Zasio Consulting Services Case Study: Southwest Gas Corporation

Sep 3, 2020 | Case Study

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Summary

Southwest Gas Corporation, a provider of natural gas services to more than 1.9 million customers throughout Arizona, Nevada, and California, set out to streamline its approach to information management by partnering with Zasio Enterprise’s Consulting division. Together, the two industry leaders developed key strategies to drive compliance, collective corporate buy-in, and simplified and sustainable solutions.

“As a public utility, our company is required to conform to local, state, and federal laws, as well as Utility Commissions requirements in several states. Zasio’s extensive experience and exhaustive research helped us to more clearly and simply define our retention requirements, as well as ensure a more defensible and accurate policy. Additionally, their reputation in the industry enabled our company to comfortably outsource the responsibility of the research and updates, therefore reducing resources required inhouse to maintain the complicated research to update the schedule.” -LeAnne Foster, Southwest Gas Corporation

Objectives

  • Consolidate existing record series
  • Develop an intuitive, easy-to-use records retention schedule
  • Update records to ensure accuracy
  • Garner collective buy-in to the corporate schedule

Solution

To help streamline the number of record series and develop a dynamic retention schedule, the Zasio team:

  • Conducted a comprehensive assessment of the existing records management scheme
  • Interviewed knowledgeable stakeholders from each department, as well as the records managers, to gain insights into what records exist and how those records were being treated
  • Developed a new strategy that is easier to use, manage, and implement

The result – an updated functional schedule allows for the corporation to address the management of records from a corporate-wide perspective, as opposed to the piece-by-piece approach that was in use with the granular index.

Results

In partnering with Zasio, Southwest Gas Corporation saw immediate and long-term results.

  • An 80% reduction in record series – from 1,165 to less than 250
  • A comprehensive functional retention schedule in place of a granular index
  • A user-friendly retention schedule allowing for an increase in adherence and collective buy-in