Records Storage
Why archive your records?
A company’s records are its lifeblood. They contain your history, your experience and often vital information about your customers, partners and personnel. Aside from the legal requirement to retain accounting records, having access to customer and employment records can offer vital protection against litigation.
The Benefits of off-site archiving
Some companies have enough space to retain their records on-site. Over time, records start to take up valuable office space, they become disorganised and eventually start to block access while becoming more and more difficult to retrieve. Worse still, having your records on-site may not be as secure as you think. The people who may want to tamper with records can often access them when they are held on site.
Soon, the need for professional document management becomes apparent. Archiving at The Filing Room gives you all the space you will ever need in a secure environment. And with a history going back a quarter of a century in East Africa, you know you will be in safe hands. You’ll have a full inventory of every file in the archive when you choose to be managed at file-level. At the Filing Room, our only concern is the proper management of your records. We concentrate on protection from fire, from flood and from intruders. We do this with an extensive centrally monitored alarm, with smoke and heat detectors and with automatic dry powder sprinklers. In addition, we fumigate regularly to ensure our facilities remain free from rodents and insects.
Record Management Options
What should you choose? File Level or Box Level?
Box Level
With Box-level Management you will retain your own record or what is inside each box. When you need to make a retrieval, you simply ask us for a box number and we will send you the box. In certain circumstances, if you know a specific file name within a box, we can retrieve that file. The monthly charge for Box-level Management is the same as that for File-level Management.
File-Level
With File-level Management the Filing Room will take a detailed inventory of every file within each box. When you need to make a retrieval, you can request the file name. We will retrieve that specific file. While the monthly charge is the same as for Box-level Management, there is an additional one-off charge at set up in order to create the inventory.
Barcoded & Automated
At the Filing Room we use O’Neil RS-SQL Records Centre Software. This software allows us to track every box and record within the facility. We barcode each box and scan it to a location within the facility. We also give every file a unique reference number so that when a file has been retrieved and returned to us, we will simply scan the barcode to locate its original location. In addition, we can licence customers to access information about their records online.
The Benefits of O’Neil RS-SQL Records Centre Software
- Every box is given a unique barcode
- Every file carries a unique identifier number
- Every file or box has its barcode scanned whenever it is moved or retrieved
- All retrievals are automatically recorded and tracked once scanned by the barcode reader
- Files are always re-filed in the correct place when returned as the barcode system prompts Filing Room staff on the correct location
- A fully automated system means we always know the location of a file – whether it is in our facility or retrieved.
How to get started?
Contact us on +254 20 2663263 for a free no obligation quotation. We may need to do a free survey to offer an indicative cost. The will be an initial set-up cost made up of three parts – purchase of archive boxes to store the records in, transport of the records to the Filing Room and creating an inventory (if we are managing you at file-level). There will be a monthly storage charge per archive box. Finally, you may incur some ad hoc charges for additional services such as destruction, retrieval or scanning.
A standard archive box will hold 4 box files. We will barcode every box so we can automatically track its location. For customers who opt for file-level management each file will have a unique number identifier and once retrieved will be tracked by barcode readers. Using these readers and our Records Management Software, we will always know where a file belongs when it is returned to us.
Digitising
When its time to consider digitising your documents, we’re here to help. We offer a range of archiving scanning services from quick Scan-on-Demand delivery to high volume Scanning. Scan-on-demand is perfect if you need a document retrieved in a hurry but don’t need the original paper file on your desk. High Volume is the perfect answer for those documents that are retrieved and shared often or for those documents that are just too important not be backed-up.
Scan-on-demand
With this service, you can request for your stored files and documents to be scanned on demand.
Once documents are scanned they will be available via email to authorised recipients, once the proper authorisations have been set up. The benefits are a reduced delivery time for retrieval, its cheaper than a physical delivery and, perhaps most importantly, the actual file is never at risk from being lost while its out of our archive. Contact us at info@filingroomkenya.com for more information.
High Volume Digitising
We all have documents that are just too important to exist in just one physical format. In this case, we recommend a digital copy is taken and stored in the cloud as a secure back-up. But there may well be parts of your archive that are accessed often or needed in several locations at the same time. In these cases, we’re here to offer you the convenience and safety of bulk-scanning for your documents. Find out more about our archive document scanning services by contacting us on-line or calling 254 20 2663263, 0788 715431, 0704 304415.
Inventory Creation
If we are to manage your records at File Level, its essential that we have an accurate inventory of the records we hold. Some people call this cataloguing, some call it indexing but whatever name is used it is vital that we capture, classify and record file content to allow for efficient retrieval and timely destruction. We have an in-house inventory facility with an experienced team who have completed projects well in excess of 100,000 file entries. To ensure data integrity, we have developed a strict data-input template which demands the highest levels of accuracy prior to importation into our O’Neil Records Management Software.
Whilst we prefer to manage the inventory process at our facility, on-site work can also be undertaken. This would be most appropriate for archives or registries that are to be managed at the customer’s site. Call us on 0704 304415 or contact us by email for more information
Archive Box Supply
A standard archive box will hold 4 box files. It harder to estimate how many spring files will fit in a box because they can vary greatly in width. With very large spring files it might be a low as 8 files per box but more normal files are thinner and a box will probably hold 20 files.
Order for your own use. Click here for a QUICK QUOTE
Records Destruction
We offer a secure off-site destruction service. We will collect records from your site, destroy by pulping at a secure site in Nairobi and issue a Certificate of Destruction.
We are unable to destroy material other than records and files.
Under no circumstances can customer employees accompany the records to be destroyed.
Registry Management & Consultancy
Out-sourced document management is undoubtedly the best long-term solution to manage an archive but we recognise some customers have genuine reasons for keeping significant quantities of records on their own site. Maybe you need a small registry of records that are referenced often, maybe for historical reasons you actually have your own off-site archive facilities, or maybe you have so much available space that you just can’t justify outsourcing. If this sounds like you but you also want to make sure your records are properly managed then our Registry Management and Consultancy Service may be what you’re looking for.
We offer a full range of services here including:
- Embedded Archivists on long or short-term assignments
- Registry and Inventory Creation
- Best Practice Consultancy