While numerous dealers offer shredding services, either through their own secure facilities and processes or via partnerships with OEMs, a few prominent members of the dealer community have stand-alone, branded shredding divisions. Included in that latter group is Applied Imaging, which launched ShredHub nearly three years ago.
Owned by Sandy Lowery, wife of Applied Imaging’s top executive John Lowery, ShredHub offers on-site document destruction as well as hard-drive wiping and destruction. All materials, regardless of composition, are completely recycled without contamination. At the conclusion of a project, ShredHub provides a Green Report that adds perspective on the customer’s carbon footprint reduction.
This Green Report is a critical tool for companies that make sustainability an integral factor in the way they conduct business—some corporations insist upon green initiatives as a prerequisite for partnership. According to ShredHub, each ton of recycled paper reduces a firm’s carbon footprint by 165 gallons of water and 17 trees.
“ShredHub is a natural fit in the progression of our portfolio,” noted Sheila Keller, marketing specialist. “Applied Imaging is very good at managing every stage of the document lifecycle—creating, securing, managing, storing and distributing. With ShredHub, we are now able to destroy documents as well.”
Shredding services through Applied Imaging’s division are not necessarily tied to a backfile scanning project. ShredHub offers one-time purges that enable end-users to climb out from under the document pile at the office or home.
The company makes secure shred bags, which can hold up to 50 pounds, available for the collection of information that may be confidential. These self-sealing bags include a separate layer of security print for optimum privacy. In keeping with environmental sustainability, the bags are manufactured using sustainable forests and are 100% recyclable.
As part of this month’s State of the Industry report on commercial imaging and backfile scanning, we offer a look at the final stop in the journey of the physical document: shredding and destruction. Regardless of its content (paper, microfilm/microfiche, floppy disc, CD-ROM, etc.) this step shouldn’t be viewed as the end of the document lifecycle, but rather the birth of digitization and the assurance that the data lives on with a productive purpose in a database, content management solution or other digital repository.
After all, the main point of scanning is to ensure documents are readily accessible anywhere and anytime, providing time and monetary savings for the end-user—not to mention freeing up valuable real estate within the office. You can light a candle in memory of the hard copy, taking solace in knowing it will return for duty in a recycled state.
Partner Prowess
Coordinated Business Systems of Burnsville, Minnesota, by virtue of its relationship with Kyocera’s DataBank, doesn’t have oversight of the document disposition portion of the commercial imaging engagements, but the offering is included for clients. According to Jeff Osgar, solutions specialist for Coordinated, clients are provided the option to have the documents shredded or returned to them.
“There’s an audit log on the documents—the number of documents and the naming conventions that have been created,” Osgar noted. “That way, we provide the customer with a log of everything that’s been captured prior to destruction. They have that audit track for destruction timelines.”
IMR Digital, the document scanning, imaging and indexing services firm acquired by KDI Office Technology of Aston, Pennsylvania, provides quality control assurance by maintaining physical media for a period of time prior to destruction. David Mielnicki, director of sales, conversion services for IMR Digital, notes clients must complete authorization forms that act as a series of checks and balances. Once all of the authorizations have been cleared and the destruction is performed at IMR Digital, the customer is provided a certificate of destruction.
Anthony Parrell, director of conversion services for IMR Digital, points out that non-paper media can also be properly disposed in an environmentally friendly manner. “If you think about electronic or microfilm media, they also contain metals that need to be properly disposed,” he said. “In some such cases, we will engage a reputable, certified partner company to provide that service.”
In tandem with its partnership with Ricoh and its commercial imaging services, Woodhull LLC of Springboro, Ohio, can offer document destruction through the manufacturer’s offering, notes Robert Woodhull, marketing manager. Woodhull clients can have the documents destroyed with certification or returned, with most opting to simply have them destroyed.
“It’s a soup-to-nuts process for us,” he said. “Working with Ricoh makes the process quite seamless and thorough; they’re there to guide us every step of the way.”
Like IMR Digital, Nashville, Tennessee-based RJ Young employs a disposition process that includes audit forms and certificates of destruction. With expansive scanning operations in both Tennessee and Jackson, Mississippi, the company has crafted a deep competence level based on numerous success stories and satisfied clients.
“We have the ability to be flexible on the back end process, and we act accordingly to the client’s needs and objectives,” said Chad Lagrone, vice president of technology services for RJ Young.
Paper Hoarders?
Repeat Business Systems of Albany, New York, doesn’t offer document destruction services, but rather recommends a local company for final disposition, according to Dawn Abbuhl, company president. In rare instances, customers will opt to hang on to originals; perhaps a safety blanket for firms whose leadership are accustomed to maintaining hardcopies. Some habits die hard.
“They generally don’t keep the originals. Most of the time, we’ll produce a thumb drive with the data or load the information directly into their electronic storage,” Abbuhl said. “It kind of defeats the purpose (to keep originals), but I understand why they might be tempted to.”
