Digital preferences

DeAnne Toto

You’ve likely gone digital in many aspects of your life by now, whether it be personal and business correspondence—emails and text messages as opposed to letters, cards and direct mail promotions—or entertainment—Neflix on demand or music downloads. Some of you may even be reading this issue of Storage & Destruction Business on your iPad or online rather than flipping through the print issue.

While we’re definitely too far entrenched in this trend to refer to it as a digital revolution, our use of digital media continues to evolve with time.

However, for some people, the move from analog to digital doesn’t make sense in some cases. These people may prefer listening to vinyl records as opposed to digital downloads, claiming the sound is warmer and the imperfections are part of the charm. In this case, the convenience and instant gratification of a digital download can’t compare with the overall experience of listening to music on vinyl.

Others prefer reading the magazines they subscribe to offline, wishing to unplug from the devices that are with them throughout their workdays to enjoy tactile interaction with the glossy pages of a publication.

The same instant, easy accessibility isn’t always a necessity when it comes to documents used by a records center’s clients, which is why information management firms must take a practical approach in selling document conversion and imaging services. It is not the right solution in all instances, as Mario Skopek of Toronto’s Blue-Pencil Information Security Inc. points out in this issue’s cover story, “Outside the Box,” beginning on page 18.

“Documents that need to be kept for the life of the organization and that they need constant access to justify document conversion,” he says. This option makes less sense for largely inactive records that have a life span of seven to 10 years, Skopek adds.

Rob Hamilton of Norcross, Georgia-based Recall outlines the potential advantages records center clients can realize by converting paper documents in the feature “The Benefits of Going Digital,” beginning on page 22. He cites business continuity, efficiency and compliance as traditional benefits of document conversion while pointing to information governance as an emerging and growing asset. Digitization can support information governance by increasing visibility, improving data quality and mitigating risk, he writes.

Clearly, digital records provide advantages to organizations when used and managed correctly. Commercial records management firms are tasked with helping clients understand when digitization works in their favor and when it works against them as well as with helping their clients establish and stick to strict retention policies for this information, as there is no benefit to keeping data longer than necessary, even if it can be done economically.