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:

1. They often face disputes of some kind and rely on electronic documentation as evidence
2. 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
3. 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.