A thorough index and access strategy is a key component of a comprehensive compliant records management program: improving the speed and accuracy of retrieving records, lowering operational and personnel costs and reducing your risk of exposure to penalties and fines for non-compliance

Index records for safe and accurate retrieval

When you're facing a tight deadline for retrieving records, whether for a regulatory action, legal discovery, merger or sale of assets, the same issues arise:

• Can you find all the information you need, even if it's dispersed across your enterprise, stored off-site or buried in terabytes of archived email?
• Can you locate it fast and efficiently without forcing your IT group or compliance staff to work nights and weekends?
• Can you protect that information from unauthorized employees and malicious intruders?

An indexing system that is well designed, supported by technology and routinely followed greatly improves your ability to locate and retrieve records quickly and cost-effectively, whether one at a time or en masse. For example, records may be located by criteria such as subject matter, record creator, method or system of creation, intended recipient or date of creation.

Indexing lays the foundation for accurate reporting on your records inventory as well as auditing of records management activities. By combining proper indexing with sound access policies and methods, Iron Mountain can help you better protect confidential information and meet privacy requirements.

Learn about the guiding principles supporting this best practice