In the wake of the destructive floods, the need for businesses to adopt electronic means of preserving historical data has become even more imperative, Alfred Quaynor, CEO of FortuneData Management, has said.

“As a developing country, one of the things we need is to have an efficient record management system in place. It will help us reduce cost in our operations, increase compliance with the laws, bring collaboration and increase efficiency. And in view of the floods and all the disasters happening, there is the need for continuity,” he said.

“Due to the advent of technology you find that pieces of information are coming in various technological forms; you have pictures, you have emails, soft copies and all. So how do you manage all these? Because of where technology is going there is the need to manage documents electronically,” Mr. Quaynor told the B&FT on the sidelines of a joint forum with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI).

FortuneData and the AGI put the forum together to help businesses appreciate better the need for proper record-management, especially the changing trends in electronic record management.

“During our visit to companies that were affected by the floods, we realised that some of our member companies lost a lot of documents; they have no plan for back-up and all that. So it encouraged us to speed up this conference in order to drum home the urgent need for electronic recording-keeping,” Stephen Owusu, Membership Development Manager at AGI, told the B&FT.

“We encourage member-companies to keep up the faith. FortuneData is always available to help them establish these systems in their organisations,” Stephen Owusu said.

Kwaku Boateng, an Archivist at the University of Ghana, said due to the oral traditional culture Ghana has, “We do not appreciate record management. That is the truth of the matter”.

Poor record-keeping, he said, “is a national crisis that keeps getting worse”, and that if care is not taken it will affect the country in its future development.

“Since digitisation has come, because that is the way forward, we need to take advantage of the many advantages it brings. It serves as a back-up system, it gives you multiple access, and you can manipulate it in any way you want. So that is the way forward. We cannot continue to stay ‘paper’ whilst the world is going digital,” he said - See more at: http://thebftonline.com/business/economy/14442/Businesses-urged-to-adopt-e-record-management.html#sthash.m8G8Cn30.dpuf