Once the existing processes have been documented, they should be evaluated to determine if they are unnecessarily complex, or if they are based on outdated or unsound logic.
It is common to find that many existing tape management processes have been implemented in the absence of any formalized tape management processes, or tape management tools, and as a result may reflect this absence.
Examples of this are:
Moving tapes back and forth from an offsite vendor to save $5 a month on offsite storage charges, but spending 5 hours a month of extra labor recording the movements in a spreadsheet and the offsite vendor's portal.
Accepting unnecessarily complex backup and offsite schedules that are based on logic that cannot be programmed into a scheduling system.
Scanning tapes with a hand-held Barcode scanner when they are being entered in to a robotic library that could otherwise automatically register the tapes as having been received.
Relying on paperwork to record what comes and goes from each site.
Picking tapes from a paper listing.