The insights data generates can be priceless—but only if people can find them and put them to good use. And that’s tough to do, because the information flow has becomes a flood, with over 402 terabytes of data created each day, or 147 zettabytes each year. Complicating the picture, most data is contained in unstructured formats like emails, chats, PDFs, text messages, and videos. That means it can’t be analyzed by traditional systems, making it difficult to understand, secure, and integrate into business functions.

As a result, knowledge workers are overwhelmed with data, and 47% struggle to find the information needed to perform their jobs effectively, according to Gartner. The data they do find is often outdated or error-riddled, leading them to faulty conclusions. Thirty-two percent of respondents in the Gartner survey said they had made a wrong decision because they lacked access to the right data.

To improve decision-making and productivity, and ensure that enterprise data is unified, secure, and compliant, companies must find a way to tame the digital deluge. But given today’s massive volumes of incoming information, how is that possible?

The process is less daunting than you might think. The solution requires an effective, universal content management system, streamlined data governance, and synchronized knowledge sharing.

Rethinking Content Management to Improve Search

Most organizations have central digital repositories, paper filing systems, or both to contain and manage content. But these systems were not built for the vast volumes of information circulating today. They don’t scale or accommodate changes easily and they lack the ability to finely categorize data, sending users seeking a needle in the haystack inside a barnful of irrelevant results.

Smarter content management tools can solve these problems, allowing employees to obtain the information they need quickly and work more efficiently.

One of the most important content management tools is metadata. Often referred to as “data about data,” metadata tags attach important information to content, such as creation date, version history, file format, the project name associated with it, and more. By giving documents context, metadata helps to facilitate process automation.

Metadata’s benefits for knowledge workers are enhanced when the information is indexed and organized in alignment with workflows. You can get started with indexing by using file indexing solutions, which scan and catalog documents and other unstructured content to make them searchable through a central, AI-enabled interface.

When backed by an effective metadata and indexing system, AI-enhanced search doesn’t just use keywords, it understands context, allowing employees to search for information in natural language. The result is a better search experience for everyone and heightened productivity across the organization.

Strengthening Compliance and Data Governance

In addition to helping knowledge workers find information, metadata tags can help enforce data retention policies, industry-specific compliance frameworks, and your own internal access and governance rules. Establishing standardized metadata tags prevents security and compliance gaps, ensuring that all departments and teams follow the same rules.

Metadata tagging also enables you to streamline archiving and data retention practices. Ensuring disposal of documents at the proper times not only boosts efficiency and improves compliance, but it also lowers storage costs. Compliance automation is especially valuable at auditing time, when data logs prove effortlessly that your controls are being enforced.

You can also automate your own data governance rules and business procedures, like routing and approvals, defining how data is collected, accessed, stored, shared, and secured. In an age of rapid application development and rampant shadow IT, automation and centralization are essential for keeping your information both findable and secure.

Improving Enterprise Knowledge Sharing

Sharing knowledge helps teams absorb new information and make better decisions. When everyone is on the same page, collaboration becomes brainstorming, generating excitement that leads to a fountain of innovative ideas. But when information is trapped in silos, data management becomes a frustrating chore and collaboration bogs down. When employees retire or change jobs, institutional knowledge may be lost forever, causing teams to unknowingly waste time reinventing the wheel instead of building on existing solutions.

That’s why it’s important to integrate collaboration platforms with your content repositories. That way, everyone has secure access to the same up-to-date information. As new knowledge is created through everyday work, it’s stored in the repository and preserved when people leave, providing a continuous, dynamic source of learning. With metadata tagging and indexing in place, that knowledge also becomes easier to find and share across the organization.

Managers should encourage sharing, both leading by example and rewarding employees who contribute valuable information with shout-outs or awards. Creating a culture where information flows freely will make the organization more flexible and adaptable—an important competitive advantage in our time of accelerating change.

From Chaos to Insight

The digital deluge shows no signs of stopping, but by organizing information with content management tools, ensuring compliance and security with data governance, and sharing knowledge across silos, you can transform its havoc into a trusted flow of insight and innovation.

Access can help. As a full lifecycle management partner, we provide metadata and indexing solutions that make information easier to find and share, as well as compliance expertise and tools to ensure that governance is not just a theory, but a daily practice.

Isn’t it time to make the digital deluge work for you, instead of against you? Contact us to help you get started today!

1. Data Mapping

Legacy EHRs often fall back on compliance, updated IT standards and store data in proprietary, inconsistent formats. Improper mapping can lead to inaccessible data and/or losing or misinterpreting important patient data which impacts care continuity.

How to avoid: A detailed extraction and transformation plan is crucial with a clearly defined source-to-target mappings, modules and retention schedules in place, reviewed system list and structured + unstructured data, access via API, secure storage, vendor-neutral formats, and compliant, long-term accessibility.

2. Downtime & Workflow Disruption

Decommissioning an EHR often means transitioning from the outdated to a new system which can interrupt clinical workflows, delay data access and impact patient care. 

How to avoid: Planning phased transitions, scheduling activity windows, and implementing parallel access periods with a strong roll-back plan to minimize downtime. A cloud-archive approach (e.g., Access Fovea EHR Archive) migrates records while supporting live access.

3. Data Integrity

Chances of finding your legacy data being incomplete, inconsistent, duplicated or corrupted during a decommission are high. Poor quality data undermines clinical decision-making, increasing chances of disrupted care and regulatory reporting.

How to avoid: Tight data profiling, auditing and cleansing before migration/archival is important with clearly-defined quality metrics (completeness, accuracy, consistency). Use validation tools embedded in your archival strategy to ensure that what’s moved remains reliable and usable.

4. Interoperability & Integration Gaps

Legacy EHRs may not support modern data exchange standards (e.g., FHIR, HL7) or APIs. This creates barriers to connecting with new systems, sharing data across providers and keeping longitudinal records.

How to avoid: Choose a modern archival platform and target system that adhere to updated integration dynamics with robust APIs or interface capabilities. Access Fovea EHR Archive ensures smooth data exchange and integration with enhanced interoperability, enabling secure, efficient connectivity across current and future healthcare systems.

5. Poor Security & Compliance Risks

While legacy EHRs are retired, hospitals must ensure that data security and regulatory compliance remain uncompromised during and after migration. Outdated systems often lack modern encryption, access controls, and audit capabilities, leaving data vulnerable to data breaches, compliance violations, and reputational risk. Unlike such unsupported systems, advanced cloud-based archival comes with strict security standards as per evolving regulations like HIPAA.

How to avoid: To ensure compliance checks are met during (not just after!) the decommissioning of legacy systems, a modern archival platform with built-in encryption, audit trails, and compliance certifications is the best solution. Access Fovea EHR Archive ensures all PHI remains encrypted at rest and in transit, fully auditable, and compliant.

6. Change Mismanagement

Building user lenience in adapting to updated clinical management practices is crucial as changes to accustomed systems, new workflows and archived data access differences can create user resistance. Lack of buy-in can degrade adoption, increase errors or leave legacy system access in place, undermining the de-commissioning effort.

How to avoid: Emphasizing stakeholder engagement, training and regular communication plans as part of the de-commissioning strategy are important, especially within an intuitive access to archived records, reducing workflow disruption and accelerating clinician adoption.

7. Inconsistent Data Retention Requirements 

During decommissioning, patient data must be retained as per legally mandated timelines, simply shutting down or deleting legacy systems can result in non-compliance, penalties, and data access gaps. Ensuring accurate, ethical, and compliant migration is a major challenge for most IT and compliance teams.

How to avoid: Adopt a compliant archival strategy that meets retention schedules and retrieval requirements. Access Fovea EHR Archive supports automated retention policies, OCR indexed searchability, and audit-ready access for long-term legal and ethical built-in compliance.

8. Unscalable Legacy Archives 

During legacy EHR decommissioning, many hospitals struggle to scale their archival processes to accommodate large data volumes from imaging, remote monitoring, and IoT-driven healthcare. Without a flexible, cloud-ready archival framework, the process can become resource-intensive and difficult to maintain, limiting accessibility and sustainability as organizational data continues to grow.

How to avoid: Archive legacy data into a scalable, cloud-based platform built for growth. Access Fovea EHR Archive offers flexible storage, indexing and retrieval as data volumes expand. Ensuring usability via search, analytics and integration with current workflows preserves data quality and accessibility. 

Decommissioning a legacy EHR takes more than just retiring old, outdated systems – it involves meticulous planning to map data and target compliant and secure cloud-based archival of historical data without the risk of data loss in the process. The end result? Optimized patient care reduced operational and treatment risks, structured costs and modern data strategy. Avoid accumulating risk, cost and clinical inefficiency. Align with a purpose-built archival strategy that addresses mapping, integrity, accessibility, security, retention and future-proofing with us to continue value-driven decisions from historical clinical data. 

Talk to us for a tailored solution!

A glimpse into the insightful conversation: 

Considering cybersecurity resilience emerged as a dominant concern this year, how are CIOs reframing their 2026 defense strategies? 

Sudhakar: I have observed that the industry discussions have shifted over the last few years from “preventing cyberattacks” to “improving cyber resilience”. This highlights that cyberattacks and downtimes due to cloud outages are inevitable, as seen in recent AWS outages caused by Cloudflare. Healthcare CIOs clearly state that cyber resilience is more than just an IT function. When systems are down, the entire organization is impacted – nurses should know what medication has to go to which patient in the next hour, lab managers must find a way to send critical lab results to the providers and patients, physicians must know the patient  admission diagnosis and recent progress in treatment plans to decide on the next action plan for the patient. So, everyone must know which system to switch to and how to switch to it. Paper is predominantly used as a backup plan in resilience and while it is a solid alternative, it is unsustainable beyond a few hours.  CIOs are prioritizing strong IRA preparedness, BBB updates, response-recovery plans, risk monitoring, and data security, especially for retired systems that may still store data. Going forward, health systems must strengthen overall cyber posture to prevent and respond to potential threats. In my personal experience, they must first start with a resilience playbook and test out the playbook as well.  

What are your thoughts on one of this year’s crucial topics – broader interoperability over simple data exchange across systems? 

Sudhakar: Interoperability has entered its AI era. The industry is frustrated with this fundamental problem being unsolved for decades! But there is light at the end of the tunnel. I have heard from at least a dozen organizations who are applying AI to solve the interop issue. If AI agents can do claims processing and COB, why not interop and mapping datasets using syntax and semantics? While this is exciting, we need to approach this with caution because, while AI error in RCM may lead only to a denied claim, AI error in interop can lead to medical errors which can be fatal.

When it comes to patient care, what are CIOs prioritizing to enhance virtual care and staffing pressure management? 

Sudhakar: There are few angles to virtual care. Remote monitoring is making good strides, especially using AI. This is deployed both in acute care and at home. But there are some fiascos which deserve a textbook case study such as the Best Buy multi-million dollar deal with Current Health and the subsequent sale back to the original owners on failing to accelerate growth. The other angle is reimbursements. Challenges still exist for virtual visits due to changing regulations. But one common ground which everyone agrees to is staff burnout and shortage. While ambient techno lies have been happily lapped up by providers showcasing many successful adoptions, the same success is absent on the nursing side. Nurses need attention and AI can come to their rescue. I hope new ventures show up in this space and reduce workforce stress.  

With so much regulatory momentum (CMS Pledge, TEFCA, etc.), what are being emphasized by CIOs for 2026? 

Sudhakar: CEOs of hospitals are struggling with regulatory change. The wafer-thin margins in operating costs creates a magnifying impact of even small changes in the system. The changes witnessed this year are by no means “small”. CIOs are facing the urgency of regulatory mandates, stronger than ever. While TEFCA is welcomed by some leaders, others question the need to have one more standard rather than rolling out nationally what is already in place.  The CMS Pledge and initiatives like the recently launched “Access” are improving transparency and accelerating digitization.  

AI came up in nearly every discussion this year. How do you think AI intersects with the top priorities of security, data, patient care, and compliance? 

Sudhakar: AI is rapidly moving from buzzword to practical infrastructure in healthcare. Recent industry analyses, including OpenAI’s enterprise trends report and Menlo Ventures’ 2025 study, show that while healthcare started from a smaller baseline, its AI adoption has grown faster than almost any other sector — rising from minimal use 3% to meaningful mainstream deployment at 22%. This acceleration is driven not by hype, but by AI’s clear value in secure data handling, reducing administrative burden, improving revenue cycle and workflow efficiency, enhancing documentation accuracy, compliance readiness, and patient care. I wish to see more in this space, beyond ambient AI and LLM use cases. In short, healthcare isn’t chasing futuristic autonomous medicine, it’s actively using AI to solve the operational, security, and compliance challenges that matter today.

Based on the Forum insights, what will be your futuristic note for healthcare leaders? 

Sudhakar: Future-ready healthcare needs resilience, interoperability, and clinical sustainability to advance together. Leaders will seek to strengthen security readiness, build scalable and connected data ecosystems, support clinicians with smart, low-friction tools, meet rising 2026 regulatory demands, and unlock AI value through strong governance and clean data. That’s a lot, so not all organizations can take on all of these in initiatives in 2026. My advice would be to focus on two core areas – resilience and data management – both of which are foundational in nature and without which the other areas of work would not matter much.  

Summary of the Key Takeaways 

• Cyber resilience is now a core priority, with strong IRA and recovery readiness 
• Health systems must aim to become scalable, cloud-ready, and interoperable 
• Virtual care, automation, and clinician-centric digital tools are key to address staffing challenges 
• Regulatory dynamics, especially TEFCA and CMS are to be handled along the way 
• AI and automation must be outcome-driven and backed by clean, reliable data 
• Organizations which don’t have the bandwidth to take on a lot of projects, must consider focusing only on clean data management, and resilience. These may not win them a trophy in 2026 but will set them on the right path for winning 2027. 

Is your organization ready to tackle and modernize data management? 

Contact us for tailored, future-ready solutions!

This is exactly where A/R wind down during a system transition or shutdown becomes essential. 

What A/R Wind Down Really Means and Why It Matters 

A/R wind down is the structured, end-of-life process of resolving, closing, and reconciling all outstanding accounts within a legacy system before it is retired. 

In clear terms, it ensures the financial “loose ends” tied to an old EHR or billing platform are fully tied off before access disappears. This includes: 

• Completing outstanding claims and follow-ups 

• Addressing aged accounts 

• Processing final payments and adjustments 

• Retaining historical financial data for future reference 

Without this step, organizations risk losing revenue, falling out of compliance, or facing future audit issues and penalties with no ability to retrieve the documentation they need. 

A strong A/R wind down plan during a shutdown or system switch provides: 

Clarity 

Teams gain full visibility into outstanding accounts, balances, and payer timelines—reducing surprises later in the process. 

Continuity 

Financial activity remains uninterrupted, even as legacy technology winds down. 

Compliance Protection 

Historical billing data remains accessible for audits, payer requests, or internal investigations, long after the system is turned off. 

Cost Control 

Organizations can retire outdated systems sooner rather than keeping them running just to access old accounts. 

In short, A/R wind down makes it possible to decommission systems with confidence rather than uncertainty. 

Building an A/R Wind Down Plan 

An effective A/R wind down starts with a clear plan—one that balances revenue protection, compliance obligations, and system retirement timelines. Organizations that approach wind down intentionally are better positioned to close out legacy systems without disruption. 

1. Assess the Full A/R Landscape 

Begin by understanding the complete scope of outstanding accounts, including balances, statuses, payer types, and aging. This visibility helps teams allocate resources effectively and avoid surprises later in the process. 

2. Define Priorities Based on Risk and Value

Not all accounts require the same level of attention. High-value claims, unresolved denials, and accounts tied to audits or regulatory reviews should be prioritized to reduce financial and compliance risk. 

3. Establish Clear Wind Down Workflows 

As systems near retirement, teams need agreed-upon workflows for completing follow-ups, processing remaining payments, and documenting outcomes. Clear ownership and consistent processes help maintain financial continuity after system access ends. 

4. Plan for Long-Term Access to Historical A/R Data

Wind down does not stop when accounts are resolved. Historical financial data—encounter details, transactions, adjustments, and notes—must remain accessible to support audits, reporting, and payer inquiries well beyond decommissioning. 

5. Align Wind Down with the Broader Decommissioning Plan 

A/R wind down should move in lockstep with the overall system retirement strategy. When revenue cycle, HIM, compliance, and IT teams are aligned, organizations can retire systems smoothly and with confidence.  

Where A/R Wind Down Delivers the Most Value 

When done well, A/R wind down delivers long-term organizational benefits that extend far beyond the system shutdown date to protect financial performance and operational resilience. 

Financial Value 

• Secures revenue that may otherwise be overlooked 

• Reduces the cost of maintaining outdated systems 

• Supports accurate financial reporting 

Operational Value 

• Eliminates ongoing reliance on legacy technology 

• Reduces staff burden and improves workload predictability 

• Strengthens confidence during transition to new systems 

Compliance Value 

• Ensures defensible documentation for audits and payer reviews 

• Maintains retention requirements for historical financial data 

• Reduces risk of inaccessible records after decommissioning

How Access Supports Smarter A/R Wind Down 

A/R wind down is only one part of a larger system retirement journey. Access helps healthcare organizations navigate that journey with clarity and control. 

With Access Unify® | Health, teams can: 

• Confidently retire legacy systems 

• Securely preserve historical financial and clinical data 

• Maintain long-term access for audits and reporting 

• Reduce the costs and risks associated with outdated platforms 

Our approach helps organizations complete A/R wind down without slowing daily operations—while giving teams the confidence that their historical records remain accessible, accurate, and compliant. 

Move Toward Confident System Retirement 

A structured A/R wind down gives your organization the clarity and continuity needed to retire legacy systems responsibly. To learn how Access supports the entire decommissioning lifecycle, get in touch with our experts.  

This is the fundamental question every healthcare system asks before choosing a technology partner. That is where KLAS brings clarity. As an independent research organization, KLAS gathers feedback directly from healthcare professionals to show how well vendors deliver on their promises in real-world scenarios. Their reports help providers make informed decisions with confidence, based on proven performance and customer experience.

We sat down with Luka Salamunic, Senior VP Software from Access, to get his perspective on why the KLAS awards and reports are important to Access and healthcare organizations as part of their future strategies. Here’s what he had to say: 

Q: Why does KLAS matter to healthcare providers when choosing a technology partner? 

Luka: KLAS has built a reputation as the “truth serum” of healthcare IT because it reflects real-world customer experiences, not vendor marketing. Providers trust the findings since they come from organizations that are already using solutions in their day-to-day environments. 

The surveys capture more than just technical performance. They look at the human elements that influence decisions, like customer support, partnership quality, and reliability. This is how hospitals and health systems evaluate their vendors when it really matters. 

KLAS ratings also help healthcare leaders navigate a crowded landscape. High scores give confidence that the solution can deliver consistent outcomes and value. Low scores raise questions and may lead organizations to take a closer look or replace a vendor. In areas like data management, archiving, and integration, this guidance helps minimize risk and maximize impact. 

Q: How do KLAS findings shape the evolution of healthcare tech, especially data archiving? 

Luka: In the specific domain of data archiving, KLAS has reframed the narrative. Traditionally viewed as an IT “chore” or a back-office task, data archiving is now recognized as a strategic component of healthcare data management. The emphasis has shifted from simple data storage to evaluating vendors on their ability to provide interoperable solutions, powerful reporting tools, and long-term partnership potential. This shift has accelerated innovation in the archiving space, prompting vendors to rethink how they deliver value to healthcare organizations. 

Q: What does it mean for Access to be recognized as “Best in KLAS for Data Archiving” and a “Consistent High Performer”? 

Luka: Best in KLAS for Data Archiving means our customers believe in what we deliver. It’s a testament to both the technology and the people behind it. This is a recognition that goes beyond product features; it reflects the strength of the entire customer experience, from implementation through to ongoing support. 

The Consistent High Performer designation highlights Access’ commitment to sustained excellence in delivering value year after year, with a proven track record of reliable performance. This recognition is crucial for both existing customers, who can feel confident in their choice of partner, and prospects, who see reduced risk and greater certainty when considering Access. 

Q: How do you use KLAS feedback to drive innovation? 

Luka: Every comment becomes fuel for our innovation. Some of the changes driven by KLAS feedback include cleaner user interfaces, faster system performance, better search functionality, and more comprehensive reporting features. We prioritize the feedback based on customer impact, and make changes that resonate with our client’s needs and challenges. 

Q: How is data archiving evolving as healthcare becomes more data-driven in the next few years? 

Luka: Data archiving will continue to grow in importance. It is moving from a tool for storing legacy data to a core part of healthcare’s data strategy. As more data types are created and regulations become stricter, archives will need to integrate with live EHRs, analytics tools, and even AI, so organizations can use the information they have already collected. 

Archived data will not sit in a vault. It will help power analytics, reporting, and longitudinal views of patient history, without needing to keep old systems running. This reduces technical debt while supporting better decision-making and care delivery. 

KLAS plays a role because this shift increases expectations on vendors. Performance, reliability, and customer experience matter more as archiving becomes strategic. Strong KLAS ratings help organizations find partners who can support this direction with flexibility, security, and long-term value. 

Simplifying Access to the Data That Still Matters: Ready to Advance Your Data Strategy? 

For healthcare organizations seeking to navigate the complexities of data management, KLAS provides invaluable insights, and partners like Access are helping to shape the future of healthcare IT. 

A key part of that future involves giving healthcare teams simple access to the data that still matters, even after legacy systems are shut down. That is what we focus on with our solution. It keeps clinical, financial, and operational records safe and easy to find, while easing the burden of maintaining aging applications.  

If this is a direction your organization is preparing for, contact us, and our team will follow up to support your next step. 

Throughout the update, we’ve included links to relevant legislation and documents where applicable.

2025 U.S. Privacy Law Developments

From my perspective, 2025 felt like a letdown. While anxiously waiting for signs of life from one of many states pursuing new consumer and data privacy legislation this year, I was unfortunately met with a wave of stalled bills and underwhelming incremental amendments. No state passed a brand-new comprehensive privacy law this year. However, amendments to existing laws and sector-specific regulations introduced changes that records managers must address.

Nine states amended their existing statutes, tightening requirements for sensitive data and expanding the scope of applicability of the regulations, including:

• Colorado enacted SB 276 on May 23, 2025, expanding the definition of “sensitive data” to include precise geolocation information, defined as GPS coordinates within an 1,850-foot radius. This amendment also strengthened consent requirements, prohibiting the sale of sensitive data without prior explicit consent; a meaningful shift from the previous opt-out framework.
• Connecticut enacted SB 1295 in June 2025, set to take effect July 1, 2026, which reduces the applicability threshold from 100,000 to 35,000 consumers, meaning smaller organizations will now fall within scope.
• Montana’s SB 297, signed May 8, 2025, and effective October 1, 2025, lowered applicability thresholds for businesses controlling or processing personal data of at least 25,000 consumers (previously 50,000).
• Oregon’s Consumer Privacy Act dropped blanket exemptions for nonprofit organizations as of July 1, 2025, significantly expanding compliance obligations beyond the commercial sector.
• Virginia amended its Consumer Protection Act, effective July 1, 2025, focusing on safeguarding reproductive and sexual health information. This amendment extends compliance obligations beyond HIPAA-covered entities to a broader range of “suppliers” who handle health-related data.

For records managers, this means revisiting retention schedules to add precise geolocation to the “sensitive data” category and ensure systems flag this data for special handling, implementing workflows to capture and store explicit consent for sensitive data, including geolocation, and maintain audit trails for compliance verification.

The states continue filling the regulatory void with their own privacy frameworks, each crafted with different jurisdictional scopes, applicability thresholds, consumer rights, and enforcement mechanisms. The patchwork of state requirements is a direct result of Congress’ legislative paralysis persisting even as privacy advocacy grows larger and louder for federal standards—warning that state-by-state regulation creates an unsustainable compliance environment. Despite bipartisan consensus that Americans deserve federal privacy protections, Congress has once again failed to enact comprehensive privacy legislation in 2025.

Real-Life Compliance Lessons on Cloud Reliability

Cloud reliability has become the backbone of modern business operations. But a single outage can reveal just how fragile that foundation really is. Recent events showed how quickly downtime can ripple across systems, disrupt access, and expose compliance weaknesses. Understanding what happened, and what it means for records managers, is the first step toward building a stronger, more resilient strategy.

The AWS Outage and Its Ripple Effect

On October 20, 2025, Amazon Web Services experienced what could be described as a domino effect in the digital world. That morning, a critical part of AWS’s “phone book,” the Domain Name System (DNS), stopped working properly and left many systems unable to locate the address of the location they wanted to reach. As a result, apps and websites couldn’t locate the servers and systems they needed to continue functioning.

The outage lasted about 15 hours, and during that time, the impact rippled across the United States and many other countries. Several popular apps and services were hit hard by the AWS outage, and the impact was felt across social media, gaming, finance, and everyday utilities. Social platforms like Snapchat and Reddit went dark, leaving users unable to send messages or refresh feeds. Gaming giants, such as Fortnite and Roblox, also went offline, frustrating millions of players who suddenly found themselves locked out. Financial apps like Robinhood, Coinbase, and Venmo were disrupted, causing panic for traders and consumers during peak hours. Even Amazon’s own ecosystem wasn’t spared. Amazon.com, Prime Video, and Alexa all experienced major failures.

But while headlines focused on the most popular apps and platforms, a more serious issue lurked in the background. Companies were being exposed to the risks of cloud-based records management.

The inability to retrieve critical documents during an outage isn’t just inconvenient, it’s a potential nightmare—regulators don’t pause their demands when the cloud is down. For 15 hours in October, this waking nightmare had companies questioning over-dependance on cloud services.

Compliance in the Cloud Era: Navigating the Accessibility Mandate

A failure like the AWS outage can put records managers at significant compliance and operational risk because cloud storage systems are often the backbone of electronic records programs. This creates two major problems.

First, many U.S. regulations require that records be readily accessible and promptly produced upon request. Some examples include:

17 C.F.R. § 1.31 (Title 17—Commodity and Securities Exchanges)

(b)(4) … A records entity shall keep electronic regulatory records readily accessible for the duration of the required record keeping period.

10 C.F.R. § 745.115 (Title 10—Energy)

(b) The institution or IRB may maintain the records in printed form, or electronically. All records shall be accessible for inspection and copying by authorized representatives of the Federal department or agency at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner.

21 C.F.R. § 1.360(h) (Title 21—Food and Drugs)

(h) The maintenance of electronic records is acceptable. Electronic records are considered to be onsite if they are accessible from an onsite location.

If your cloud provider is offline, you cannot meet those obligations, even if the records are technically “retained.”

Second, outages often cascade beyond storage to authentication and indexing services. That means even if the data is intact, you might not be able to search, retrieve, or export it in a “reasonably usable” format, which is a legal requirement under rules like the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34(a)(1)(A).

(a) A party may serve on any other party a request within the scope of Rule 26(b):

(1) to produce and permit the requesting party or its representative to inspect, copy, test, or sample the following items in the responding party’s possession, custody, or control:

(A) any designated documents or electronically stored information—including writings, drawings, graphs, charts, photographs, sound recordings, images, and other data or data compilations—stored in any medium from which information can be obtained either directly or, if necessary, after translation by the responding party into a reasonably usable form;

The AWS outage revealed how relying solely on cloud-based storage can increase the risk of losing access to essential compliance records. .

How Records Managers Should Approach Cloud Storage

Cloud storage offers convenience, scalability, and instant access to operational documents. For most organizations, it appears to be a perfect solution… until the cloud goes dark. The recent AWS outage was a stark reminder that even the most reliable providers can fail. Regulators are not empowered with the discretion to accept “our cloud was down” as an excuse, so it’s important to have redundancy or offline contingency plans in place.

First of all, relying on one cloud region or provider is like putting all your valuables in a single vault with one key; you’re completely locked out if that key breaks. Instead, you should build redundancy into the plan with multi-region storage from your cloud provider to ensure that if one data center fails, another can step in. For critical compliance records, consider maintaining an offline or secondary copy in a neutral format that regulators can accept even if the primary system is inaccessible.

Next, plan for production under pressure. Regulators want records, and they want them in a usable format complete with metadata. Therefore, it’s essential to have export procedures that function during outages. Documented instructions and the tools to execute them should be kept outside the main cloud environment so they remain accessible if the system goes down. A clear, documented, and practiced plan will save time, frustration, and reduce risk of compliance failure.

Finally, practice makes perfect. Conduct exercises simulating a cloud outage during a regulatory request. Walk through activating failover systems, exporting records, and logging actions. These drills reveal gaps and build confidence across compliance, IT, and legal teams.

Cloud outages are inevitable, but they don’t need to become a compliance disaster. With thoughtful preparation, you can keep business moving and regulators satisfied, even when the cloud goes silent.

To learn more about how to address records retention, data privacy and security requirements more efficiently, request a call with a member of our information governance team.

The status quo may feel stable, but it undermines modernization efforts, inflates costs, and exposes the organization to security vulnerabilities. As healthcare data requirements evolve, legacy systems quickly become liabilities. Decommissioning them is a strategic and necessary step toward long-term resilience.

Why Staying with Legacy Systems Is Risky

Over time, healthcare organizations outgrow their EHRs for all kinds of reasons—mergers and acquisitions, clinical expansion, new system capabilities, or the need for a more unified digital environment. When a new system goes live, leaders often face a familiar dilemma: migrate the historical data or simply keep the old EHR running “just in case.”

On the surface, leaving the legacy system untouched can feel like the easiest path. It avoids immediate decisions, minimizes disruption, and seems harmless enough—after all, the data is still there. But this approach quickly becomes a hidden burden.

As the years pass, the legacy EHR becomes more expensive to maintain, often relying on outdated hardware and vendor contracts that are difficult to renegotiate. Security gradually weakens as the system stops receiving regular updates or patches, creating vulnerabilities that modern threats can easily exploit. Compliance becomes harder to manage as retention rules evolve, yet the data remains trapped in an outdated platform that doesn’t support modern reporting or audit needs. Clinicians and HIM teams encounter barriers to retrieving information, with critical patient records locked away in silos that no longer integrate with current workflows.

Meanwhile, innovation slows. Because the legacy system can’t exchange data using modern standards, it becomes an obstacle to interoperability, analytics, and digital transformation. What began as a “low-effort” decision quietly grows into a significant operational and strategic risk—one that limits agility and drains valuable resources.

Choosing to keep things as they are, may feel safe but over time, it becomes one of the riskiest decisions an organization can make.

The Advantages of Decommissioning Legacy EHRs

Decommissioning an outdated EHR is not simply an IT exercise. When done systematically, it strengthens data governance, reduces risk, and enhances operational efficiency across the organization.

1. Significant Cost Reduction

Legacy systems generate recurring expenses, such as hardware upkeep, licensing fees, vendor support contracts, and specialized staffing. Decommissioning them and enables the organization to reallocate resources toward higher-value initiatives.

2. Enhanced Data Security and Compliance

Legacy systems often become vulnerable over time because they no longer receive regular updates or security patches—leaving gaps that modern cyberthreats can easily exploit.

Modern archival platforms provide robust safeguards, including encryption, access controls, audit trails, and retention management. Retiring outdated systems minimizes exposure to these vulnerabilities and ensures protected health information (PHI) remains secure and aligned with regulations such as HIPAA, HITECH, and state-specific medical record retention requirements.

3. Streamlined Legal and Audit Response

Legacy systems complicate record retrieval during audits, investigations, and legal matters. Centralizing data into a secure, searchable archive accelerates response times, supports eDiscovery and legal hold processes, and ensures accuracy and consistency across all retrieved records.

4. Improved Data Accessibility and Interoperability

The decommissioning process allows historical patient data to be standardized into modern formats, such as CCD or FHIR, letting clinicians, HIM staff, and administrators to access complete patient information from a single, unified system.

5. Reduced Administrative Burden on Clinicians

Legacy systems slow down daily operations. By consolidating historical information into a fast, intuitive archive, clinicians can retrieve records efficiently and focus more of their time on patient care.

6. Support for Analytics and Data-Driven Initiatives

Historical data holds significant value for quality improvement, population health, and AI-driven analytics, but only if it’s accessible and standardized. Once archived, legacy data can be used to support strategic initiatives and informed decision-making.

7. Freedom from Vendor Lock-In and Technical Debt

Retiring old systems eliminates dependency on legacy vendors, which may have been a driver for getting a new EHR in the first place, so wanting to cut ties is understandable.  This reduces technical debt, simplifies the IT environment, and supports broader digital modernization efforts.

If the status quo is to continue maintaining legacy systems and just “leave things as they are,” then you might think it’s because the decommissioning process is extremely complicated. That’s not the case when you are working alongside a vendor that acts more like a partner. With Access on your side, we’ll take you through a structured, proven migration process that includes:

1. Establishing a cross-functional governance team.
2. Conducting a comprehensive inventory of legacy data assets.
3. Defining retention, access, and security policies.
4. Planning and configuring standardized extraction and archiving workflows.
5. Validating migrated data through a robust audit process.
6. Training end users on archive access and retrieval procedures.
7. Decommissioning systems only after confirming full data availability and integrity.
8. Continuously working to monitor, optimize, and maintain compliance.

This process for decommissioning legacy EHRs enables healthcare organizations to move forward with confidence—preserving critical data, supporting regulatory compliance, and building a stronger, more resilient digital foundation for the future.

Ready to Simplify Your Data Strategy? 

Modernizing isn’t about chasing new technology—it’s about making smarter, future-focused decisions that strengthen data governance, reduce risk, and support better patient care.

Access helps healthcare organizations retire legacy EHRs, reduce costs, and maintain fast, compliant access to historical records—without compromising care, operations, or security.

Talk to our healthcare data experts today to explore a secure, scalable approach to legacy system decommissioning. to explore a secure, scalable approach to legacy system decommissioning.

Learn more about our Healthcare Data Archival Solutions →

At Access, we help organizations take control of their data, streamline storage and compliance, and unlock measurable cost savings through effective data archival strategies. Here are 6 ways you can help make cost reduction a reality for your organization:

Reduce the High Cost of Legacy Systems

One of the largest hidden expenses in healthcare IT comes from maintaining outdated or legacy EHR systems. Many hospitals and health systems continue paying annual licensing, hosting, and maintenance fees for systems they no longer actively use. An expense that many justify as a way to retain historical patient data for compliance reasons.

By archiving data into a secure, vendor-neutral repository, healthcare organizations can fully decommission legacy systems. This step alone eliminates recurring software costs, reduces IT support overhead, and frees up valuable infrastructure resources.

Lowering Storage and Infrastructure Expenses

Active EHR and ERP systems are designed for real-time access and performance—but not for storing decades’ worth of inactive data. As storage grows, so do infrastructure and maintenance costs.

By moving inactive data to an archival environment, healthcare providers can reduce the load on production systems and lower storage expenses by up to 50–70%. Archival platforms are optimized for long-term retention, offering cost-efficient cloud or on-premise storage tiers without compromising data accessibility or security.

This shift doesn’t just save money, it also improves the performance of live systems, allowing clinical and administrative users to work faster and more efficiently.

Cutting Backup, Maintenance, and Resource Costs

When historical data remains in active systems, it is included in daily or weekly backups, which consumes unnecessary time, bandwidth, and storage. By archiving inactive data, only essential operational information stays in the primary environment, making your systems faster and more efficient. This approach significantly reduces backup duration and frequency, lowers storage costs associated with redundant backups, decreases the labor required to manage large data sets, and minimizes server and maintenance overhead. Access’s archival solutions integrate seamlessly with healthcare IT workflows, ensuring that inactive data is backed up efficiently and stored securely, which frees your IT teams from routine data management tasks.

Minimizing Compliance and Legal Fines

Healthcare organizations must retain patient records for several years, depending on state and federal laws such as HIPAA, HITECH, and state-specific medical record retention statutes. Non-compliance can lead to severe financial penalties with an annual maximum of $1.5 million for repeated offenses.

Access ensures compliance by maintaining secure, auditable, and traceable access to archived records. Our archival systems preserve the integrity and accessibility of data throughout its lifecycle—so you’re always prepared for audits, eDiscovery requests, or patient record retrievals.

This proactive compliance management saves both money and time while reducing the risk of fines or costly litigation.

Driving Cost Efficiency Through Streamlined Operations

With legacy systems retired and inactive data offloaded, healthcare IT teams can focus on innovation rather than upkeep. Archival also streamlines workflows for clinicians and administrators: they can access historical data through a simple, user-friendly interface without navigating multiple outdated systems.

This leads to:

• Faster access to records
• Fewer system slowdowns
• Simplified user experience
• Reduced IT support requests

Every minute saved translates into operational cost savings and improved productivity across the healthcare organization.

Scalable Data Management for Long-Term Savings

As data volumes continue to grow exponentially, scalability becomes crucial. Archival offers a sustainable way to manage this growth—allowing hospitals to scale storage based on need without overinvesting in expensive infrastructure.

Access provides cloud-based, scalable archival solutions that grow with your organization. You pay only for what you use, and your data remains compliant, secure, and accessible for as long as required.

In Summary

Organizations that take a structured approach to data archival often see meaningful and lasting financial benefits. Savings typically include a substantial reduction in primary storage costs, the elimination of legacy system licensing and maintenance fees, and faster returns on investment due to decreased infrastructure and backup demands. Many healthcare providers also experience significant labor efficiencies as IT teams spend less time maintaining large, aging systems. By centralizing inactive data in a secure, compliant environment, organizations not only reduce expenses but also gain confidence that their information is being managed with long-term strategy in mind.

Ultimately, data archival is far more than shifting information to lower-cost storage. It is a strategic investment that strengthens compliance, minimizes risk, and simplifies operations—making it one of the most impactful steps healthcare organizations can take to optimize resources in a demanding environment.

Let us help you build and execute archival strategies tailored to your systems, workflows, and goals. Whether you are retiring a legacy EHR, consolidating data sources, or modernizing your retention practices, our solutions ensure your data remains secure, compliant, and readily accessible whenever it’s needed.

Access | Smarter Data Management for Healthcare
Learn more about our Healthcare Data Archival Solutions →

Access’s healthcare data archival solutions are purpose-built for this: we migrate all critical data from legacy systems into a single, accessible platform that ensures compliance with retention requirements while drastically cutting ongoing costs.

“We need to talk about stablecoins.”

She frowned. Stablecoins? Weren’t those something fintech startups used?

Not anymore.

That email, and thousands like it, mark the moment many organizations first realized the financial world is about to undergo one of the biggest shifts since the U.S. left the gold standard in 1971. A new system of finance is emerging, and this time, it’s built around digital assets. The changes won’t just affect banks and fintech firms—they’ll reshape how corporations transact, invest, and, importantly, manage their records.

Two major pieces of legislation are leading this transformation: the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act.

Together, they’re doing for digital assets what railroads and train stations once did for the American economy: they are laying tracks, building infrastructure, and establishing rules so the system can safely scale.

Let’s break down what’s happening.

The GENIUS Act: Building the Tracks

The GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act of 2025) establishes the country’s first comprehensive federal framework for payment stablecoins, digital tokens pegged to the U.S. dollar.

Until now, stablecoins lived in a gray zone. They were used in specific financial transactions but lacked consistent oversight. The GENIUS Act changes that by:

• Allowing only approved, regulated entities to issue stablecoins
• Requiring 1:1 backing with safe, highly liquid assets like U.S. dollars or short-term Treasuries
• Setting strict rules for governance, audits, reserve segregation, and consumer disclosures
• Aligning federal and state standards to eliminate regulatory confusion

In short, the Act makes stablecoins “real” in the eyes of traditional finance. They are regulated, monitored, and safe enough for widespread corporate use.

The CLARITY Act: Building the Stations and Signals

Expected to pass soon, the CLARITY Act (Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025) broadens the regulatory landscape to cover the rest of the digital-asset world.

Think of it as the system around the rails. This includes classification, oversight, and rules of the road.

The Act divides digital assets into three categories: payment stablecoins, digital commodities, and investment-contract assets, such as securities. It also clarifies regulatory oversight, assigning responsibility to the SEC, the CFTC, or both through joint rulemaking, depending on the level of decentralization of an asset’s blockchain to resolve years of regulatory ambiguity that created risk.

If passed, the Act will override inconsistent state laws, provide more explicit rules for listings and disclosures, and align the digital-asset market more closely with traditional financial markets.

Illuminating the Path to Information Clarity: Reflections from 2025

In Illuminating the Path to Information Clarity: Reflections from 2025, we’ll revisit the pivotal moments, insights, and innovations that shaped the year and explore what’s on the horizon for records and information management professionals in 2026.

Webinar ›

What This Means for Companies: New Tools, New Responsibilities

As stablecoins move into mainstream finance, corporations may find themselves holding assets they’ve never handled before—like short-term Treasuries or other securities used to back the coins, which can introduce new layers of recordkeeping, including:

• Separate records for accounting vs. investment activities
• New documentation requirements for reserve assets
• Increased audit trails for digital-asset transactions
• Retention rules that mirror those traditionally used by financial institutions

This isn’t just a technology shift; it’s a governance shift, and the passage of these acts will fundamentally change what companies must track, store, and report.

Staying Ahead of the Shift

Regulations around digital assets are moving fast. The moment the GENIUS Act became law, the clock started ticking on what organizations must do to remain compliant. And once the CLARITY Act passes, the pace will accelerate again.

We’re actively researching the new requirements and will keep you informed as recordkeeping and retention standards develop. Companies that prepare early will adapt more smoothly and avoid costly compliance missteps later.

The financial rails are being rebuilt. The signals and stations are coming next. As the trains start running, every organization using digital assets will need clear, compliant, well-governed records to stay on track. Here’s where we can help: contact us, and we’ll show you how.

A solid, defensible Record Retention Schedule (RRS) relies not only on comprehensive legal authority but also on clear identification of the regulatory bodies that establish that authority. Regulators are central to creating and maintaining the laws, standards, and guidance that form the framework of effective record information management (RIM).

Both public and private sector organizations manage vast volumes of data that must be stored, maintained, and disposed of in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements; and your oversight ensures that these practices align with statutory and ethical obligations, protecting against mishandling of information, mitigating the risk of data breaches, and establishing accountability and consistency in recordkeeping.

Building a Foundation

Identifying the appropriate regulatory body is a foundational step in establishing defensible RIM. Legal authority for record management spans multiple jurisdictions and industries, often with overlapping requirements. Clear identification of the regulator responsible enables record managers to navigate industry-specific and jurisdiction-specific obligations. For example, understanding that a privacy requirement comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under HIPAA clarifies which entities are subject to that law, while other privacy obligations, such as those under Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), may apply to SEC-regulated industries.

Guidance and Oversight

Regulators strengthen recordkeeping practices by publishing detailed guidance that organizations can apply directly to their operations. For example, the FDA issues documents such as the Guideline on the Investigation of Drug Interactions and Innovative Designs for Clinical Trials of Cellular and Gene Therapy Products in Small Populations, which outline expectations for data collection, methodology, and retention. These resources help regulated entities understand not just what records to keep, but how those records should be created, maintained, and supported to meet compliance standards.

The structure of regulatory oversight itself further highlights the complexity organizations must navigate. Independent federal agencies, such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), demonstrate this layered approach. While FERC oversees broad energy regulations across electricity, natural gas, and oil transmission, its sub-agencies—like the Office of Enforcement and Regulatory Accounting (OERA) and the Office of Electric Reliability (OER)—issue more specialized requirements that apply to specific functions within those industries. This tiered system underscores why accurately identifying the relevant regulator is essential to building an effective and defensible record retention program.

By defining the laws, standards, and guidelines governing how records are created, maintained, accessed, and disposed of, regulators ensure that organizations maintain ethical and legally compliant recordkeeping practices. Properly applied, these standards support data privacy, appropriate retention periods, and access controls. Regulatory guidance encourages organizations to treat RIM as a core component of risk management and corporate responsibility, fostering transparency, accountability, and trust while minimizing legal and operational risk.

That means the job of a records management professional is only going to become more important and complex. Without a clear plan to manage all this data, critical information can get lost, compliance can be at risk, and business decisions can suffer.

At Access, we’ve seen that the organizations that succeed are the ones that treat information management as a holistic, strategic process, not just an administrative task. By connecting records storage, governance, retention, and secure disposition under one unified program, you can protect your data while creating real business value.

Below are five key factors that form the foundation of an effective information management strategy—crafted to help organizations turn the data surge into a strategic advantage.

1. Information Governance: Managing the Full Lifecycle

Information governance provides the structure that keeps data consistent, secure, and usable. It defines how information is collected, stored, accessed, and disposed of across the organization.

When everyone follows the same governance framework, information stays accurate and trustworthy. And with the right tools and technologies in place, following and enforcing these rules becomes seamless, ensuring compliance, safeguarding data, and streamlining document declaration.

Actionable steps:

• Define clear rules for creating, storing, and accessing information.
• Establish organization-wide policies for classification and metadata tagging.
• Regularly audit adherence to governance policies and update them as business needs change.

2. Retention Schedules: Building Visibility and Compliance

The backbone of a defensible records and information management program is a sound retention schedule, which defines how long records must be kept and when they can be safely disposed of. They must account for every record type—digital, physical, and everything in between. The conversion of records, as well as the migration of data from one computer platform, storage device, or medium to another, must also be considered when developing your retention strategy.

A well-designed retention program includes an optimized set of functional groupings & record series definitions, a mapping of legal citations to each record type, and metadata management to track records throughout their lifecycle. An experienced consultant can guide you in creating a retention strategy customized for your organization.

Actionable steps:

• Map all record types—physical, digital, emails, and collaborative documents.
• Track new information automatically using metadata or tagging.
• Review your retention schedule regularly to ensure alignment with regulatory changes and evolving business needs.

Checklist: Is Your Data Audit Ready?

Healthcare leaders must be confident that their archived data is complete, accurate, easily accessible, and fully traceable to meet audit and compliance checks from regulators, payers, attorneys, quality teams, or internal reviews, while maintaining full data integrity even after legacy…

eBook ›

3. Data Security: Prevention Starts with Strategy

Security and compliance go hand in hand. A strong information management strategy limits sensitive data to managed systems, reducing the risk of breaches and costly fines.

Well-defined policies, access controls, and consistent processes protect both your organization and your customers’ information, preserving trust and minimizing exposure.

Actionable steps:

• Limit sensitive data to managed systems with access controls.
• Implement multi-factor authentication and encryption for digital records.
• Monitor data access and establish breach response protocols.

4. Accessibility: Information That Works for You

Locating a specific document among shared drives or filing cabinets shouldn’t feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. Authorized employees need be able to access the data they need quickly and securely, whether for audits, legal discovery, or day-to-day operations.

Modern enterprise systems make this possible by integrating storage, access, and retention features into a single source of truth. That efficiency translates directly into better business outcomes.

Actionable steps:

• Organize data logically with searchable indexes and metadata.
• Ensure integration between systems to prevent “information silos.”
• Train staff to use retrieval systems efficiently and securely.

5. Disposition: Closing the Information Loop

A clear destruction process, aligned with your retention schedules, reduces legal risk and frees up valuable storage space.

Working with a NAID AAA Certified company that specializes in shredding paper, hard drives, and other media ensures that every record reaches its proper end safely and consistently. Otherwise, you could find yourself in a situation like Morgan Stanley did in 2022, that resulted in them being fined $35 million for failing to properly dispose of hard drives and servers that contained personally identifiable information (PII) of 15 million customers. The bank had hired an inexperienced vendor to decommission the devices, but instead, the company sold them without removing the unencrypted personal data they contained.

Actionable steps:

• Establish a process for destroying records at the end of their lifecycle.
• Properly vet your shredding vendor and monitor their work.
• Document disposition activities to prove compliance and reduce legal risk.

The Bottom Line

Every element of information management—governance, retention, access, security, and destruction—supports the others. Together, they form a complete lifecycle that transforms information from a burden into a business asset.

With a thoughtful strategy in place, information stops being a challenge and becomes a competitive advantage. To explore practical tools, insights, and resources for building an effective information lifecycle management plan, check out these resources.

For organizations ready to take the next step, Access offers unparalleled partnership to help plan and implement a tailored information management program. With over 20 years of expertise and innovative, tech-enabled solutions, we ensure your information is managed seamlessly across every stage—from paper documents and storage boxes to digital files and beyond. Contact us today to begin building a strategy that empowers your business now and for the future.

The urgency is real. According to the Norton Rose Fulbright 20th Annual Litigation Trends Survey, cybersecurity and data protection now top the list of legal concerns. Litigation over breaches is on the rise, and for an industry like retail, where customer trust is everything, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

The Double-Edged Sword of Innovation

Retailers thrive on technology. They revel in AI-driven inventory systems, personalized marketing engines, mobile checkouts, and omnichannel platforms. But every new tool creates new risks. AI, for example, can streamline operations while also opening the door to cyber and intellectual property vulnerabilities. Meanwhile, laws around data privacy and AI use are tightening, leaving retailers to navigate a constantly shifting compliance landscape.

Lessons from Florida

In June of 2025, Florida made headlines when Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed House Bill 473, which would have limited liability for organizations involved in cybersecurity incidents if they met certain standards. His concern? That it could encourage minimal compliance and weaken consumer protections.

For retailers, this serves as a cautionary tale that compliance isn’t just about checking boxes, it’s about building trust. Customers won’t care if your company “technically complied” with standards if their credit card data ends up on the dark web.

Fortifying the Retail Fortress

So, how can retailers protect both their bottom line and their reputation? By weaving multiple layers of cybersecurity into everyday operations:

• Encryption: Think of encryption as placing every customer purchase in a high-security vault. Even if attackers manage to break in, the scrambled data inside is useless without the right key. Strong encryption across payment systems, databases, and communications is non-negotiable.
• Regular Updates & Patch Management: Outdated software is like leaving the back door to a store unlocked. Hackers thrive on old vulnerabilities, so timely patches and consistent system updates are critical to sealing entry points.
• Secure Storage: From cloud servers to offsite physical records, sensitive data needs to live in safe, monitored environments. This means selecting providers with strong security certifications, enforcing access controls, and ensuring redundant backups to guard against cyberattacks and other business disruptions.
• Audits & Risk Assessments: Just as retailers perform regular store walk-throughs to spot hazards, cybersecurity audits and penetration tests reveal vulnerabilities before criminals do. Ongoing risk assessments ensure defenses keep pace with evolving threats.
• Advanced Technology: AI and machine learning act as tireless watchdogs, scanning for anomalies in real time. Meanwhile, blockchain helps ensure transaction records can’t be tampered with, reducing the risk of fraud or manipulation in the supply chain.

Together, these measures help retailers transform their cybersecurity posture from reactive to proactive, building resilience that protects both day-to-day operations and long-term customer loyalty.

The Bottom Line

For retailers, cybersecurity isn’t just an IT issue, it’s a customer loyalty issue. Every shopper at the checkout line trusts that their data is safe. Breaches don’t just disrupt operations; they can permanently damage a brand’s reputation.

By investing in robust cybersecurity strategies, leveraging new technologies, and staying ahead of evolving regulations, retailers can turn resilience into a competitive advantage, making the protection of customer trust the most valuable product on the shelf.

Want to dive deeper into the relationship between cybersecurity and data privacy? Then download our whitepaper, Data Privacy for the Information Professional. It will show you how to move from reactive compliance to a proactive, privacy-first culture that builds long-term trust with customers.

Download your copy today to learn how to:

• Understand and apply the principles of Privacy by Design
• Build a flexible, organization-wide privacy framework
• Navigate state-specific privacy laws with confidence
• Align retention schedules, consent management, and data use policies

Don’t just “check the box” when it comes to legal requirements. Go beyond by building trust and resilience through robust data privacy and cybersecurity practices.

I’m about to say something that might ruffle a few feathers. Ready? Deep breath. Here we go: We’re overusing indefinite retention periods in our retention schedules.

There, I said it.

Now, before the records hoarders clutch their banker’s boxes in protest—relax. I know your struggle. I know you want to keep everything forever… and ever… and ever. Your commitment is admirable. Your office floor? Probably less visible. But it’s time to talk about change.

“Permanent” vs. “Indefinite”: Not Twins, Just Distant Cousins

One of the biggest sources of confusion in the retention world is the casual interchangeability of “permanent” and “indefinite” as if they were interchangeable. They’re not.

Permanent retention means forever. Full stop. No take-backs. These are your articles of incorporation, charters, and by-laws—the crown jewels of your organization. You don’t toss those. Ever.

Indefinite retention, on the other hand, is like the “we’ll see” of recordkeeping. It doesn’t mean forever—it means you’ll revisit the decision someday (ideally before your grandchildren inherit the records room).

Done right, indefinite retention supports genuine business needs—such as keeping policies, programs, or procedures readily available. Done wrong, it becomes the catchall for anything no one has the courage to delete.

Why Indefinite Has Taken Over (And Why That’s a Problem)

Indefinite retention is popular because it caters to two familiar office personalities:

1. Records hoarders – You know who they are. Those who declare that the records are theirs, not the company’s, to do with as they please. The ones who somehow know what every piece of paper piled up in every box in their office is and can find anything you ask for in less than a minute… even if they can’t see their floor anymore.
2. Risk-averse scaredy cats – They’re terrified of throwing something away that might matter. They’re the “just in case” crowd, who keep handwritten meeting notes from before computer times because what if we need to refer back to them someday?

But here’s the thing: forever isn’t free. Storage costs money. Retention increases risk and litigation exposure. And with today’s budget pressures, privacy laws, and the growing need for defensible disposal, indefinite isn’t a cautious strategy—it’s a ticking time bomb.

Making Retention Work: Real-World Strategies for Scalable IG

Join our webinar and learn more about retention and data minimization policies are often documented but rarely enforced effectively at scale.

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So, When Does Indefinite Actually Make Sense?

Let’s be fair: indefinite retention isn’t all bad. It has its place—just a much smaller place than many schedules suggest.

Indefinite makes sense when:

• No law or regulation specifies a clear retention period.
• The record still supports business needs, even after newer versions exist.
• The record may have occasional, unpredictable reference values.

Think: internal policies, procedures, or awards packages. Not: every sticky note from every staff meeting.

Where You Should Rethink Indefinite (Hint: Look at Personnel Records)

If you’re not sure where to start, here’s one easy win: personnel records.

Unless the law says otherwise, don’t default to indefinite retention here. The litigation exposure and privacy risks are enormous. Keeping old HR files forever is like rolling out the red carpet for a data breach. And no one wants to explain that to the board.

The Takeaway

Indefinite retention isn’t the villain—it’s just not meant to be the star of your schedule. Think of it like the coworker who microwaves fish in the breakroom: acceptable in very specific situations but best avoided whenever possible.

So, next time you review your retention schedule, here are three smart next steps:

1. Know your rules. Learn the regulatory requirements for retention that apply to your organization—whether you dig into them yourself or use a tool like Virgo to help.
2. Check your “indefinites.” Evaluate whether each indefinite retention period is truly necessary or if it’s just a placeholder for avoiding a tough decision.
3. Favor defined periods. When in doubt, lean toward clear, defined retention timelines. It reduces cost, risk, and the chance that your future self will curse your present self.

Use “indefinite retention” sparingly, strategically, and with intention. Your records program (and your budget) will thank you.

For more insights into achieving continued success with your retention schedule, watch our three-part webinar series, Achieving Retention Program Success: From Vision to Victory.

To help records managers and information governance professionals prepare their programs for 2026, Access and ARMA gathered a panel of industry leaders to share actionable strategies and critical insights. The webinar, Autumn Audit, Preparing Your Programs for the Year Ahead, featured advice from:

• Rachael Heade, Director of Records Compliance at Microsoft
• Susan Gogley, Senior Corporate Counsel at The Home Depot
• Samantha Poindexter, Counsel at Access
• Moderated by Jamie Greenstein, Senior Marketing Manager at Access

Continue reading for a summary of their most valuable advice, distilled into six core themes that you can apply immediately to refine your records compliance and information governance (IG) programs.

The Autumn Checkpoint: Why Now is the Perfect Time

Budgeting, planning, and goal setting are in full swing, so this time of year feels like a natural checkpoint for reevaluating programs. Rachael Heade emphasized this point by stating, “This is a really great time to sit back and just plan. Is what I’ve got set in front of me for the next six months actually what I want in front of me?”

She also highlighted the importance of keeping consistent stakeholders at the table throughout the year, such as HR, finance, privacy, security, and litigation teams, while adjusting focus as priorities shift. This way, you can jump right into strategic planning, like inviting your friends over to jump into the massive leaf pile in your backyard.

The key takeaway: Treat fall as your reset button. Use it to align strategic initiatives with both fiscal calendars and organizational risk cycles.

Moving from Reactive to Proactive

Too often, IG programs become reactive, and organizations scramble when litigation arises or an audit hits. Proactive programs, by contrast, anticipate needs, integrate with enterprise risk, and embed themselves into broader governance. As you pause to evaluate your programs during this natural checkpoint, think about the steps you need to take to move your program from reactive to proactive.

Susan Gogley went into detail on this during the webinar:

She recommended scheduling internal audits and policy reviews, updating legal holds, regular staff training, partnering with legal to anticipate regulatory changes, and embedding records management into enterprise risk conversations.

Additionally, Susan provided an invaluable piece of advice to those advocating for additional budget: lean on metrics that demonstrate program success. “Show where you were able to remediate records and how you saved money. You’re going to want to share those dashboards and numbers with your enterprise risk management committee, with your executive committee, whoever would give you money,” she said.

Take these proactive steps to set your program up for success, and you’ll be less likely to find yourself hastily reacting to problems that pop up.

Turning Gaps into Actionable Initiatives

Every program has shortcomings. The challenge is converting them into progress.

Samantha Poindexter advised to start with an honest assessment of your program and its shortcomings by looking back before moving forward. “The first quick win you can do is build your team and be honest in that assessment so you can plan to go forward.”

On the flip side, Rachael Heade encouraged the audience not to put too much effort into chasing the easy fixes because addressing the “hard stuff” results in a larger impact. Break them into smaller steps and own the momentum.

At the same time, Susan Gogley pointed out that champions matter, whether they’re from HR, IT, manufacturing, R&D, or another department. “It’s really about finding who’s interested, who understands the problem if we hold data too long, who can you leverage as a champion within these groups,” she explained.

The key takeaway: Assess your program honestly and confront major issues directly, but don’t do it alone. Secure champions in high-influence positions and build cross-functional momentum.

Data Minimization & Defensible Destruction

Audience polling during the webinar revealed data minimization as the top organizational priority heading into 2026. It’s no surprise—reducing redundant, obsolete, or trivial (ROT) data is both a compliance requirement and a security safeguard.

Susan Gogley captured it best: “Destruction has always been my favorite ‘D word’ when it comes to records retention because as long as you have a defensible program, you’re in a good place.” However, defensible destruction requires more than policy alignment, it demands consistent execution, documentation, and audit trails.

Of course, the word “destruction” always causes people to cling onto their outdated records like stubborn leaves refusing to fall from the tree, even when winter is just around the corner. Samantha Poindexter encouraged the audience to start where it’s easier, such as paper archives or a department eager to pilot change.

Try framing data minimization not as “loss,” but as risk reduction, cost savings, and efficiency. Pair defensible policies with consistent action and start where momentum is easiest to build.

Gaining Buy-In from Executives

Even the best-designed program fails without executive support. The key is speaking the right language, which is the language of risk and value.

Susan Gogley suggested pairing risk reduction with cost savings and using metrics and case studies to support.

Metrics, such as cost savings per terabyte destroyed, and case studies showing competitors’ compliance failures, resonate with leadership. Aligning initiatives with corporate priorities like cybersecurity, ESG commitments, or AI governance can help further strengthen your case.

When you approach executives for buy-in, you need to have your elevator pitch prepared. As Samantha pointed out during the webinar, you may only get one shot, so it’s important to “figure out what those different priorities are for your different stakeholders, so that you can come ready with the right technique for the right person… if you use your opportunity to talk about something in the wrong way, it might fall flat, and that might be the one time that you get in front of that person.”

In the end, securing executive support is all about the right preparation, ensuring the message is well received.

Preparing for Future Seasons

Just as a wardrobe shifts from light jackets to heavy coats, information governance frameworks must adapt to the changing climate of privacy laws, security risks, and emerging technology.

“Part of success is building a program flexible enough to adapt to AI and changing laws,” Samantha noted. Be sure to prioritize resilience and flexibility as you move forward. Quarterly or annual risk reviews, especially for legal holds and records retention, ensure program endurance.

Additionally, the relationships you cultivate year-round are key to future success. Rachael urged the audience to maintain multiple champions to avoid gaps when someone leaves, and when turnover occurs, introducing yourself to the new person and offering your assistance is the best first step.

Conclusion

Autumn is both an ending and a beginning—the harvest of what’s grown and the preparation for what’s next. Records programs benefit from the same cycle of reflection and planning. As you build habits of rumination, assessment, and action, take inspiration from the insights shared during the webinar, and don’t miss the chance to revisit the full conversation with Rachael, Susan, and Samantha for even more practical guidance.

Records and information management (RIM) has always had rules. In the past, it was straightforward—keep certain files at a principal office and ensure records were available on-site or even on board a ship. But today, the landscape looks nothing like it used to. The combination of cloud computing, personal data regulations, and global operations has turned “where you keep your records” into a high-stakes compliance challenge.

What’s Changed?

The traditional questions haven’t gone away:

• Can records be stored at a branch office or only at headquarters?
• Do transporters need physical documents, or is digital access acceptable?
• Are digital records compliant, or are physical originals still required?

But now, there’s a more complex layer: data residency and privacy rights. These two concerns are transforming how organizations manage records, especially when dealing with cloud storage and cross-border data flows.

Why Data Residency Matters More Than Ever

Data residency refers to the physical location where data is stored. And for many countries, location is everything.

Take Vietnam, for example. Companies operating there must ensure that personal data belonging to Vietnamese citizens remains within the country. That means that companies cannot store that information in overseas data centers or on cloud-based servers hosted outside Vietnamese borders.

This isn’t an isolated case. Many countries are adopting similar policies to protect national interests and citizen privacy. For global organizations, it means maintaining awareness and compliance with a patchwork of jurisdictional rules.

From Legacy to Longevity: CHIME Case Study

In this CHIME case study, leaders from Novant Health and Morris Hospital explain how they retired their legacy systems and moved historical data into a single archive that is easier, faster, and safer to access.

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Privacy Regulations Add New Recordkeeping Demands

Modern privacy laws don’t just dictate where data can go; they also give individuals new rights. People can now:

• Request that their data be deleted or corrected
• Require explicit consent before certain types of data are processed

Here’s the twist: These requests and consents are now records too. They come with their own retention requirements and are often subject to data residency regulations. So, compliance isn’t just about storing “the record”; it’s also about storing all the metadata and administrative history surrounding that record.

When Location Equals Identity

The definition of “personal data” has expanded. It now includes anything that could link an individual to a location or identity, making both the content and the record’s storage location part of the compliance equation.

Cross-border transfers are a prime concern. Even in places like the European Economic Area (EEA), where data doesn’t need to stay local, transferring personal data to countries outside the EEA still comes with regulatory hurdles.

Human Resources (HR) records are particularly affected. A company with employees across multiple countries needs to know exactly what data can be moved, stored, or shared—and under what conditions.

The Path Forward: Policy, Awareness, and Internal Controls

As more countries introduce or revise data protection laws, RIM professionals must evolve with them. That means:

• Staying current with international data laws
• Understanding the sensitivity and residency requirements of different data types
• Developing internal controls and defensible policies for handling data and records
• Classifying records accurately and early in their lifecycle

The era of “store it and forget it” is over. Today’s records managers must balance compliance, privacy, and operational needs in a world where the rules—and the risks—are constantly shifting.

We’re in a new era of records management, one that’s driven by data privacy, cloud technology, and global regulations. The organizations that thrive will be those that treat recordkeeping not just as a requirement, but as a strategic discipline. Because in today’s world, how you manage your data is how you manage your risk.

Our legal team can help you understand the complexities of data residency compliance and privacy, and how they may impact your retention schedule. Ask us how you can get started today!

Cybercriminals are constantly identifying and implementing new traps to lure you into giving away your personal information, money, or identity. The internet can be a scary place if you don’t know how to protect yourself.

Continue reading for four key tips to keep your data safe and sound from the malicious users lurking in the dark corners of the internet.

1. Use Strong Passwords

One of the most basic and important steps to avoid exposing personal information online is to use strong passwords. A strong password is one that is long, complex, and unique. It should not contain any personal information, common words, or patterns that are easy to guess.

A strong password should also be different for each account so that if one gets compromised, the others are still safe. One easy way to create and remember strong passwords is to use a password manager tool that generates and securely stores them for you. These tools can also help you change your passwords regularly and alert you if any of your accounts are breached.

Note: Verify with your organization’s IT security and/or compliance teams that password managers are allowed before storing any passwords related to company or client use.

2. Use Multifactor Authentication

Another important security tool to use is multifactor authentication (MFA). MFA, also known as two-factor authentication or two-step verification, is a method that requires you to provide more than one piece of evidence to verify your identity before accessing your account. For example, you may need to enter a code sent to your phone or email, scan your fingerprint, or use a physical device like a security key. Taking off your Halloween mask to prove it’s really you doesn’t count.

MFA adds an extra layer of protection to your account, making it harder for hackers to break in — even if they have your password. You can check if an online service you use supports MFA and learn how to enable it here: 2FA Directory.

Implement multi-factor authentication for any account that permits it, especially accounts associated with work, school, email, banking, or social media. It may seem like a lot of work, but it’s well worth the peace of mind.

3. Recognize & Report Phishing

Phishing is one of the most common and dangerous traps that cybercriminals use. Phishing is a type of cyberattack that uses fake emails, texts, or websites to lure you into giving away your personal or financial information or downloading malicious software. Phishing messages often look like they come from legitimate sources, such as your bank, your employer, or a trusted contact.

It can be scary to think someone may take advantage of your trust in this way, but there are steps you can take to remain vigilant. Be cautious and skeptical of any unsolicited or suspicious messages. Take a few seconds and review the contents of the message to see if it looks legitimate. Here are some signs that a message may be a phishing attempt:

• It asks for your personal, financial, or other sensitive information
• It contains spelling or grammatical errors and includes unnatural greetings or non-native phrases
• It has a mismatched sender name, email address, or domain name
• It contains language that’s urgent, alarming, or threatening
• It stresses urgency to click on an unfamiliar hyperlink or attachment

If you receive a phishing message, do not reply, click on any links, or open any attachments. If the message comes to your work email address, report it to your IT security team as quickly as possible. If it comes to your personal email address, delete it from your inbox immediately.

4. Update Your Software

One of the easiest ways to boost your cybersecurity is to update your software and apps regularly. Software updates are not only meant to improve the performance and functionality of your devices and applications but also to fix any security vulnerabilities that may have been discovered. Hackers can exploit these vulnerabilities to access your system and data or install malware on your device.

To prevent this from happening, you should always install the latest updates for your operating system, browser, antivirus software, and other applications as soon as they are available. You can also enable automatic updates for certain software so you don’t have to worry about missing them. Remember to only download software and updates from verified sources or your device’s official app store. And don’t forget to ensure all your devices are updated – phones, tablets, and computers!

As technology continues to evolve, it’s more important than ever that you remain vigilant in the protection of your personal information online.

By following these four tips, you can protect yourself and your data from the cybercriminals that lurk in the dark corners of the internet. Happy Halloween!

For additional resources and more information about Cybersecurity Awareness Month, visit the National Cybersecurity Alliance website.

As data privacy laws continue to expand and evolve, compliance teams are under more pressure than ever. It’s not just about understanding legal language; it’s about turning it into real, everyday processes that protect both people and organizations.

The good news? There’s already a well-established framework that enables this: records management.

Privacy Laws = Information Lifecycle Management

When you strip away the legal jargon, most privacy regulations, like the GDPR, CCPA, and newer U.S. state laws, are all about managing the lifecycle of personal data. That includes:

• Retention – How long should you keep personal data?
• Disposition – When and how should it be securely deleted?
• Access and Security – Who can see the data, and how is it protected?

Sound familiar? These are the pillars of records management. What’s changed is the increased urgency and legal expectation around getting it right, especially when it comes to secure destruction and tight access controls.

New Rules for Access and Use

Privacy regulations now go beyond storage and security. They place limits on how data is used. For example:

• Only certain employees should have access to personal data (role-based access).
• Data should only be used for specific, approved purposes.
• You should only collect what’s truly necessary (data minimization).

These aren’t just good practices; they’re now legal obligations. The better your access controls, the stronger your compliance posture and your overall cybersecurity.

From Legacy to Longevity: CHIME Case Study

In this CHIME case study, leaders from Novant Health and Morris Hospital explain how they retired their legacy systems and moved historical data into a single archive that is easier, faster, and safer to access.

Webinar ›

Getting It Right from the Start

Privacy compliance starts the moment data is created or collected. It’s critical to classify information properly from the beginning. That means distinguishing between:

• Routine business records are governed by traditional retention rules
• Records containing personally identifiable information (PII), which are subject to stricter privacy standards

This classification serves as the foundation for applying the appropriate retention schedules, securing access, and determining whether data needs to be anonymized. The challenge? Privacy definitions can differ dramatically from one jurisdiction to another. That makes accurate, consistent classification more important than ever.

From Policy to Practice

Privacy compliance doesn’t live in a binder or a slide deck. It lives in your everyday operations. That means:

• Setting and enforcing retention periods
• Disposing of records securely and on time
• Managing who has access to what data—and why
• Monitoring and tracking the entire data lifecycle

When privacy programs are based on action—not just intention—they become powerful tools for both risk reduction and regulatory alignment.

Final Thought: Make Privacy Work for You

The key to navigating complex privacy requirements isn’t adding more policies; it’s embedding them into the systems and practices you already use. By framing privacy in terms of records management, compliance becomes more intuitive, more actionable, and ultimately, more successful.

Become an expert at managing both physical and digital records throughout the lifecycle with this Information Lifecycle Masterclass: From Creation to Destruction. 

Your business’ critical records also follow a lifecycle (minus the water and soil). The difference is the complex oversight needed to ensure it flows through each stage with security, compliance, and accountability.

From creation and active use to storage, retention, and eventual destruction, every stage requires careful management to protect sensitive information, meet regulations, and reduce risk. Just like a seed needs sunlight, water, and care to grow properly, your records need policies, processes, and oversight to complete their lifecycle safely and efficiently.

This oversight is referred to as Information Lifecycle Management (ILM): a structured approach to stewarding data from the moment it’s created to the moment it’s securely destroyed. Done right, ILM creates clarity, trims costs, and empowers teams with the information they need, exactly when they need it.

The Key Stages of the Information Lifecycle

Before diving into how to implement ILM effectively, it’s important to understand what we’re really managing. The lifecycle of information isn’t a straight path—it’s a series of stages, each with its own compliance requirements, risks, and business value. Managing each stage deliberately is the key to transforming information from a liability into a strategic asset. Here are five key stages of the information lifecycle:

Creation

This is where information enters your ecosystem, whether it’s a digital file created in-house, a contract received from a client, or data entered into a system. At this stage, consistency is critical. Capturing metadata, tagging documents appropriately, and applying classification early on sets the tone for everything that follows.

Distribution and Use

Once created, data moves. It’s shared via email, accessed by employees, and embedded into workflows. During this phase, organizations must ensure data is used appropriately. Role-based access, user activity logs, and encryption can help enforce proper use while keeping data protected.

Storage

Not all data needs to live in high-performance storage. As information becomes less active, but still relevant, it should be migrated to more cost-effective storage environments. At this point, it’s essential to ensure retention schedules are applied and that searchability is preserved through indexing and proper file organization.

Retention and Archiving

This is the long-haul phase. Inactive data that still holds value—whether for legal, regulatory, or operational reasons—should be archived securely. A robust archiving strategy ensures that data is protected, preserved, and easily retrievable if needed for audits, legal discovery, or internal reference.

Disposition and/or Destruction

When information has outlived its usefulness and legal value, it must be disposed of securely. Whether that means certified document shredding or cryptographic erasure, the goal is the same: ensure the data cannot be recovered or misused. Disposition should always be documented for compliance and audit purposes.

Building a Comprehensive ILM Strategy: Step by Step

Once you understand the key stages of the information lifecycle, it’s time to build a step-by-step comprehensive ILM strategy:

Conduct a Full Information Inventory

Start with a clear-eyed view of your current data landscape. Where is your information stored? What formats does it exist in? Who has access? Without this foundational knowledge, it’s nearly impossible to apply the right lifecycle controls.

Define and Document Governance Policies

Create policies that govern how data is classified, accessed, retained, and destroyed. These should align with legal requirements like HIPAA, GDPR, or FINRA, and be tailored to your industry and risk tolerance.

Build and Maintain Retention Schedules

Retention schedules serve as the rulebook for how long different categories of data are kept. They should be specific, actionable, and adaptable, as well as updated regularly as laws, industry guidelines, and business operations evolve.

Automate Wherever Possible

Automation ensures consistency. Use records management systems that can automatically apply classification, enforce retention, and trigger alerts or destruction workflows when data ages out of use.

Educate Employees

Policies are only as good as the people following them. Regular training ensures that employees understand their responsibilities around information handling. Be sure to document the training as it helps to prove compliance during audits or litigation.

Test and Audit Regularly

ILM isn’t a one-and-done initiative. Regular audits help surface gaps, flag outdated processes, and keep you ahead of compliance risks. Use them to refine your strategy and adapt to changing business needs.

Balancing Accessibility, Security, and Compliance

One of the most common ILM pitfalls is over-correcting—locking down data so tightly it becomes inaccessible to those who need it. A successful strategy balances usability with control. That means enforcing permissions, encrypting sensitive data, and using secure platforms without creating bottlenecks for everyday users.

Managing information throughout its lifecycle is like tending to a garden. With a thoughtful ILM strategy, organizations can prune unnecessary storage, cultivate operational efficiency, ensure compliance blooms, and protect sensitive data from threats, helping the organization grow stronger and healthier over time.

Ready to strengthen your information lifecycle strategy? Explore how Access can help you manage data, from creation to secure destruction, with solutions designed to reduce risk, support compliance, and improve efficiency. Think of us as the fertilizer for your garden.

As the year comes to a close, many organizations will reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and what needs improvement in the months ahead. One area that often goes unnoticed until problems arise is records and information management. The truth is, when records aren’t properly managed, the consequences can be costly. To illustrate the risks, let’s look at a few real-world examples that highlight common missteps and the lessons they teach. Each example is accompanied by practical advice to help you strengthen your records management program as you enter the new year.

Misstep #1: Treating Your Retention Schedule as “One and Done”

A government agency once neglected to update its records retention schedule for more than five years. On the surface, this seemed harmless until an internal investigation revealed that documents had been deleted prematurely. The fallout was swift and severe: legal action, regulatory fines, and significant damage to the agency’s reputation.

The lesson is clear. Retention schedules cannot be treated as static. They need to be reviewed regularly to reflect changing laws and evolving organizational policies.

The best way to prevent this is by scheduling an annual review of your retention policy, involving legal, compliance, and IT teams in the process, and auditing a sample of records to ensure they align with current requirements.

Misstep #2: Keeping Everything “Just in Case”

At a healthcare provider, outdated patient records were kept far beyond the legally required retention period. The organization believed it was safer to hold onto everything “just in case.” But when a ransomware attack occurred, those archived records became a liability. Sensitive information was exposed, triggering HIPAA violations and leading to an expensive settlement.

The lesson here is that holding on to data longer than necessary is not a safeguard; it is a risk. Over-retention increases exposure to breaches, lawsuits, and unnecessary storage costs.

To prevent this, organizations should establish clear destruction procedures for expired records, follow data minimization principles to reduce excess storage, and purge outdated information regularly according to company policy.

From Legacy to Longevity: CHIME Case Study

In this CHIME case study, leaders from Novant Health and Morris Hospital explain how they retired their legacy systems and moved historical data into a single archive that is easier, faster, and safer to access.

Webinar ›

Misstep #3: Outdated Policies Cause Costly Mistakes

A public corporation found itself in hot water after failing to update its retention schedule to comply with new privacy regulations. This oversight resulted in customer data being retained longer than legally permitted, and the mistake quickly escalated into investigations, reputational harm, and costly legal penalties.

The lesson is simple but urgent: retention policies must evolve in lockstep with regulatory changes. Outdated schedules can expose organizations to risks that are both preventable and expensive.

The solution lies in reviewing and updating your retention schedule at least once a year, ensuring alignment with all applicable laws and regulations, and communicating updates across the organization so that every employee understands their role and responsibilities.

Looking Ahead: Building a Smarter Records Strategy for the New Year

Now that you know what to avoid, it’s a perfect time to evaluate your records management program. Take stock of your policies and procedures, identify gaps that need attention, and provide updated training for staff. Consider investing in tools that support secure, efficient, and compliant records management practices.

Records management is not just about compliance. It is a key part of risk management, operational efficiency, and legal defensibility. By starting the new year with a well-organized, future-ready program, your organization can avoid costly mistakes, improve performance, and stay ahead of regulatory change.

A strong records management strategy sets the foundation for success in the year ahead—and beyond. If you’re unsure about where to start, learn more about evaluating your program in our eBook, Integrated Information Management: A Roadmap to Assess Your Organization’s Information Management Priorities. 

A few years ago, a large healthcare provider thought it had its records retention schedule under control. They invested in building a comprehensive policy that ticked every compliance box at the time. However, when new privacy legislation came into effect, no one took notice. Months later, during an audit, gaps surfaced, and it was discovered that the established retention periods no longer aligned with the law. The result? Costly remediation, additional legal scrutiny, and a lesson they won’t soon forget: a retention schedule is never static.

This story isn’t unique. Laws change, organizations expand into new markets, and risks evolve faster than ever. That’s why an annual review of your records retention schedule isn’t just a formality; it’s a cornerstone of sound information governance.

What an Annual Review Really Means

Think of the annual review as a check-up for your retention policies. Just as you’d visit a doctor to catch small health issues before they become big ones, this process ensures your retention schedule stays healthy and defensible. During a review, your team evaluates whether your policies align with current compliance requirements by identifying new or updated laws that affect records retention, considering organizational changes such as new products, services, or geographic regions, updating retention to reflect evolving privacy, security, and litigation risks, and confirming that information governance priorities are clear, consistent, and enforceable.

Why the Effort Pays Off

Organizations that commit to annual reviews see tangible benefits. They gain compliance assurance by staying aligned with fast-changing data protection laws, maintaining defensible schedules that minimize the risks of keeping data too long or not long enough, and achieving better business alignment by ensuring policies reflect how the company operates today rather than years ago. Annual reviews also improve audit readiness by providing clear, current, and defensible retention rules, while driving efficiency and cost savings by eliminating outdated requirements and reducing unnecessary storage. In other words, the review process is about creating a smarter, leaner, and more agile records program.

Illuminating the Path to Information Clarity: Reflections from 2025

In Illuminating the Path to Information Clarity: Reflections from 2025, we’ll revisit the pivotal moments, insights, and innovations that shaped the year and explore what’s on the horizon for records and information management professionals in 2026.

Webinar ›

When “Annual” Isn’t Enough

For some organizations, once a year isn’t sufficient. Consider a financial institution juggling regulations across multiple countries, or a tech company in hyper-growth mode adding new services every quarter. In these cases, quarterly reviews provide the agility needed to stay ahead of constant change.

Quarterly check-ins are especially valuable when:

• You’re in a heavily regulated industry, such as healthcare, finance, or privacy.
• You operate across multiple jurisdictions with different legal timelines.
• The business is evolving quickly through mergers, acquisitions, or global expansion.
• Leadership insists on a low-risk posture with proactive oversight.

By reviewing their quarterly reports, these organizations avoid waiting months to respond to new laws or emerging risks.

The Bottom Line

Whether you choose annual or quarterly reviews, the message is clear: a retention schedule isn’t a one-and-done document. It’s a living policy that needs regular attention.

The organizations that thrive are those that treat these reviews not as a compliance burden, but as a strategic advantage. By building a cadence of regular updates, you ensure your retention schedule remains compliant, defensible, and aligned with your business today—and resilient enough for tomorrow.

Contact us to learn more about building a schedule of updates with a solution that helps you remain compliant.