Unless they are vendors of storage or digital preservation services, profit making business do not have collection as their core mandate, and tend to be driven by market share, reputation, profit, branding and their perceived trustworthiness within their own market. This may mean that it is often harder to make the case for digital preservation in business archives, but digital materials play a crucial role in a company’s distinctiveness, competence and competitiveness.

What is Digital Preservation?

  • Managing the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the organization’s records to ensure efficient and accurate access,
  • Applying retention periods correctly, avoiding unnecessary risks.

What are the Risks of not preserving digital materials?

Risks

Potential Consequences

Key Motivators

Existing storage systems do not protect records from unauthorised change or corruption

  • Data loss/corruption
  • Disruption of business/organisation’s functions
  • Confidence loss
  • Damage to reputation
  • Loss/reduction in funding/revenue
  • Unable to meet legal/regulatory requirements

Authenticity

Business Continuity

Compliance

Reputation

Revenue

Security

Staff fail to comply with organizational policy and processes in relation to management of records (reliability, authenticity, usability etc.),

  • Important digital objects not captured in preservation system
  • Necessary documentation/metadata not created/captured
  • Disruption of business/organisation’s functions
  • Unable to meet legal/regulatory requirements

Authenticity

Business Continuity

Compliance

Costs

Reputation

Inability to provide evidence of compliance with regulations

  • Loss of reputation and stakeholder confidence
  • Fines/sanctions

Compliance

Costs

Reputation

Business processes rely on file formats and storage media that are becoming obsolete

  • Data loss/corruption
  • Disruption of business’s functions
  • Increased costs

Business Continuity

Costs

Inability to produce reliable and authentic records necessary to pursue or defend legal claims

  • Undermines ability to reach resolution
  • Unsatisfactory or expensive settlements

Authenticity

Compliance

Costs

Loss of corporate memory

  • Unable to rely on past evidence to inform current decision-making
  • Insufficient resources to support branding and marketing

Authenticity

Business Continuity

Corporate/Cultural Memory

Reputation

Revenue

The archive team do not have the tools required for effective search and retrieval of digital holdings

  • Unable to provide access to information required to support business processes
  • Loss of productivity/revenue

Business Continuity

Costs

Revenue

Inability to reuse valuable information

  • Unable to provide access to information required to support business processes
  • Loss of productivity/revenue
  • Limits innovation
  • Fall behind market/competitors

Business Continuity

Costs

Reputation

Revenue

Volume of data continues to grow without action being taken

  • Data loss/corruption
  • Disruption of business’s functions
  • Increased costs now and in the future
  • Loss of productivity/revenue

Business Continuity

Compliance

Costs

Reputation

Security

What Opportunities do preserved digital materials create? 

Digital Preservation can…

Key Motivators

enable better cooperation with regulatory bodies by sustaining access to reliable records as evidence of actions.

Accountability

Compliance

allow an organization to defend decisions and attribute responsibility by sustaining access to reliable records as evidence of actions for legal, regulatory and IPR cases

Accountability

Compliance

enable the organization to respond more efficiently to legal holds by sustaining access to reliable records

Accountability

Compliance

demonstrate increased transparency through improved access to records for stakeholders,

Accountability

inspire brand evolution through an understanding of corporate history enabled by access to a complete set of reliable records

Reputation

Corporate/Cultural Memory

inform business initiatives today through an understanding of previous decisions and rationale enabled by access to a complete set of reliable records

Business Continuity

Corporate/Cultural Memory

Enabling Research

protect against financial losses by enabling the provision of evidence for legal and regulatory cases

Costs

Compliance

add value and create opportunities for the business by leveraging corporate memory as an asset

Corporate/Cultural Memory

provide cost efficiencies through planned disposal and deletion according to specified retention schedules, which results in reduced storage requirements

Business Continuity

Costs

Technology

What do Businesses need to enable Digital Preservation?

All organisations require the same things to enable effective digital preservation.

Go to Digital Preservation Needs

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