Iron Mountain demystifies records retention

~ guide reveals what you need to keep and what you can throw away ~

July 5, 2005

Iron Mountain, the world’s trusted partner for records management and data protection services, has launched a records retention guide to help organisations of all sizes assess whether their records retention policies are effective and accurate.

The Records Classification and Retention Guide provides a recommended classification scheme based on two questions: What area of business does a particular record relate to? and What type of record is it? Iron Mountain has developed a ‘Recommended Classification Scheme’ based on the answers to these questions, so Business Managers and Compliance Officers know instantly which records to keep and how long they must be retained for.

The user locates the document type according to the business function it relates to. The Classification Scheme then details the retention length and for what specific reason the document should be kept, for example for legal, audit or commercial reasons.

As well as setting out a retention schedule, each of the three major legislation areas - Freedom of Information Act, Data Protection Act and the Companies Act - are clearly summarised in plain English so staff can see what they need to know in relation to records management, at a glance.

"Ineffective record keeping and poorly managed or non-integrated systems lead to wasted time searching for misfiled records, or worse, records that have been destroyed before they should have been," said Andy Maurice, head of consultancy, Iron Mountain Europe."Our guide is designed to prove that a compliant records retention schedule is not complicated to establish, provided that documents are classified according to why they’re being kept and for whose benefit."