Maintaining physical records is always an uphill task for businesses. Out of multiple threats that comes along with storing physical documents in an office, the risk of losing records integrity is an important one. “Information without integrity has no value!” Many businesses are yet to fully understand the importance of record-keeping compliance that are niche their industries as mandated by their regulatory authorities. Failing to adhere to such compliances or having to deal with cases where integrity of records are lost will attract huge distress, financial loss and loss of customer trust. Let us take a look at what do we mean by integrity of records and how do we maintain them. What is Records Integrity? Simply put, the integrity of records means keeping the records complete and authentic. In the era of information and insights, any record that is created is important and essential to be maintained as it is across its value chain. Any forms of edits or loss or misuse of information from these records will defeat the whole purpose. Records created should be unaltered from top-down or bottom-up, so that insightful planning and confident decision making can happen. Wrong information will completely mislead the whole planning and derail the effort in attaining desired business goals. Let’s take a look at some of the aspects that affect integrity of records. Major threats to the integrity of the records Loss of data: Another major threat is the loss of data. This may happen due to records ageing, handling mistakes either human-made or natural disasters. But failing to maintain integrity by losing partial or complete records will bring huge issues to the company and you may get in the loop of lengthy legal issues. So securing your data in a safe place is inevitable. Fraudulence: Corporate espionage can be another significant threat to maintain integrity of records. Both internal and external users who have access to the records and involved in the creation, storing and maintenance of records need to be educated, monitored and governed with comprehensive record access protocols. Competition: Successful businesses have lots of competitors. There are high chances that some fierce competitors may run targeted attempts at spoiling the integrity of your business records. The touchpoints of complete records management cycle need to be studied, mapped with security protocols and access controls need to be ensured. Ensuring a robust records management governance program is vital to remain competitive and profitable. How do we ensure integrity of records? Ensure records contain all the content, structural and contextual information necessary to document transactions — so they are complete Reliability exists when the content of records fully and accurately represents the transactions, activities or facts to which they attest and can be depended upon in the course of subsequent transactions or activities. Ensure there is ample documentation and track record across the creation, storing and maintaining of documents are in place so that there is Integrity Ensure that records meet stringent recordkeeping compliance as dictated by the regulatory and statutory authorities for the respective industries Implementing a record management program is key in protecting the integrity of records. With many businesses focusing on their core business, they seek support from record management companies or records and information management consultants. Together they establish a records management program that can take care of records integrity across the whole life cycle. If your business needs to protect integrity of records, you may get in touch with KAYMAN – The trusted Records storage and management company in Chennai, India. With over 40 years of collective document storage and management expertise and their best-in-class document storage facility, they can help implementing a records and information management process.