Business Records Management

Business Records Management

By Lisa Stofko

Business Matters Magazine

Fall 2007

Identity theft is among the fastest growing and costly crimes in the United States.  The total loss to businesses and individuals for all types of reported identity theft is almost $53 billion annually, according to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.  While laws such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and FACTA (Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act) were enacted to improve consumer protection, they’ve also provided a boost to an industry that offers secure destruction, retention, storage and management of sensitive and confidential documents, computer media and other materials.

“FACTA’s Disposal Rule, which took effect June 1, 2005, requires anyone with consumer information to have it shredded, “ explains Steve Wright, President, Business Records Management.  “So, if I have a retail business and I keep credit card receipts or employee files with their personal information, I am required to shred those documents, not just throw them away.”

Based in Pittsburgh, Business Records Management (BRM) operated 14 warehouse and information management facilities serving parts of west-central Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and northern West Virginia.  The company opened a Johnstown branch in November 2005 after taking ownership of the former Stonycreek Shredding and Records Management Company.  “We were servicing clients with multiple office locations in Pittsburgh and Johnstown and we saw it as an opportunity to expand into a market that we were already serving to a small extent,” says Wright.

Because Stonycreek operated out of three different facilities, its operations were fractured and inefficient, says Wright.  Its two warehouses and shredding facility were miles apart.  BRM sought help from Johnstown Area Regional Industries (JARI) and its sister agency Johnstown Industrial Development Corporation (JIDC) for assistance in finding a new location where it could consolidate its services under one roof.  “JARI was out first point of contact when we first started looking for a site,“ says Wright.  “And JIDC did a great job.  The staff met with us, talked with us about what buildings were available, what assistance they could provide.  They really gave us the lay of the land.”

The company, which has 17 employees in Johnstown and 120 workers statewide, now operates from a centrally-located, high-visibility warehouse along Eisenhower Boulevard in Richland Township.  The 42,000 square-foot facility even includes additional land for future expansion.  “The site was perfect because it had a small office area for our administrative staff and a large warehouse with 19-foot, clear ceilings which is good for our industry,” Wright explains.  “We were able to optimize the capacity for our racking systems.  The building also had multiple loading docks for trucks, great access to the highways and was above the flood plain.”

BRM’s Johnstown operation boasts a sophisticated fire suppression system and state-of-the-art shredders that perform cross-cut shredding to IRS standards.  Other specialized features include a climate-controlled, four-hour fire-rated storage vault where BRM safeguards materials such as x-rays, microfilm, archives and backup servers and computer equipment.  The company also offers instant disaster recovery and business resumption to its clients.  The service is a tremendous benefit to businesses that suffer a catastrophic event such as a flood, fire or network failure.  A client’s backup material can be returned very quickly as soon as BRM is notified, Wright explains.

BRM is also a friend to the environment.  The Johnstown facility, which recycles all of its shredded materials, destroyed 3.8 million pounds of documents over the last 12 months, saving the equivalent of 5,662 cubic yards of landfill space and 32,085 trees.

< Back to News & Events