| dc.description.abstract | Information is an organization’s corporate memory and its most valuable asset. Today
many Multi-National Companies are growing at faster rates with the advent of
globalization. This rapid expansion of business operations has further ensued one among
other things, plenty of data. Maintaining and managing so much information can take focus
away from protecting organizations most important information assets such as trade secrets
and customers’ personal information. Records get misplaced, stolen, or are not produced
at the right time and retrieving information becomes a tedious task. Most organizations
want to consider outsourcing some of their Records Management Services e.g. records
storage, scanning, data backup. Scandals such as Enron, Morgan Stanley, have renewed
interest in corporate records compliance, retention and litigation. The general objective of
this study was thus to identify the benefits of outsourcing Records Management for MultiNational
Companies. The specific objectives were to assess the importance of effective
Records Management Outsourcing practices in Multi-National companies and to identify
the relationship between Outsourcing Records Management and Competitive Advantage
in Multi-National firms. The research was descriptive and employed qualitative technics.
Statistical methods were used to analyze the data collected. Primary data was collected
using self-administered questionnaires with both open ended and closed ended questions.
Secondary data was used to support facts and trends. The population comprised of internal
records users and established records officers in Multi-National companies chosen from
random sampling. The study concluded that the importance of effective records
management outsourcing practices in multi-National companies is that it helps to create
centralized storage of information, aids in disaster recovery and lastly is a tool for companies to achieve competitive advantage. The study also concluded that there is a
positive relationship between records management outsourcing practices and competitive
advantage for in Multi-National companies. Records management outsourcing enables a
firm to access resources that are not available internally, reduce or control operational
costs, access world class capabilities, take advantage of external expertise, free-up tied-up
resources for other purposes and allows the firm to share risks with third parties. This study
therefore recommends that the management of the multi-national companies should adopt
records management outsourcing to a third party record centre as a strategy for their firms
to gain competitive advantage against their competitors. They will be able to access,
protect, safely store and dispose their vital information which in turn will enable the firm
to gain the tools necessary to provide the highest quality of service to their customers and
achieve excellent service delivery. | en_US |
