During the year ahead many enterprises will look for effective steps to better manage information in order to realize important business benefits. One area that can potentially improve efficiency, reduce risk and enhance compliance may come as a surprise to many businesses: records management.

Why a surprise? The reason is that while most organizations recognize the value of effectively managing information, many of them do not dedicate the necessary resources to an important subset of this activity. This occurs despite the fact that successful records programs are critical for effectual governance, risk management, reputation protection and strategic decision making. The good news is that records management best practices – whether outsourced or managed internally – can yield important business benefits. Canon Business Process Services, Inc., a leading provider of managed services and technology, spotlights six of these practices to consider for 2013:

• Process analysis – Analyze current processes and procedures to create a benchmark between the current state and desired outcome.
• Records classification – Either at creation or upon receipt, classify each record as such to ensure that it is recognized appropriately, and then separate the documents that have no value or are copies and can thus be discarded.
• Retention and Disposition – Create a retention schedule that will help determine what data or information should be declared a record, and how each record should be managed throughout its lifecycle. This also includes the later stages such as disposition, when either permanent archiving or destruction takes place.
• Electronic Records Management – Manage records electronically, which can dramatically reduce document retrieval time, freeing up staff to work on tasks of higher value than filing, storing and searching.
• Physical Records Management – Establish a records center for secure access to physical records. This should involve rigorous electronic tracking to allow for more efficient archiving and retrieval. It is important to note that electronic and paper-based records should be managed in a similar fashion, not disjointedly as is the norm within many corporations.
• Document Imaging and Data Capture – Utilize paper to digital conversion services and technology that includes scanning, coding, OCR (optical character recognition) and document discovery.

For more information as well as to download white papers, case histories, survey reports and more, visit the Records Management and Imaging Services page of the Canon Business Processing Services web site.

About Canon Business Process Services

Canon Business Process Services, Inc. is a leading provider of managed services and technology that enable organizations to improve operational efficiency while reducing risk and cost. Experts apply quality management principles and tools such as Six Sigma® to advance performance to a higher level. The company offers services including BPO, imaging, records management, print, mail and eDiscovery, and is an IAOP Global Outsourcing 100 Leader in 2013 for the seventh consecutive year. Based in New York City, Canon Business Process Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon U.S.A., Inc. Learn more at www.cbps.canon.com or follow us on Twitter.

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