Lost Information

A few years ago I dealt with a client that stored its business documents in various self storage units within a small self storage facility.  While assessing their situation, I was able to visit the self storage units to better understand their storage issues and get an idea on how we would approach the project.  Most self storage units have roll-up doors and as I attempted to open the first unit, the door would only roll up so far (maybe 2 or 3 feet).  I bent down to figure out what the problem was and discovered that stacks of boxes had fallen into the door, impeding it from opening further.  We had to push a box back to raise the door another foot or so, then another box to raise it even more until we were finally able to roll up the door entirely.  Stacks of boxes had fallen over and loose files were spread all over the storage unit floor.  The employee that accompanied me to access the storage units and I had a brief conversation that went something like this,

Me: "How do you find files in this mess?"  
Employee: "Many times we don't find the files that we need."
Me: "What do you tell your supervisor or the individual requesting the file?"
Employee: "I just say the I couldn't find the file."
Me: "So, what do you do next. The file was requested because it was needed, right?"
Employee: "Yes, we either deal with it being lost or re-create it if possible."


The above experience is a prime example of the two following statistics.


“67% of data loss is directly related to user blunders, making them 30 times more menacing than viruses and the leading cause of data loss” (Tandberry Data, 1998). 

“Office workers can waste up to two hours a day looking for misplaced paperwork--at total of 500 hours (62.5 days) per year” (TN).

When there is no system in place, information gets lost.  When information gets lost, expenses are incurred.  My client had no system in place and as different employees returned files to storage, they eventually got lost due to misplacement.  This spurred the need to look for hours at a time for any one file that was needed.  A systematic approach to managing your business files will help to avoid losing information and losing time to hours spent searching.  Many times, we don't realize problems until an issue arises that unearths it (e.g. an audit).  This is when it hurts and the expenses begin to pile up.  

Assess your document management system and implement best practices within your organization to avoid losing the information that makes your company profitable.