Historical Data Retention
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We are required to keep engineering docs for 60 years since our product is guaranteed for that long. Until a few years ago they still used microfiche, but we are using a certain type of DVD now that supposedly lasts for like hundreds of years.
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I believe best practice is to keep data retention long enough for legal needs, and long enough for business needs... such as the examples @Carnival-Boy and @stacksofplates gave. Each individual business should decide what data could be needed in the future and plan a retention plan appropriately.
I don't think there's a standard amount of time as a best practice, as it varies way too much business to business, state to state, country to country, due to so many reasons.
Every business will be different.
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Thanks for all the info. I appreciate it. We have been a small/young division since we started but now we are getting larger and older meaning questions like "Do we need or will we ever need all this data for customers that are no longer using our services?" are needing to be asked. So thanks again, all your replies have been very helpful.
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Most important thing is a written policy that gets followed.
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@scottalanmiller said in Historical Data Retention:
Most important thing is a written policy that gets followed.
Can't stress this enough!
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@Carnival-Boy said in Historical Data Retention:
Correct. We manufacture products that typically last 30 years or so. We occasionally get requests for spare parts for products that we sold 50 years ago.
It's a pain. Last week a user said "I'm having trouble reviewing a quote I sent someone a while back." Reason: the quote was created in 2002 using Microsoft Office Binder (OBD). I didn't even know what an .OBD file was.
That's a new format for me, too.
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@Mike-Davis Yes!, this happen all the time with all the construction companies I work with. With some staff using Project 97 since it still works on Windows 7.... I was floored
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@dbeato said in Historical Data Retention:
@Mike-Davis Yes!, this happen all the time with all the construction companies I work with. With some staff using Project 97 since it still works on Windows 7.... I was floored
Discovering new "old" formats that you've never seen before?
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@scottalanmiller not really, just some I don't remember
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@dbeato said in Historical Data Retention:
@scottalanmiller not really, just some I don't remember
I have started to forget about MS Project completely. It's been so long since I knew of anyone actively considered using it. So many alternatives that are not so costly and don't have old fashioned web clients have made it fall into the background of technology history. Once people mention it, I remember it. But ask me about project management software and I never think of it anymore.
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@scottalanmiller said in Historical Data Retention:
@dbeato said in Historical Data Retention:
@scottalanmiller not really, just some I don't remember
I have started to forget about MS Project completely. It's been so long since I knew of anyone actively considered using it. So many alternatives that are not so costly and don't have old fashioned web clients have made it fall into the background of technology history. Once people mention it, I remember it. But ask me about project management software and I never think of it anymore.
Which ones are on your table now?
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@Tim_G said in Historical Data Retention:
@scottalanmiller said in Historical Data Retention:
@dbeato said in Historical Data Retention:
@scottalanmiller not really, just some I don't remember
I have started to forget about MS Project completely. It's been so long since I knew of anyone actively considered using it. So many alternatives that are not so costly and don't have old fashioned web clients have made it fall into the background of technology history. Once people mention it, I remember it. But ask me about project management software and I never think of it anymore.
Which ones are on your table now?
Well take this with a grain of sand as I'm not a PM so these aren't tools that I look at often, or else I'm sure that MS Project would not have been forgotten, but things like Asana and Jira are far more front and center. When someone just says "I need a PM tool", Asana is the first thing that comes to mind these days.
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Oh, and Basecamp by 37Signals.
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@Tim_G said in Historical Data Retention:
@scottalanmiller said in Historical Data Retention:
@dbeato said in Historical Data Retention:
@scottalanmiller not really, just some I don't remember
I have started to forget about MS Project completely. It's been so long since I knew of anyone actively considered using it. So many alternatives that are not so costly and don't have old fashioned web clients have made it fall into the background of technology history. Once people mention it, I remember it. But ask me about project management software and I never think of it anymore.
Which ones are on your table now?
When I was a project engineer we used Primavera a lot for CPM scheduling. We also had a lot of in house stuff developed for Lotus Notes (blah).
