For Records and Information Management Month, Consider Your Own Data Practices

Back in 1995, the Association of Records Managers and Administrators were in the midst of campaigning for the renewal of the Paperwork Reduction Act. As a part of their efforts, they created National Records and Information Management Day. Over the years since, it has expanded into a week, and then into an entire month, for businesses around the world to consider their record-keeping practices.

In light of the holiday, let’s go over some best practices to keep in mind year-round.

Data Management Practices for Business Success

There are various ways that you can optimize the data that your business stores, such as:

Being Smart About Your Storage

You’re going to need someplace to keep your data. Rather than keeping data on individual workstations and devices, we always recommend that you keep it in a shared network location, stored on a centralized server. This allows you to not only maintain greater control over your data, it also enables greater collaborative potential.

Using Multiple Forms of Data Storage

It’s important that you also keep multiple copies of your data, in various formats. We’ve already mentioned keeping your data on a centralized server. Don’t stop there—lean on cloud resources to maintain additional copies. This not only can make remote work and collaboration more attainable, it can also assist with your business continuity by better ensuring you have access to your data should something keep you out of the office…or worse, something has happened to your in-office infrastructure.

We frequently espouse the benefits of something called the 3-2-1 Backup methodology, which is effectively shorthand for proper business continuity data management—you want to maintain (at least) three copies of your data, in (at least) two storage mediums, (at least) one of which being cloud-based.

Establishing Standards

Keeping your data is one thing. Using it is another thing entirely, and one that relies on your ability to find the data that you’re seeking out. This is precisely why it is important that you create and commit to naming conventions that explain what the data in question is so it is easy to locate it later.

To do so, you need to create a format that all files will follow, involving details like dates, project names, and other useful tidbits that will help identify your data and make it easier to organize and seek out when needed.

We Can Help You Keep Track of One of Your Business’ Most Essential Resources

Reach out to SMART Services today at 586 258-0650 to learn how we can help you manage your data, and the rest of your essential IT.