DocuWare can help you get BS 10008 accredited
With more and more information and documentation being stored electronically it is in businesses best interests to ensure that that documentation can be proven to be trustworthy and therefore legally admissible as evidence in any disputes. This is where BS 10008 comes into play.
What is BS 10008?
Taken directly from the British Standard Institution‘s website:
BS 10008 is the British Standard that outlines best practice for the implementation and operation of electronic information management systems, including the storage and transfer of information. It is designed to help you verify and authenticate all your information to avoid the legal pitfalls of information storage. BS 10008 outlines best practice for transferring electronic information between systems and migrating paper records to digital files. It also gives guidelines for managing the availability and accessibility of any records that could be required as legal evidence.
What this means that an organisation certified to BS 10008 is in a position to prove that their electronic documentation is robust and can be trusted.
Who needs BS 10008?
Typically an organisation will implement the standard for one or more of three reasons:
- They often face disputes of some kind and rely on electronic documentation as evidence
- They are an “Authority” and the Lord Chancellor’s Code of Practice stipulates they should follow it as it is best practice. An “Authority” includes the likes of government departments, legislative bodies, local authorities, NHS or schools
- It is demanded by their customers – document scanning bureaus, for example
The fact is though that any business which plans to store the majority – if not all – of their documentation electronically will benefit from being BS 10008 certified as it not only fulfills the requirements outlined above, its implementation acts as a quality and risk management system too.
There are many issues businesses face when it comes to scanned or digitally-created electronic documentation, including the quality of the documents themselves (low quality, blurred, faded) or poor indexing of information making them impossible to find.
BS 10008 seeks to ensure these issues are eliminated, as well as ensure evidential weight and legal admissibility. BS 10008 is all about high quality electronic information and low risk.
What does it cover?
Many people believe BS 10008 applies only to the scanning of documents – this is NOT true. It applies to ANY electronic information – whether scanned or not – and, crucially, for its entire lifecycle. In fact, even if you outsource the scanning of your documents to a compliant organisation, you also need to comply yourself if you own the storage system.
The types of electronic information include:
- Scanned documents
- CAD drawings
- Email messages
- Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) files
- Chat messages and SMS messages
- Video files
- Audio files
- Information held in databases
- Data streams from IoT devices
- Any other type of digital object stored on a file system
Where does DocuWare fit in?
In looking to attain BS 10008 certification you will implement a number of positive changes in your business surrounding how you handle electronic documentation and the scanning of paperwork but they will be to no avail without a document management solution.
To ensure quality of storage, robust security, near perfect indexing, the best OCR and full text search, complete audit trails and version control, as well as document related workflow automation that vastly speeds up processing times and ensures accountability, DocuWare is the answer.
If BS 10008 certification is the goal, DocuWare is the tool that will help you achieve standards required.
Read all about the benefits of DocuWare here. And remember, even if you’re NOT looking to achieve BS 10008 certification, DocuWare can help your business in many paper-based areas, saving you both time and money.
Speak to Keeley Travis today for more information – call 0161 683 4247 or email sales@keeley-travis.co.uk
