SHREDDING
Sometimes in the document shredding business, certain questions come up — good questions that need to be answered. One of those inquiries is about how small the documents should be shredded.
There is no standard
The answer is, other than those set forth for governmental classified documents, there is no real standard. Government-approved high-security shredders, created for destroying top secret and classified documents, render an 8.5” x 11” sheet to 15,000 particles.
While impressive, this kind of destruction is rarely needed for business use, especially in the case of mobile shredding. Why? Because not only is compliance with such standards expensive and unnecessary, there are some other reasons — unique to mobile shredding.
Other points to think of when considering mobile shredding
First, regulations for document security only require confidential information to be destroyed to make it reasonably inaccessible and not able to be reconstructed.
With mobile shredding units, while each page may not be transformed into 15,000 pieces of paper, whatever is shredded is mixed with shredded material from other clients, resulting in the documents being “reasonably inaccessible” and irretrievable.
Second, government regulations on shredding specifications assume the shredded materials are not protected or controlled after the documents are destroyed.
Mobile shredding units, however, maintain control of all shredded materials until they are brought to a facility where they are combined and mixed with even more destroyed papers from other sources, and then baled and recycled, rendered these documents utterly unusable for purposes of data collection.
Furthermore, if a mobile document destruction service provider is NAID AAA Certified, as part of that certification the service provider is required to exhibit secure handling and control of the material after it is destroyed.
Summing Up
Considering the points above, for most organizations, the government standard for particle size for shredded documents is unnecessary and irrelevant — and grossly expensive, potentially costing more as much as 10 times the cost of a standard mobile shredding service.
Additionally, as RK Black Shredding is NAID AAA Certified, you can be sure your shredded documents are safe once placed in our custody and shredded at your location as you witness. Plus, as your documents will eventually be recycled into other paper products, you can be confident your information will be destroyed to pulp and fiber. You can’t really get any smaller than that.
If you would like any information on document shredding or our mobile shredding services, let us know.
SHREDDING
Not all that has come out of the COVID pandemic has been bad. Businesses in the struggle to survive and adapt amid the challenges have been quite creative.
We’ve seen businesses implement new virtual conferencing technologies, new infrastructure supporting remote work, process automations and, of course, drive-thru and curb-side services.
As an office technology provider, during this time we’ve been busy helping businesses in making many of these business technology-related changes, setting up networks, adding VoIP services and so on.
But also in the interest of limiting physical contact, promoting social distancing and upping the client experience during this time, we’ve made some changes ourselves — changes we will stick with even post COVID — as they just seem to be better practices.
Here are two of those changes:
Curb-side toner pick-up
The convenience of Scooter’s Coffee, Chic-fil-a, Sonic and … well … any other drive-thru or curb-side fast food and drink is now available at RK Black. No, we aren’t serving coffee or chicken sandwiches, but as your local office technology provider, we are providing drive-up, curb-side toner delivery.
No longer do you have to park, get out of your car, come into our offices, talk to a person at a desk and wait for them to reach out to a person in the warehouse and wait some more for someone to come out from the back and hand you your toner.
If you are a client of RK Black, and are not on a managed print services contract and need toner, just call or email our dispatch team to arrange for your pickup! Upon your communication, we’ll create an order, and according to your preference, we will email you a location pin by which you can navigate to us via your smartphone’s GPS app.
Once you’re parked in the marked pick-up location, just call us letting us know you are here and “Viola!” you have your toner. That easy!
Curb-side shredding drop-off
Our mobile shred services sure are convenient as they can come to your offices or wherever you have shredding needs and can destroy your sensitive documents right before your eyes, either on a regularly scheduled or one-time basis.
But knowing some folks may only have a few boxes or bags of documents and only want to drop them off without having to go into an office, wait and such, we now have curbside shredding dropoff.
Just simply contact us, let us know you are coming, and once you are there, let us know. We’ll come out, collect your material and you can be on your way knowing you have yet another item on your to-do list checked off.
See? Not all that came out of COVID was bad. Better service and better client experience is always good in our book as that is what we are all about.
SHREDDING
RK Black Shredding this week handed Susan G. Komen Oklahoma a check for $2,610, the latest donation given as part of an alliance between the two organizations in the fight against breast cancer.
A little more than three years ago, RK Black Shredding partnered with Susan G. Komen Oklahoma to raise funds to help fight breast cancer and to increase breast cancer awareness. SInce then, the company has raised more than $5,500 in its “Shred for a Cure” program to help destroy the disease that has affected and taken so many lives.
We extend a special thank you to all of those businesses who have joined the fight with us against breast cancer! We were only able to do this with you.
Get a pink bin and help us win
You too can join our alliance against breast cancer. If your business has documents that need shredding, simply contact us and ask to be part of our Shred for a Cure program. We’ll provide you with a pink bin instead of the usual gray bin and with that you can declare your commitment and your support to save lives. If you prefer a shred cabinet instead, we’ll supply you with a cabinet bearing the Susan G. Komen label. In any case, those working at or visiting your office will know you have joined the fight.
All you have to do is fill the containers with your papers meant for destruction. Once it’s full, we’ll empty it. Each time we empty the bin, $5 of your service fee will be donated to the local Susan G. Komen chapter, and RK Black Shredding will match your $5 with another $5. That means that every time you fill a bin and we empty it, $10 goes to fight breast cancer.
Even better, your monthly invoice for our document destruction services will reflect your donation, allowing you to report it as a tax-deductible charitable donation.
It’s a win-win-win! Under the program, you get to protect your confidential information, fight breast cancer and save some money at tax time, just with one tip of a pink shredding bin.
Wait. Let’s make that a win-win-win-win for you with a pink bin. You’ll find the pink shred bin is a great conversation piece and an excellent opportunity for you to help spread breast cancer awareness.
Join the alliance!
SHREDDING
All businesses great or small handling any paper bearing sensitive information should invest in a shredding service. It’s just like how those same businesses should invest in locks for their doors. Just like how locks protect your business space, equipment and people, document shredding protects your data.
Whether you invest in a document shredding unit for your office, take advantage of a local drop-off shredding service (if you are a very small business) or hire a shredding company to come shred your sensitive paper, that is of course you business. The important thing is you are protecting your business, your data and your people.
But if you are trying to determine whether or not to entrust your shredding needs to local document shredding services provider, and maybe the decision is down to going with a shredding pick-up service (also known as offsite shredding) or an onsite shredding service, here are four advantages of going with the onsite option.
Peace of Mind
One of the benefits of shredding is the immediate peace of mind you get when you know your documents are torn to bits and rendered illegible. If you go with an offsite shredding service company, the company may take your documents off your hands, but not necessarily of your mind. They may store them in a warehouse and your sensitive information may not be shredded for another two weeks. However, If you are going for peace of mind, elect to go with an onsite shredding service provider where you can watch the documents destroyed before your eyes, where you want and when you want.
Flexibility
For everything there is a season, just like in the song, and some seasons you’ll have more paper to shred than other seasons. Onsite shredders can adapt to meet your needs, varying amounts, schedules and locations. Have some extra paper to shred one week? Fine. They’ll drop it in the shredding hopper. Need your shredder to show up once a week during tax season? They’ll work you in. Most mobile shredding companies even will offer one-time shredding services (called a purge) or regularly scheduled services, whether you need shredding once a week, once every two weeks or once a month.
Security
So we covered how once the documents are shredded they are secure, but what about before the shredder shreds them? What happens to the documents from the point they are slated for destruction and their actual destruction? For regular service customers, your mobile shredding provider will provide you with locked document collection cabinets or bins conveniently located in your office so that your documents are secure until your shredding service arrives to shred them.
Cost Effectiveness
With a mobile shredding service provider, you don’t need to invest in an office shredder or worry about repair cost or downtime. You don’t need to give up office space for the shredder or office time for an associate to spending shredding your records. Furthermore, going back to flexibility, your service provider will likely work with you on pricing and a plan that works with your needs.
Really if you boil it down, the big overarching benefit for choosing an onsite shredding service could be summed up under benefit number one — peace of mind. That’s what you get with onsite shredding. The more headspace you can free up, the fewer worries on your mind, the more productive you will be.
If you are looking for a shredding service for your business, give us a call at 405-605-8888.
SHREDDING
It’s spring time, tax day has passed, and now you have probably have lots of piles of papers, folders of files, and racks of records that need to be shredded. You’re probably thinking it’s time to call the local shredding company, right? You’re on the right track, but you could be missing an opportunity.
While you could just call your local shredder to roll on over to your location and mill your documents to shreds, you could transform this rather mundane operation into a community event, even a party — one that’s educational, beneficial, fun and memorable for you, for your clients and for your community.
What kind of event is this? It’s what we call a shred day.
Here are 8 reasons you need a shred day:
C’mon! It’s spring time!
Need we say more? The weather is perfect!
That warm sun. That softly, cooling breeze.
Those brightly colored flowers, all those buzzing bees.
The trees all a-glitter, those softly flittering leaves.
The birds amidst the branches, twittering as they please …
Okay, okay. Enough of the poetry. Nobody wants to be inside an office, especially with a smoldering summer just on the horizon. As shred days are by nature outdoor events, they are the perfect excuse to give your organization’s people a chance to enjoy the great outdoors while helping your company declutter. Even more, you can open the shred day to your clients so they can enjoy the outdoors too, bringing their boxes or bags of paper and getting to know your company more.
Turn your shredding need into fun day
In the same vein as the above, your shred day doesn’t have to be just a shred event. While the shredding can anchor the event, don’t be afraid to bring in a food truck or two, maybe some live music and some games. You could even set up a table with some giveaway swag or another showcasing other services you offer. Maybe you could make the event a benefit for a good cause your company supports. Use your imagination. Turn your shredding need into a whole new event — a tradition of sorts — a marker of culture for your company. Give your associates and your clients something to remember.
Celebrate Earth Day
Speaking of great weather, Earth Day is just around the corner — April 22, in fact! As it’s a day set aside to appreciate our planet, it’s many natural resources and to reflect on how we use those resources, how better to observe it then to save many of those resources by recycling paper? Resources, as in plural, you say? If you thought recycling paper only saves trees, think again. The process of making paper requires wood, oil and water — not to mention energy. So for each ton of paper you recycle, you save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 7,000 gallons of water and nearly 4,000 kilowatts of energy. Additionally, you save 3 cubic yards of landfill space. How do you like that for saving the earth’s resources?
Help your organization and your clients achieve paperless-ness
Over the many last years, the big trending goal for businesses across the planet has been to go paperless, the reasons being for environmental, efficiency, security, economical and other purposes. Those in business though recognize that getting there though has been tough.
Whether your business has been able to achieve that goal or not, doubtless, you still have lots of paper, either on your desks, in your file cabinets, in your mailboxes or maybe even in offsite storage. Whether it be junk mail you haven’t gone through, old employee records, invoices or tax documents, you can probably do with less of it. So if you can’t go paperless, you can go “less paper.” Doing so frees up space, declutters your workspaces, increases security as you won’t have sensitive documents so accessible anymore and may even eliminate some storage costs. So by holding a shred day and opening it to your clients, while you may not be going paperless, you and your client are still going with less paper and are still achieving many of the same goals you had in going paperless.
Clear a cluttered workspace and cluttered minds
They say a cluttered desk reflects a cluttered mind. Could the same be said for the workplace? If your business is cluttered by file cabinets, banker boxes and stacks of paper, does that reflect, or worse, cause, clutter in the “headspace” of your employees and potentially project a negative image to clients entering your business?
By hosting a shred day, this gives your company a time to clean up the office and thence increase headspace, consequently improving workplace efficiency, but also projecting the image of a tidy, clean, and responsibly-run company. In addition, by offering the shred day to your clients, you are helping them to declutter as well, helping them organize and operate more efficiently.
Increase perceived value of your organization and its services
While you could just order a one-time purge, you could instead organize a shred day open to your clients as well. By doing so, you not only meet your own organization’s shredding needs, you also bring added value of your services to your clients. Whatever extra goodies or benefits you can offer along with your services, these are aspects that set you apart from your competitors and may very well factor in your client’s decision in the next time your client is faced with the opportunity to go with a competitor.
Increase identity theft awareness
Information security is more important now than it ever has been before. By hosting a shred event open to your clients, you acknowledge and declare its importance to the members of your own organization, to your business partners and to your clients. The shred day can be a kind of awareness event to help increase people’s knowledge of the risks of mishandling of sensitive information and of how to properly dispose of private records. This not only should increase the security of the information within your organization and partner entities, it should also increase your clients’ confidence in your handling of their confidential information.
Protect yourself and protect your clients
Ultimately, you want the success of your clients and the success of your business. As the relationship with your clients is symbiotic, it is in your best interest to protect your clients as you protect yourself. If information theft, a data breach or catastrophic record loss precipitates into the ruin of their business, it will hurt you and so conversely would such a mishap to you hurt your client. It could very well be in your best interest to not only protect yourself, but to protect you client to by hosting a shred day, and thereby potentially avoiding disaster for either of you.
There are many reasons to turn what could be a one-time purge event into a shred day beneficial to the whole community.
SHREDDING
It’s tax season. Doubtless, if you are a tax preparer, you are busy handling all kinds of forms, everything from W-2s to 1099s to 1040s … to maybe even a few TPS forms … and everything in between. It’s easy to forget, what you’ve got in your hands and on your desk is extremely valuable and, in the wrong hands, extremely dangerous.
Those papers contain personal information bearing the power to ruin your life and the lives of your clients. That’s why it’s so important to keep to these documents private. It’s why you need a shredding services provider.
Here are 6 reasons why you need onsite document shredding services:
Safeguard your clients
You’ve heard the saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” There might not be a time that this adage is truer than it is now, especially when it comes to personal information.
Tax documents carry everything from social security numbers to confidential financial data. They are an identity thief’s treasure. If you don’t dispose of these papers properly — i.e. destroy them — you could be setting the lives of your clients up for ruin.
Protect yourself
Federal and state privacy laws require tax preparers to protect the personal information of their clients. As such, you must do whatever you can to safeguard their information — or risk serious fines. When it’s time to dispose of personal information of your client, whether in keeping with record retention guidelines or just to clean out the file cabinets, you must render those papers illegible. While you can do this by burning them, dropping them in a bucket of hydrochloric acid, or feeding them to the dog that ate your homework when you were a kid (if it’s still alive), shredding is the easiest and most thorough way to render those documents useless. If you don’t destroy those documents, and you just simply throw them away, those documents can come back to destroy you and your clients.
Inspire confidence in your confidentiality
Your clients and your potential clients likely know they are entrusting you with their personal information and, with their very lives. If you use a regular onsite shredding service, that service will place a locked shred bin or cabinet in your office. Positioning it in a location convenient to those who work with you and in view of your clients declares to everyone seeing it that their personal information is safe and will be kept confidential. It’s just another way to instill confidence with your clients.
3 reasons you should consider hiring a shredding service over buying an office shredder?
Save time, save money
As a tax preparer, you probably already know how important it is to protect your clientele’s data and use an office shredder to destroy confidential documents. If so, that’s a gold star for you. You may want to consider though how much time you might be wasting though by feeding individual sheets our even stacks paper through your shredder. Time is money, as they say. Save yourself some money by hiring a professional onsite shredder to handle all the shredding for you so you can free yourself or coworkers to do more productive tasks.
Rest easy
By hiring an onsite shredding services company to do one-time or regularly scheduled shredding, you can be confident you and your clients are safe. You’ll be able to watch as your documents are picked up, placed in a locked bin, rolled outside to a mobile shred unit and there lifted and emptied into the hopper and finally torn to bits, never to be seen or read again. What you get is peace of mind … and that’s invaluable.
Be green
Did you know one ton of shredded and then recycled paper saves an estimated 17 tress, 380 gallons of oil, 7,000 gallons of water, 3 cubic yards of landfill space and 4,000 kilowatts of energy? Why throw away documents, even if you shred them, when you can have a mobile shredding services provider like yours truly pick them up shred them and turn the paper over to recyclers. Not only will you be protecting your clients and your business, but you’ll be helping to preserve some of the earth natural resources.
Do you need an onsite shredding services solution for your office? Let us know! Call us at 405-605-8888.
