Industry News

Access Information Management Expands through Acquisitions
Rob Alston, CEO of Access Information Management, headquartered in Livermore, Calif., has announced the company’s acquisition of Retrievex Inc., a records and information management (RIM) services provider headquartered in Conshohocken, Pa. Retrievex has operations in 15 U.S. markets and in Costa Rica.

“We have contacted our top clients in every market, and they have been very excited,” Alstson says of the acquisition. “They can’t wait to take advantage of our new national footprint.”

The transaction also represents Access’ entry into the New England market and a major expansion throughout the Northeast and Midwest.

With its acquisition of Retrievex, Access became the largest privately held RIM services provider in the United States, with more than 17 million cubic feet of records under management. Alston adds that as a result of the merger, Access now has more than $100 million in annual revenue and serves 26 markets across the United States.

In Brief

Shred-it Sets Guinness World Record
The mobile document destruction firm Shred-it, with corporate headquarters in Toronto, has set a Guinness World Record for the most paper collected in 24 hours at multiple venues. The company set the record at the annual 9NEWS Shred-a-Thon in Denver May 19, 2012, collecting in excess of 463,000 pounds of paper, according to the Guinness World Records website.

The Shred-a-Thon was part of a larger event for Metro Denver Crime Stoppers designed to draw awareness to and help remove the potential for ID theft while raising funds to help solve crimes. Five Denver-based locations participated in the effort, beating last year’s 2011 Shred-a-Thon record by 43 percent.


Piranha Paper Shredding Receives NAID Certification

Piranha Paper Shredding, based in Neenah, Wis., has achieved National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) AAA certification for its mobile- and plant-based operations. The AAA certification includes endorsements for paper/printed media, micro-media, computer hard drive and nonpaper media destruction.


Allshred Renews NAID Certification
Maumee, Ohio-based Allshred Services, a secure document shredding company, has achieved AAA certification from the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) for the 11th consecutive year.

Allshred Services also has achieved NAID certification for its new Worthington, Ohio, facility.

“The acquisition of Retrievex positions Access to lead our industry,” Alston says. “The companies’ shared commitment to outstanding service, our complementary footprints and the merged management team create a powerful combined entity.”

Peter Pierce, formerly of Pierce Leahy Archives, is founder, president and CEO of Retrievex. He also is enthusiastic about the merger. “The industry I have been part of for more than 40 years now has a new, strong and agile national player,” Pierce says. “Our clients will benefit significantly from Access’ broadened market presence and continually strengthening capabilities, including a full array of information management solutions, both paper based and digital.”

Nate Campbell, chief operating officer at Access, will lead the integration of the two companies in conjunction with Retrievex COO W. Price Brannon, who will become chief information officer of Access.

The integration is expected to take up to six months, Campbell says, adding that much of the process will be completed within 60 to 90 days of the close of the acquisition. All of the acquired operations will use the Access name.

Campbell refers to the merger with Retrievex as a “combination of equals.” He says, “Culturally, the companies match very well. Access and Retrievex share a commitment to responsive customer service, which will ensure a smooth transition for our clients and our prospects.

“In the near term,” Campbell continues, “customers will be able to take advantage of expanded services in the digital space and utilize our combined best practices in managing image capture and digital hosting.”

Additionally, Access has acquired Adams Data Management, which it describes as the largest independent RIM services provider in Georgia, with facilities in Tucker and Gainesville. This transaction expands the company’s southeastern regional operations and adds to Access Information Management’s facilities and capabilities in the Greater Atlanta market.


COR365 Information Solutions Expands

COR365 Information Solutions, a records storage firm headquartered in Winston-Salem, N.C., has purchased an 81,000-square-foot facility in the Hart Business Park, Charlotte, N.C., for $3.3 million. The company invested an additional $1.5 million in renovations to the facility.

COR365 Information Solutions says it has approximately 1,200 clients and stores and manages more than 1.3 million cubic feet of paper records and 250,000 electronic backup tapes. It also shreds and recycles 2,400 tons of paper and captures and stores more than 18 million document images per year.

The new facility is outfitted with a 1,450-square-foot data protection vault and a records center that can store and manage 500,000 cubic feet of boxes. The site features a fire protection system, around-the-clock security monitoring and areas that are temperature and humidity controlled, Cor365 says.

Chris Kelley, COR365 Information Solutions CEO, says the investment was driven by client demand for document imaging, tape vaulting, shredding, file management and storage services.

“We’ve found Charlotte to be a great market for the complete complement of information management solutions we deliver,” Kelley says. “Businesses have discovered that we can help them streamline their operations and lower their costs while delivering a level of customer service unmatched in the industry,” he adds.

When COR365 Information Solutions entered the Charlotte market in 2008, it was known as DataChambers Records Management. The new name was prompted by the sale of a former sister company, which retained the DataChambers Records Management name, to North State Communications.


Cintas Reports First Quarter Financial Results
Cincinnati-based Cintas Corp. has reported results for the first quarter, ended Aug. 31, 2012, of its 2013 fiscal year.

Revenue for the quarter was $1.05 billion, a 3.4 percent increase compared with the first quarter of fiscal year 2012. Organic growth, which adjusts for the impact of acquisitions, compared with 2012’s first quarter, was 3.2 percent. However, recycled paper prices remained lower than last fiscal year, the company says, and this negatively affected consolidated revenue by $8.3 million, or 0.8 percent, compared with the corresponding quarter of fiscal year 2012.

In a conference call regarding the company’s finances for the first quarter, Cintas CEO Scott D. Farmer said, “Keep in mind that in addition to negatively impacting revenue, lower recycled paper prices directly impact operating income as well. Aside from these two items, the improvement in operating margin was mainly due to continued efforts to manage our cost structure.”

Cintas’ Document Management division posted nearly $85,400 in revenue for the three months ended Aug. 31, 2012, realizing a gross margin of slightly more than $41,900.


Award Recognizes Titan Mobile Shredding’s Growth

Titan Mobile Shredding LLC, based in Pipersville, Pa., is among the 25 fastest-growing companies in the Greater Lehigh Valley. The award program, produced by business news publication Lehigh Valley Business, is presented by ParenteBeard.

The inaugural Lehigh Valley Business Fastest Growing Companies awards “honors the Lehigh Valley’s most dynamic for-profit businesses and their contributions to the growth and success of our region,” according to Lehigh Valley Business.

Selection criteria included revenues of at least $500,000 for the past three out of four years and revenue growth from fiscal year 2008 to 2011.

Presenting sponsor, accounting and auditing firm ParenteBeard, calculated the nominations and then ranked the companies according to revenue growth during the four-year period. Both dollar and percentage increases were taken into consideration.

Lehigh Valley Business and ParenteBeard honored this year’s fastest growing companies at an awards luncheon held in conjunction with the Lehigh Valley Expo 2012 in mid-October.

Don Adriaansen and Bob Leventhal founded Titan Mobile Shredding LLC in 2005. In 2007, the company says it became the first National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) AAA certified mobile document destruction company in eastern Pennsylvania.

Titan Mobile Shredding provides secure on-site document destruction and media and hard drive destruction.


Recall Expands use of RFID Technology

Recall, headquartered in Norcross, Ga., has announced that it is using radio frequency identification (RFID) on more than 25 million cartons worldwide.

RFID technology helps Recall customers maintain compliance with strict regulations, including regional privacy acts and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), by providing audit reports that confirm and validate the location of critical files, according to the company.

“Recall was the first global records management company to offer RFID tags on the carton level,” says Elton Potts, Recall group president and COO. “By surpassing the 25 million carton milestone, Recall continues its leadership with the industry’s most precise auditing and tracking capabilities.”


HHS Alleges Massachusetts Health Care Provider Violated HIPAA
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Associates Inc. (known collectively as MEEI) have agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) $1.5 million to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule. MEEI also agreed to take corrective action to improve policies and procedures to safeguard the privacy and security of its patients’ protected health information, according to HHS.

The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) investigation followed a breach report submitted by MEEI, as required by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) Breach Notification Rule, of the theft of an unencrypted personal laptop containing the electronic protected health information (ePHI) of MEEI patients and research subjects, including prescriptions and clinical information.

In addition to the $1.5 million settlement, the agreement requires MEEI to adhere to a corrective action plan, which includes reviewing, revising and maintaining policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule. An independent monitor will conduct assessments of MEEI’s compliance and render semiannual reports to HHS for a three-year period, the agency says.

OCR’s investigation indicated MEEI failed to take necessary steps to comply with requirements of the Security Rule, such as conducting a thorough analysis of the risk to the confidentiality of ePHI maintained on portable devices and implementing security measures sufficient to ensure the confidentiality of ePHI that MEEI created, maintained and transmitted using portable devices.

“This enforcement action emphasizes that compliance with the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules must be prioritized by management and implemented throughout an organization, from top to bottom,” OCR Director Leon Rodriguez says.

Get curated news on YOUR industry.

Enter your email to receive our newsletters.

Read Next

Be Prepared