The flip side of retention: Strategies for cleaning up physical records

How are organisations tackling the over-retention of physical records as they speed toward digital transformation? In our August Education Series webinar, I joined expert panelists Bill Morey, Head of Information Governance, Legal Operations at Oracle, and Amy Sheaves, Head of Global Operations Transformation & Solution Strategy at Iron Mountain, to address this critical question and more around the urgency and complexity of paper records cleanup.

Nearly 87% of the listeners we polled during the webinar are prioritising paper cleanup. As these and other organisations transform to more digital ways of working, my fellow panelists and I discussed the crucial task of making timely and defensible decisions about legacy records disposition and how we can apply new technology to this old problem.

Related link: It’s finally time to clean up your legacy records

Privacy regulations and potential penalties are driving the need for effective records disposition

Over 90% of respondents to a 2022 survey stated a goal to eliminate paper records in the next five years. Factors like remote work and workplace cultural shifts, and the emergence of new technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), are driving organisations to create and retain fewer physical records. Records and information management (RIM) leaders are looking to their own programs to help improve operational efficiency by reducing paper storage and increasing information accessibility across geographical and functional areas.