get the paper ready for the microfilm camera or scanner. Indexing adds to the costs.

For scanning to a CD or electronic format, Elkins said, the cost is 6 to 8 cents per page because scanning is more labor-intensive.

Benefits

Climate control is essential for document storage, Reed said, adding that pa-per can mildew if stored in a facility that doesn't provide climate control.

Security is another benefit that should be considered for document storage. Reed said Culpepper's units are individually keyed, and the facility has 24-hour, seven-days-a-week controlled security access.

"EDCO stores hard copy documents for clients from across the United States in one of their facilities in the Springfield Underground Warehouse. There it has climate control and protection from fire and theft. It is a guarded facility 24-hours a day," Elkins said.

Ricci also pointed out that medical records need security, flood prevention, fire and liability insurance.

Advice

Elkins' best advice is for businesses to create a document plan as soon as possible. "A common thing that I see is to go into an office that's been in business for years and bought a file cabinet every year. Now they have 10 or 12 stacked up and they want to do something about it. Then it gets expensive. Breaking it into annual, or a quarterly basis, the cost isn't bad. I recommend that new businesses call someone in and put a plan together before this happens," Elkins said.