By Michael Dachille
The challenge of meeting legal compliance issues, data security and protecting reputation are all benefits of outsourcing document management
Dealerships are required by law to maintain a qualified Compliance Management System. Meeting the legal requirement is essential. But equally important is protecting your dealership from potential lawsuits, damage to your reputation, or triggering continuous audits. One mistake is all it takes to harm your dealership.
It is already challenging to manage your dealership in a continually changing environment. The Covid-19 pandemic has made it even more difficult. Employee turnover and the training required for new employees add to the stress. That is why it so difficult to maintain the consistency needed to maintain accurate Document Management for those handling it in-house.
Most Document Services Platforms include a Compliance Management function but require a significant effort to record information. That is why NJ CAR has partnered with AutoTrieve to help dealers meet compliance requirements and streamline the process.
Many of the documents created at dealerships contain customers’ personal and financial information. Having a secured Document Management services platform protects this information and serves dealerships in many other ways. The process of secure-scanning documents protects clients’ data and protects businesses from unnecessary audit penalties resulting from non-discoverable documentation.
The FTC’s current penalty for breach of customer personal and financial information is $42,500 per event, per day. Manufacturer audits focus on a variety of specifics within Repair Orders and Deal Jackets.
For dealerships to achieve compliance with the voluminous amount of documentation generated, it is essential that a Document Management services platform is in place to achieve the necessary oversight and control processes.
Dealerships have a choice of either scanning their Retail Order, Dealer Jackets, Human Resource documents, etc. or having them physically stored in a secure records center. Having documents stored at the store level for retrieval does not mitigate the risk factor of stolen or lost client information.
Scanning at the store level is a step forward, but the risk remains as to what happens to the paper after scanning? Dealers also need to address the question of access to scanned images being secured and protected by passwords. Plus, having the dealership staff scan vital documents often creates backlogs and errors that cannot be identified until it’s too late.
Having documents scanned and stored in a secure environment significantly reduces the risk of penalties and non-compliance. Outsourcing scanning and storage to Document Management Professionals ensures proper processes, security, and certification credentials. Quality Control processes ensure all scanned documents are accounted for and can be retrieved. Document Management Professional services also ensure any stored boxes are logged into a tracking system that accounts for all warehousing and can be quickly located.
Unfortunately, most in-house scanning solutions do not have a verification process to ensure the capture of all documents. Storing paper onsite requires dealership staff to retrieve it. And it exposes client and employee personal information to dealership staff and increases the risk of a breach.
When selecting a Scanning Service Bureau and Records Storage Vendor, it’s critically important that the vendor has SOC1 and SOC2 compliance certifications, which are essential components of the service. These credentials ensure that a qualified, trusted third-party firm has audited the vendor’s processes, facilities, and controls. It is also important to obtain a copy of the SOC1/SOC2 annual audit report. These steps ensure a DMS verification process that accounts for all your documents.
A dealership having processes in place that are compliant with a third-party vendor relieves the burden of managing their in-house Document Management system. It eliminates any risk involved with client data being exposed or breached during the capture and storage processes.
The age of storing paper on-site at dealerships is behind us due to the extremely high cost of space, exposure, breaches and lost documents. Compliance via an efficient and secure Document Management process is a consistent, measured fixed cost that takes the worry away.
Michael Dachille is Managing Director, Business Development at AutoTrieve Document Scanning & Records Storage Services. AutoTrieve specializes in secure Private Cloud-based Document Scanning and has partnered with NJ CAR to help dealers remain compliant. Michael can be reached at 201.820.7419 or michaeld@mgcimaging.com. For more information about AutoTrieve, you can also visit autotrieve.com.
This story appears in Issue 3 2020-21 of the New Jersey Auto Retailer Magazine.
