Iron Mountain Announces the Sale of its Digital Assets
Iron Mountain, Boston, has signed an agreement to sell its online backup and recovery, digital archiving and eDiscovery business to Autonomy Corp., Cambridge, U.K., for $380 million. The deal, pending regulatory approval, is expected to be completed within 60 days of the mid-May announcement.
Richard Reese, Iron Mountain chairman and CEO, who recently replaced Robert Brennan, says, “Autonomy is a global leader in infrastructure software for the enterprise, assuring that our customers will be well-serviced and our employees will have greater opportunities. This was the right transaction at the right time for our customers, our employees and our shareholders.” He adds, “As we move forward, Iron Mountain will continue to deliver technology services to solve our customers’ digital information management challenges through partnerships.”
| Sales Minute |
| Getting Out of a Slump |
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So much in baseball can relate to sales and marketing. One great example of this is the hitting slump. How a player gets into that slump and how he gets out of it is similar to how a sales professional gets into and out of a slump. Baseball players get into a slump because they either have developed a “mechanical flaw” in their swing or their work ethic is lacking. They start pressing to get a hit and tense up, which is transparent to the pitcher. Sound familiar? Most sales people (or business owners) who get into a slump are there because of something they did (mechanical flaw) and they’re not really working hard enough to get out of it. |
Iron Mountain sold its digital archiving, eDiscovery and online backup and recovery solutions but not its technology escrow, medical records archive services and other smaller operations that were recently closed.
“Processing customer data in the cloud continues to be a strategic part of Autonomy’s information governance business,” Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch says. “We look forward to extending regulatory compliance, legal discovery and analytics to a host of new customers as well as enabling the intelligent collection and processing of non-regulatory data from distributed servers, PCs and especially tens of millions of mobile devices,” he adds.
Retrievex Acquires New England Firm
Retrievex Inc., a Conshohocken, Pa.-based document storage firm, has announced the acquisition of Millennium Records Management, based in Franklin, Mass. Millennium provides hard copy and data vault storage services as well as confidential document destruction services throughout the New England area.
According to Retrievex founder, President and CEO J. Peter Pierce, the transaction broadens the company’s customer base in New England. Retrievex presently operates nine different locations throughout the United States.
Bill Donovan, owner of Millennium Records Management, says, “It has always been important to me that our company provides service unmatched in the industry. Now, by joining Retrievex, not only will this continue to be true, but our customers will have broader and more robust systems and more comprehensive alternatives in information management available to them.”
NAID Introduces Website for Medical Offices
The National Association for Information Destruction (NAID), the Phoenix-based trade organization for the secure information destruction industry, has announced the launch of www.properPHIdisposal.net. The website, which supports NAID’s Doctors’ Office Marketing Program, offers small and mid-size medical practices with information and resources designed to protect health and personal information.
“Doctor’s offices are unaware of the dramatic changes to data protection requirements in the recently amended HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulation,” says NAID CEO Bob Johnson. “The website creates a non-invasive way to educate them on the new risks and guide them to the conclusion that a qualified service provider is their best solution.”
Last fall, NAID commissioned focus groups of health care office administrators. More than 90 percent of these medical administrators were unaware that HIPAA had recently been amended, according to the association.
Destruction professionals can steer perspective clients to the site without fear that they will find alternate service providers once there. Johnson says, “There is no link back to any directory of competitors anywhere on the site.”
David Surdyk, NAID public relations committee chair, says the site references “resources” that are available to medical facilities. “It would be tough to benefit from this new page if a service provider does not have access to these tools,” he adds.
The website includes information on the new amendments to HIPAA; access to employee training tools (including a free training video); articles on medical information disposal; instructions for access to modified, compliant contracts; and tools to evaluate the relative benefits of outsourcing secure destruction requirements to a qualified vendor.
Shred Right Acquires Elite Shredding
Shred Right, based in St. Paul, Minn., and the Owatonna, Minn., and Mason City, Iowa, locations of mobile shredding company Elite Shredding have merged operations under the Shred Right brand. The acquisition was completed April 22, 2011.
Stephanie Curtis manages Elite Shredding Inc., which also has locations in Utah and Nevada that were not involved in the transaction. She will remain with Shred Right.
Jim Beran, Shred Right vice president of new business development, says, “The acquisition helps both companies provide a stronger presence that will be better for our customers.”
He adds that Elite Shredding fits in well with Shred Right’s recent acquisition of Document Destruction Service Ltd., a mobile destruction firm based in St. Paul.
Elite’s Owatonna employees will remain with Shred Right, expanding the company’s workforce to 30, Beran says.
With the addition of Elite’s two on-site destruction trucks, Shred Right now operates 14 shred trucks and services Minnesota, western Wisconsin, Northern Iowa and the eastern Dakotas.
Shred Right is AAA Certified by the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) for on-site and off-site destruction of paper media and hard drives.
| NAID Briefing: Equipped for the Job |
| Using the right tools is key to operating a successful secure destruction business. |
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Common sense tells us that the right tools and right skills are necessary to properly do any job. The best heart surgeon in the world is helpless without the right instruments and a sterile environment. At the same time, surgical instruments and an operating room are of no value to a person who doesn’t know how to use them. While the analogy might seem less dramatic when applied to the secure destruction industry, it is no less true. It would be hard to argue that a trained salesperson, armed with a plan and the right tools, will not do considerably better than one who is flailing around, hit or miss, left to his or her own devices. To deny that would be foolish. That is why, over the coming year, NAID will emphasize its “Use Your Tools” campaign. Although we will continue to produce many new and innovative programs to make sure members are well-equipped and well-trained, we see it as just as important to make sure those members understand and know the value of those programs. |
IROW Receives NAID Certification
IROW, a Mosinee, Wis.-based recycling and document destruction company, has been certified for the ninth consecutive year to the standards established by the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID), Phoenix.
IROW President Cory Tomczyk says the certification “gives our customers the peace of mind knowing that we are doing the right thing.”
Cintas Acquires Phoenix Storage Firm
Cincinnati-based Cintas Corp. has acquired Phoenix-based FACS Records Center, formerly a division of Target Commercial Interiors Inc. The company operates an off-site records management facility.
Cintas says the acquisition will strengthen its presence in Arizona and the Southwest.
NAID Honors Jeff Dietterich
The National Association for Information Destruction (NAID), Phoenix, presented its 2011 Member of the Year award to Jeff Dietterich, president of Souderton, Pa.-based Advanced Equipment Sales (AES), at the association’s annual conference in Orlando, Fla., in March.
Jim Beran, outgoing NAID president, presented Dietterich with the award at the conference’s opening keynote session. Beran noted that the award marked the first time that NAID recognized an associate member.
NAID CEO Bob Johnson cited Dietterich’s dedication to the industry and, in particular, his chairmanship of the NAID Health and Safety Committee as deciding factors in the selection process.
The Health and Safety Committee recently completed drafting operational and manufacturing safety standards for mobile and plant-based shredding equipment.
“Over the last year, and throughout the process of creating the new safety guidelines, Jeff not only exhibited clear leadership and insight, he was also keenly aware [of] and sensitive to how the new standards would impact the average destruction company,” Johnson said. “And, on top of all that, he showed that he was not afraid to roll up his sleeves and do most of the heavy lifting himself to keep the project on course.”
AES provides integrated shredding, baling and dust-control systems for mobile and plant-based secure destruction companies and other industrial processes and has been an associate member of NAID since 2003.
| Digital Information Security |
| Proshred Franchise Acquires Secure e-Cycle Todd McCullough, owner of the Lenexa, Kan.-based Proshred Security document shredding franchise serving Kansas and Missouri, has acquired Lenexa-based Secure e-Cycle, a company that provides destruction and recycling of obsolete electronics. “Paper shredding has become commonplace, and this is the next logical step,” McCullough says. “As companies upgrade their computers and other electronics, they need a responsible way to dispose of their old equipment.” Secure e-Cycle, which has been in business for more than 10 years, offers data destruction, recycling and remarketing of electronics. The company employs an asset tracking and reporting system that can provide on-demand reports, certificates of destruction and continuity of ownership documents that prove each asset has been handled in accordance with laws and regulations, a press release issued by Proshred states. USMe Introduces Hard Drive Destruction Service USMe, the electronics recycling division of Universal Scrap Metals of Chicago, has introduced a new hard drive destruction service called DataNoMore, which shreds the devices and provides a certificate of destruction. Hard-drive mailers can be ordered from www.datanomore.com. For $10 per hard drive (less in the case of volume shipments), DataNoMore logs receipt and processing of the drive, shreds the device and sends a certificate of destruction noting how and where it was processed. DataNoMore says that if any information is retrieved from a hard drive that has undergone its process the company will cover damages up to $1 million. |
Blancco, IQ Reseller Form Partnership
Blancco, headquartered in Joensuu, Finland, has signed a partnership arrangement with IQ Reseller, based in the United States. Blancco provides software services for data erasure and computer re-use solutions. IQ Reseller provides enterprise resource planning software designed for IT asset disposal (ITAD) specialists, resellers and recyclers.
Blancco says integrating its software with IQ Reseller’s ERP system, which obtains hardware details needed for remarketing computer and other hard drives, is designed to eliminate the risk of data breaches.
The IQ Reseller ERP system works with Blancco Management Console, an online solution for handling IT asset disposal, including hardware IT asset management and data erasure reporting. The console integrates with the IQ Reseller system to support user creation of default attribute templates for IT assets.
Equipment Report:
Shred-Tech Introduces Dual-Mode Mobile Shredder
The latest offering from Cambridge, Ontario-based Shred-Tech is the patent-pending MDX-1, which the company describes as “the industry’s first ultra-high security mobile shredding unit not reliant on screens or the movement of stacked shredders.”
The MDX-1 features the ST-15-H shredder, which is capable of switching between standard and high-security modes with the touch of a button. While in standard mode, the ST-15H shredder can achieve throughput of up to 6,500 pounds per hour, according to Shred-Tech. In high-security mode, the shredder can achieve a throughput of up to 2,500 pound per hour.
The patent-pending Gripper Tipper® retractable bin tunnel loading system is standard with the MDX-1. The Gripper Tipper is designed to provide easy ground or curbside loading of standard containers, while the bin tunnel is designed to provide a safe environment for workers and to keep information secure during loading, Shred-Tech says.
The MDX-1 features Shred-Tech’s Plus 1® micro-control system, which provides real-time video of the shredding process. Plus 1 communicates with the truck chassis to allow for remote starts and stops, provides shredding system performance data and individually actuates each system component in maintenance mode, the company says.
Shred-Tech’s twin-screw angled compactor and moving floor loading system help to achieve a payload of up to 13,000 pounds.
The MDX-1 operates on ultra-low-sulfur diesel or B5 diesel and also features Shred-Tech’s Predictive Idle technology, which is designed to improve fuel savings and to reduce shredder and engine hours by sensing the shredder’s load and shutting down the system once it’s finished shredding.
More information about the MDX-1 is available by phoning 800-465-3214, visiting www.shred-tech.com or e-mailing shred@shred-tech.com.