A business’ records are its lifeblood. Every document, every paper record, is a mark of a business’ interactions with partners, customers and other affiliates. Without the documents, and their effective management systems, the business all but fails to exist. A large part of these documents are comprised of receipts and invoices, contracts and other records of deals conducted. These are incredibly important documents that obviously require effective management and safe-keeping. But there are other documents, records of correspondence between a business and its clients, that, despite being of arguably less important than contracts or invoices, are constantly in review and the process of being updated. If a business’ records are the story of its existence, correspondence records are the history of a business’ interaction with each client. And, without clients, a business really would be nothing. Business correspondence requires proper management. If a business has to deal with deadlines –

The Kenyan legal sector is described by The Legal 500 – a law firm ranking website – as having reached a stage of maturation. That is to say that, today, Kenya’s legal sector has moved on  from its initialising stages. The sector here in Kenya still attracts a variety of international players. Bowmans, Dentons Hamilton Harrison & Mathews, ENSafrica and CMS Daly Inamdar Advocates are a few such firms. But it also has a growing local presence. Kenyan firms include Anjarwalla & Khanna – founding member of the Africa Legal Network –, Asafo & Co., and ENSafrica’s Nairobi office. These local legal professionals are more and more often trained in Kenya and, having left international practices, are setting up their own, uniquely Kenyan firms in this country. Of course, as the country develops economically, greater will be the need for an established and capable legal sector. And as that legal

Keeping and maintaining the records that are important to your business is crucial to the running, and survival, of your company. An effective business manager must make records management part of their responsibility. If an important document goes missing, it can cause delays. It can invite tension into the workplace or block important deals. It can even result in lawsuits being levelled at the company. But an intelligently-contrived records management system does not just keep and maintain documents, it also considers when they must be destroyed. The reason why is that there are potential dangers to keeping too many documents. Especially if your document management system is not discerning when it comes to what is stored. The dangers of keeping too many records: As data protection and the rights to data privacy are considered and developed worldwide, new laws are being passed that will drastically effect records management. Here in

The human resources department of a company is incredible important. It is charged with ensuring that this important resource – the workforce – operates to the best of its ability. Without the effective well-running of the human resources department, some of the most important actions within the company can suffer. The HR department controls what sort of personnel make up the company. It is the human resources department that controls hiring and firing. But, of course, every company process creates a paper trail. And human resources, by nature of what it works with – people -, creates a longer one than many other departments. As a result, human resources departments that do not have an effective records management system can often become bogged down. This can cause incredible inefficiency within this department. And, if a company’s workforce is not working effectively, the whole company isn’t. As a result, document management,

In many companies, every employee will play, at the least, a small part in the document management system. Document management operates at a great variety of different levels. Most obviously, it includes filing correspondence, policies and contract documents, and managing these records' lifespan and organisational system. But document management can also include the organisation of your email correspondence, the maintenance of notes taken from meetings, or taking a note of a potentially important (for your business) phone call. Any article of writing is a records. Though not all of these records will, at first glance, seem to be important enough for keeping, they might prove to be. In business, you never know what notation or piece of documentation will be important for your company. Document management can involve simple tasks like filing what might be necessary and destroying notes that are definitely no longer needed. But document management can also

Every business is different. Some businesses have Operations Managers who are like the glue that keeps the organisation together. They have roles that span the full spectrum of the organisation’s functions and are frequently tasked with some of the more logistical tasks – such as file storage. Or perhaps you are an Office Manager: similar to the Operations Manager but with a role specific to the workplace. It’s your job to make sure the office is a comfortable environment for everyone to work, live and cooperate. Or maybe you are in charge of logistics and the clutter building up from in-house storage methods is beginning to get in the way of the logistical efficiency of the organisation. Whatever job title you have, and regardless of the roles and responsibilities in the organisational structure, it is somebody’s job to make sure the company’s records are in order. Legally, would my business

File and document management in Kenya: - Recently, we published an article demonstrating our thorough understanding of what the banking industry expects of its third-party document management partners. If you would like to read that article, you can access it here. In that previous paper, we presented the lessons we have learnt as records managers for the banking sector. The various banks that comprise this major sector of Kenya’s industry are some of our largest clients. Kenya’s economy grows at a rate that far exceeds many of our neighbouring countries here in East Africa. Much of that economic growth is fuelled by the loans provided by Kenya’s banks. The activity of these banks produces a huge amount of paperwork. We, at the Filing Room, have been storing and managing this paperwork for the last 25 years. The insurance industry is just as important to the continued growth of Kenya’s economy.

When it comes to records management, document archiving, and file storage, it is important you pick the right strategy for your business. Every organisation has different needs and requirements when it comes to records management and these requirements depend on the size, nature, and industry of the organisation. Small businesses, for example, can sometimes implement their own in-house records management systems. This is not to say that their records are less important – it is vitally important that businesses of all sizes keep their records for several years – but smaller businesses are more likely to be able to store their records in a secure area that can be organised easily. Bigger businesses, especially banks, insurance providers, and telecom giants, may require a more substantial space. Therefore, a lot more organisation must go into their records management system to ensure security and rapid file retrieval. Different records management systems Each

File and document management in Kenya: - At the Filing Room, we have been managing, storing and protecting the records of this country’s banking industry for over two decades. Our understanding of records management in Kenya is second to none. And our grasp on how records management can be best tailored to the many banks that finance this country’s businesses is informed and well-educated by years of service. Over the last twenty five years, we have learnt what it is that banks expect of a third-party records management partner. We know every different kind of record that the industry needs stored. And we have developed the most efficient practices to aid and abet both the proper storage and the effective retrieval of these records. As is well-known by both the banking and records management sector, Kenyan corporate law stipulates that paper records must be kept for a minimum of 7

Two weeks ago, on the 2nd of February, the Filing Room’s MD, Patrick Grant, journeyed to Ramba, a village in Western Kenya, to celebrate something special. He took time out from his day-to-day duties running the document storage company to visit an inventive farming project in western Kenya. When Coronavirus restrictions were imposed across Kenya, now nearly a year ago, it had a significant impact on a country as a whole. In Kenya’s rural areas, where open food markets are the main method most people use for securing their essential foodstuffs, these measures often added to hardships experienced in rural communities. In many of Kenya’s poorer areas, subsistence farmers are reliant on open market places. Without them, they cannot sell the produce they grow – mainly maize – and they cannot buy the food necessary to sustain themselves or their families. When the markets were closed, many of the subsistence