BACKGROUND
Headquartered in Charlotte, this well-established 275-attorney firm with 8 offices serves clients throughout the southeast and Washington, DC. The firm had multiple offsite records providers serving location-specific offices. In an all-too-familiar scenario, a larger provider which housed a significant portion of the firm’s records had recently been purchased by another provider, the result of which had caused the firm’s service to go from bad to worse - including missing boxes - raising serious doubts as to the accuracy of the firm’s inventory.

Firm leadership set an objective to streamline operations and reduce offsite storage holdings efficiently and cost-effectively; however, the status of the firm’s offsite storage contracts made this a nearly impossible task.

While the firm’s IG policy was ensuring the stream of paper records flowing to offsite storage was halted, the firm was challenged with the million-dollar question beset of many firms: What could be done with the offsite holdings to reduce the firm’s risk and cost?

OPPORTUNITY
At the outset of the engagement, Mattern met with the firm to discuss the objectives of leadership:
- Obtain an accurate inventory of their offsite records storage
- Consolidate service providers
- Improve service levels, pricing, and contract terms
- Create a cost-effective and efficient plan to reduce storage
- Address destruction in the offsite records contract that aligns with retention schedules

To meet these objectives, Mattern advised the firm to engage in a competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) process. After review, leadership agreed and retained Mattern’s expertise to lead the project.

SOLUTION
After reviewing responses from all service providers and interviewing each, the firm elected to consolidate all its records inventory and contract with Iron Mountain over a 10-year term, resulting in significant savings and a contract that contained terms and service levels that protected the firm and addressed the objectives outlined at the beginning of the project. This decision would involve the transfer of a large percentage of their inventory from multiple providers, but the firm, with Mattern managing the process, was willing to accept this responsibility.

While the service provider with the largest inventory tried to retain the business, the provider did not adequately address the firm’s concerns regarding the deteriorating service nor did the firm feel satisfied that the inventory issues could be adequately addressed without a significant initiative offered by the incumbent provider.

RESULTS
Mattern assisted the firm in securing more stringent terms and included a much-needed destruction allowance that better aligned with the firm’s long-term objectives to reduce risk and cost. In addition, credits and penalties for service levels on order times, delivery times, and pickup times were also detailed. Over the life of the new 10-year contract, the firm will realize a 31% reduction in costs but even more important to the firm was putting in place a relationship with an offsite partner that would allow it to fulfill the other objectives of the project.

Mattern is currently managing the transfer of records alongside the Firm to ensure that each provider upholds its commitments and that the incumbent provider avoids missteps that could lead the Firm into the same situation they sought to escape. During the RFP process, Mattern secured favorable pricing for a solution to obtain a detailed inventory to further the Firm’s initiative to reduce its offsite holdings following the consolidation of its records. As part of Mattern’s Phase III process, Mattern will continue to work alongside the firm during the term of the contract to identify destruction targets and enforce the contractual agreements between the firm and Iron Mountain.

The firm’s General Counsel comments:
The problems we had were significant. We had not been able to solve them ourselves, despite several years of trying and with Mattern’s assistance we made a lot of progress, and we're in a much better place.

PART 2 - THE TRANSFER
To get the best overall contract/terms/pricing and/or improve service, sometimes it is necessary to consolidate your inventory with one service provider. Pricing/terms/service aside, one of the Firm’s goals in this project was to get an accurate inventory of what was stored offsite since there was an ongoing discrepancy between the Firm’s records and the offsite provider’s database. This led to the belief within the Firm that it was being overcharged. The idea of a transfer became more palatable, however it involved transferring more than half of its offsite inventory.

The mention of a transfer can strike fear in a records manager’s heart. There are countless stories of lost boxes, inaccurate counts and descriptions (or no descriptions at all) uploaded to the online inventory, non-payment of permanent withdrawal fees, to name a few of the issues.

“A well-managed transfer is a manageable transfer” – Ben Schmidt, former Mattern consultant.

As with any project, success is usually predicated on a sound plan, good management practices, accurate reporting and experience. It also helps immensely to have detailed contract terms dictating performance standards, payment terms, and penalties for non-performance.

CURRENT STATUS OF TRANSFER
The transfer from three separate warehouse locations started in April 2024. One location has been fully transferred to Iron Mountain, one location is projected to be completed in December of this year, and the final location that held 60% of the Firm’s records is projected to be completed in June 2025. In total, 70% of the Firm’s inventory has been moved without issue.

At the outset of the transfer, Mattern, the Firm, and Iron Mountain met to review the inventory to be transferred, determine the necessary information to be imported into Iron Mountain’s database, and establish a regular meeting cadence to discuss the transfer and head off any issues.

As part of the transfer agreement, Iron Mountain agreed to reimburse the Firm for all permanent removal fees paid to incumbent providers. As part of the process, Mattern has led efforts between the Firm and Iron Mountain to ensure that all fees, payments, and volumes are properly documented, reconciled and submitted for reimbursement.

As of today, the Firm has been fully reimbursed for every permanent removal fee paid and every box has been accounted for.

As the Firm’s record manager recently stated “Thanks to the contract terms Mattern and the Firm negotiated, our recurring off-site storage expense has decreased, the transfer has been smooth and our costs are covered.”

Once the transfer is complete and the Firm has an accurate count of their boxes, the Firm will receive a credit from the previous service provider for any volume that they were charged and cannot be accounted for. Also, with Mattern’s assistance, the Firm will identify gaps in knowledge of what each box contains, strategies to complete inventory review processes in the most cost-effective manner, and assist the Firm in developing a road map to further reduce its holdings by utilizing the Firm’s retention policy and destruction allowance.