Our client was a global biopharmaceutical company with over US$ 10 billion in annual revenues. They have over 30,000 employees and operate in 30 countries around the world.
From being able to review the company’s history for internal reasons or to demonstrate regulatory compliance, good record-keeping across all the facets of this global business is vital. We asked our key contact about the company's seismic changes in record keeping throughout 20 years of impressive growth.
Why Are Website Archives Needed?
The company has two main drivers for archiving its public-facing websites: Regulatory and Corporate Memory.
On the regulatory side, the organization must be ready to answer any questions regarding what has been communicated to the market and to customers. The company is listed on the stock exchange, so there’s also a regulatory obligation to the stock exchange and to shareholders. The company operates in compliance with product-related and corporate regulatory requirements across the globe. The ability to access the companies’ websites as they were at a given point in time is a valuable capability.
Corporate memory is the other driver. The organization recently celebrated a major anniversary, and through website archiving they were able to look back at different branding campaigns to see how things had changed over many decades. The archives have also been used to answer questions about acquisition dates, product names and changes, taglines, and advertising. It’s a fantastic record of the company’s growth.
Archiving Challenges
Before the internet, most records to be archived were already printed, so archiving was simply a matter of keeping a copy of everything. With the advent of websites and other digital media, this type of record-keeping becomes more difficult.
It became clear that capturing the look and feel of websites and branding across all sources globally was going to be a major challenge. And then giving access to all stakeholders across the 30 countries where the company operates was another challenge.
Early on, they were using screenshots of web pages to archive, which at first worked since the first company websites were only a few pages. But as the company grew, so did the number of websites and the complexity of the content. Currently, they have hundreds of websites with thousands of pages.
How Technology from Hanzo Helped
With the goal of capturing large dynamic web pages with archive quality, Hanzo has helped records managers throughout the business get the answers they need.
On the compliance front, Hanzo provides the client with the ability to view all pages of a website, past and present, interacting with links and menus as if the same as a live site at a given moment in time. And metadata proves and authenticates the content of the archive.
Hanzo also helps IT. As websites change or move off older technologies, there can be concerns from business owners about content loss. Hanzo creates a snapshot of everything in its moment of time, and it keeps IT from having to do unwieldy work with backup technology.
Finally, because the client is a global company operating in many countries, it is important that Hanzo allows archives that can be accessed anytime and anywhere.
To learn more about how Hanzo can help your company meet its enterprise archiving needs, contact us today!
