Document Management Tips

• Not all records lend themselves to digital storage. Long-term/archival storage in a digital format is expensive and difficult to maintain because digital documents will have to migrate to new storage methodologies on a frequent basis in order to avoid technological obsolescence. Remember that today's state of the art digital storage medium is the equivalent to the 8-track tape of yesteryear.

• The most cost effective long term/archival storage method is paper or microfilm. Both mediums are extremely stable and avoid the issue of technology obsolescence. Note: This low cost aspect may not be as cost effective for applications that have a high volume of access to the documents.

• The best digital documents are those that have a relatively short life span, are very active and are shared by many users.

• Determining which document storage method is the most cost effective requires a through understanding of records management techniques as well as a sound foundation in technology. If you've been advised to "scan everything" or "put everything in the records center", get a second opinion, it might just save you a lot of money.

Smeadlink: a complete document management solution. Check out Smeadlink Software.


SmeadLink's ColorBar Gold's remarkable label printing system is the best way to maintain control over paper records. See ColorBar Labels.

Need a cost effective document tracking and management system? Check out Kardex's IMMS system.