How To Know Its Time to Say Good-bye to Paper
No one denies that going paperless is where the future is headed. It can be intimidating as you look at all those filing cabinets, boxes, and possibly storage facilities, filled with countless papers. It doesn’t have to be an effort you go into blindly or alone. Reputable and sophisticated document scanning service providers can consult you through training your staff for on-site scanning or they can take over the task completely. Talk about a major task leaving your plate!
How do you know when it’s time to use document scanning to digitize? Here are four signs that point to going paperless at work.
1. You Need More Office Space.
Rent isn’t cheap and your office space investment needs to be used to its fullest. If you want to gain back some valuable square footage in your office, go digital! Filing cabinets and boxes take up space and they aren’t appealing as modes of decor. Imagine what you could do with extra space: an additional employee office, an inviting break room, an innovative conference room, a lactation lounge for your breastfeeding employees. The list goes on and on for cool office spaces.
Perhaps you are downsizing and will not have room for all your boxes and cabinets. Just like any move, you want to avoid taking unnecessary items. That’s not to say you don’t need your important documents, but you don’t need them physically. By going digital, you can save on hauling and possible offsite storage costs by converting documents. Even more, you could entrust your paper documents to a document conversion company and rest easy knowing that the boxes are out of the way and being conveniently digitized.
2. You Have Strict Compliance Regulations.
It is difficult and costly to maintain paper-based filing systems that meet regulatory requirements. If you are trying to meet HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, or any number of compliance regulations, digitized documents lend to improved information security.
There is a misconception that physical storage is safer. Filing cabinets and boxes are targets for theft and you can’t limit what someone comes across in their search.
Digitized paper documents typically go into a document management system (DMS). The permissions that are set in a DMS can’t be achieved with a paper-based system. You simply can’t duplicate a cabinet and put new sets of rules and accessibility based on the user. However, you can set permissions on digital documents so only authorized users can access sensitive information. Additionally, digitized files have security features that allow a full electronic audit trail with detailed user access history.
3. You Have Old Documents to Preserve.
Now’s the time to bring your aged documents into the 21st century! Don’t deny future generations of the important, historical information in your possession.
Your historical documents may be at risk of being damaged by a flood, fire, or other unexpected events. They could be at the risk of human handling, or maybe they are being kept in less than ideal conditions. Whether they are paper documents or were previously converted to microfilm, you can avoid these risks by having them scanned.
If the documents have folds, are brittle or faded, you want to find a company that is familiar with the special handling of old documents. Also, if you weren’t so lucky and your papers have become wet, there is a freezing technique that can be used to save your documents and make them eligible for scanning.
4. You Can Never Find Important Documents.
Accessibility is crucial. It can make or break the completion of a task or answering a question. More importantly not finding what you need during an audit could mean costly fines or a day in court.
It takes a lot of time to keep paper files tidy and organized. You can now avoid the clutter and disorganization. Document scanning into a DMS makes information easier to disperse and collaborate internally and externally. Its mobility means information can be accessed anywhere at any time. There is no need to go hunting through a pile of papers or request a document to be sent. It is all there at your fingertips.
You Had Me at “Paperless”
Going paperless is more than a fad. It is a smart business decision that reduces costs, improves security, saves lots of time, and just so happens to be awesome for the environment. If you identified with one of the indicators listed, you’re a great candidate for document scanning services.
