NAID, in conjunction with a nationally recognized research firm, is in the process of culling through data from our first-ever commissioned study of what U.S. business decision-makers know and think about information destruction and information destruction services. The survey not only looks at their attitudes but, to a large degree, includes data on how they behave.
While the data will take a couple of months to fully process and integrate, there are several very interesting top level findings; some of which both confirm and contradict conventional perceptions.
The preliminary report on the results indicates that while roughly 89 percent of all respondents said their firms are "very" (59 percent) to "somewhat" (30 percent) concerned about safeguarding discarded information, only 37 percent reported utilizing an outside contractor for any sort of information destruction, and close to 40 percent of those firms used the service only for periodic purges. Of the firms reporting that they did not use a shredding service, 97 percent said they shredded internally.
The population of decision-makers involved in the survey consisted of executive and high-level administrative employees representing a cross-section of businesses that mirror the U.S. Census Bureau’s demographics breakdown by industry type and size.
When the data is thoroughly processed, it will be very interesting to see the exact size and industry categories of the businesses that are currently underutilizing outsourced destruction services.
The reason respondents reported for not using a shredding service included concerns about the security of using an outside vendor and the misconception that an organization must have "tons" of material to destroy before using a shredding service would make sense.
Included in the dozens of critical consumer attitudes remaining to be discerned are why clients would change service providers, what would make consumers buy in the first place, whether they require contracts, who makes the buying decision, what they know about legislation and how they handle e-destruction.
As a recent article in the Harvard Business Review (March 2006) points out, proceeding to market without such consumer knowledge is extremely inefficient, unwise and risky. NAID is making sure that its members are armed with the detailed information they need to know to make the most of what continue to be areas of growing opportunity.
Bob Johnson is the executive director of the National Association for Information Destruction. He can be reached at exedir@naidonline.org.
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