What tools will my vendor provide to help me manage my documents?

Most records storage centers will provide online access allowing you to manage your inventory of documents and request related services such as deliveries and pickups.

When selecting a vendor, you may wish to request a demonstration of their web access system.

User-friendliness

Lookfor user-friendliness. The interface should be modern-looking, navigation should be intuitive and terminology used should be easily understandable to somebody seeing the website for the first time.

Get a sense for whether a new user in your organization will be able to figure it out on their own, or whether you will have to train each new user.

Features

Find out what the capabilities of the system are. If you plan on using retention schedules, understand how to create and manage them. If you want to be able to create printed box labels rather than hand-writing descriptions on your boxes, see if that capability exists.

Have your vendor show you how to create a report of your entire inventory, and make sure the process isn't too convoluted.

If you want to use the system to manage your documents internally before they go offsite, make sure the system allows you to create your own locations and manage the check-in and check-out process with a barcode scanner.