THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 15, 1995 TAG: 9505130175
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JANET DUNPHY, SPECIAL TO BUSINESS WEEKLY
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
Taylor Document Management Co. of Norfolk is a sort of Rolls Royce of document storage and management.
It is where health care concerns, lawyers, financial institutions and, yes, a local museum pay to store important records and materials that can no longer be kept in the office.
It is also the site of safety bingo, where employees can win $200 for avoiding on-the-job mishaps, and a mandatory five-minute meeting every morning where no one is allowed to sit down because then they chat and waste time.
Last week, Taylor Document received one of the five quality awards presented annually by the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.
Taylor Document, with 300 clients and 26 employees, grossed $903,000 in 1994. That figure will surpass $1 million in 1995, says vice president Bill Valos.
The company, one of a handful owned by a Norfolk family, dates to the 1930s. Originally a division of Norfolk Warehouse Distribution Centers Inc., Taylor Document broke away and incorporated under the guidance of owner Robert T. Taylor in 1990.
The idea for a document warehouse originated in 1982 when Taylor attended an industry conference. He also had a friend in Columbus, Ohio, who started such a business. Valos was brought over from another Taylor company to organize the effort.
``Basically we're like a bank,'' explained Valos. ``You make a deposit and you want to make a withdrawl.''
Taylor Document dropped storage from its name and added management in 1990. The company stores files and other such records until the client either requests them to be retrieved or destroyed. It can even pinpoint a single piece of paper within a client's stored cartons.
With passwords, customers also have on-line user access to Taylor Document's computer system and the inventory of stored materials.
``We are the extension, the arm outside the offices that we store for,'' says Valos. ILLUSTRATION: Robert T. Taylor, founder and owner of Taylor Document
Management Co. in Norfolk.
KEYWORDS: CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AWARD by CNB