How many times have you spent a whole morning or more searching the office for lost or misplaced records? It may be a small consolation, but it is estimated that the average employee spends 9.3 hours a week looking for bad files. So you are not alone!
Now imagine the time that could be saved by implementing an electronic document storage strategy for your business. At first, it may sound like a daunting task, but there are many ways to make the conversion process simple and efficient, and ultimately reduce the cost of document storage.
Conversion into a paperless office offers significant benefits. Some of these are:
Digitization may allow for more thorough and more direct document capture Query for regulatory compliance. In many cases, physical copies of records must be kept for compliance purposes. However, you should keep digital copies as they can serve as a quick reference.
Removing Physical Records Documents can free up much needed office space for more desks if you hire more people or have a better workspace for coffee sofas or pool tables.
Finding a specific document or group of files using a digital management system is much faster. This saves valuable time searching for paper that may have been lost or misplaced. Just think of all the things you could do with an extra 10 hours a week!
However, there are a few drawbacks when it comes to electronically storing documents, the most important ones relating to cost and security ,
When an organization decides to store their paper-based data electronically there are usually large amounts of data that need to be scanned and converted into a digital format. The hardware and software required for this exercise is not cheap, especially if a company prefers to do everything internally. Apart from the acquisition costs, the relatively short durability of hardware and software is a major disadvantage in electronic systems. The hardware could be replaced in just 18 months while the software is changed every 2-3 years.
The enhanced ability of a system to manage electronic records for information sharing carries a significant security risk. Failure to take appropriate measures to protect against hacking may result in confidential company information falling into the wrong hands.
In addition, the management of records may become a problem if the system uses unnecessary records (as duplicates). It is not uncommon to find situations in which a significant amount of records are actually comparable to junk mail.
The conversion of paper into digital paper is doomed if the scanning service is unreliable. Access Records Management has the resources to meet all your needs, no matter how big or small. Whether you are continuing with a completely paperless project or have just a small container of records, our team will work with you to determine your specific scanning needs. Our approach also guarantees you the peace of mind of having digital access to all your important paper documents at all times.
Our mass-scanning service can be tailored to fit all your needs – from file structure to preferred output format for indexing. Our service also includes a scan-on-demand capability to quickly and efficiently digitize documents already in secure storage.
To keep your entire document management process in one place, contact our team for more information about our low-cost file management and secure destruction of files.
