What is digital document archiving and how can it help me?

Digitise your paper files and work smarter

Considering how often files are processed, document archiving is key in the world of business. But it’s easy for hard copies of paperwork, contracts and other important documents to quickly build up, taking over valuable space.

With up to 38% of staff reporting that paper documents get lost [1], everyone knows that trying to locate documents housed in rows of filing cabinets takes an excessive amount of time. Professionals spend 50% of their time searching for information, and on average take 18 minutes to locate each document (source: Gartner). 15% of all paper documents are misfiled or misplaced (source: Coopers and Lybrand). This is time which employees could put to much better use on core business or revenue generating activities. Nobody wants to be mind-numbingly searching for documents for hours at a time, not knowing if they have been misfiled or are out on someones desk.

Digital document archiving is a smarter, more efficient way to manage your business documentation, by scanning files each day and then electronically storing all your information on one simple and secure system, making information easily retrievable in a few clicks of a mouse. For bulk historical items, a dedicated scanning bureau partner can simply come and pick up your existing paper documents and transport them back to a secure facility. There your documents can be fully OCRd, digitised, properly indexed and fed into a cloud document management system or file sharing platform. Original paper documents can then be securely disposed of, archived or returned to you.

In addition to the usual archiving activities, many businesses must retain copies of important documentation for set periods of time, as defined by regulatory bodies. Having this information easily accessible digitally means day-to-day business processes can be streamlined, as well as safeguarded against fire, theft and other unforeseen disasters.

GDPR requirements are met with documents being highlighted for deletion when there is no longer a requirement to retain them, also saving on storage and manual process.

So how else could such a solution help your business?

Let’s highlight a few benefits below:

Facilitate remote working

With staff increasingly working remotely and with agile working practices becoming much more widespread, it’s no longer practical to house paper documentation on-site in filing cabinets. Employees require access to information wherever they’re located, whenever they need it. By archiving documents in the cloud, you can expect to see a boost in productivity and employee satisfaction across your organisation.

Boost security & ensure compliance

Paper documents are inherently vulnerable and liable to loss through unforeseen disasters or theft. And if you’ve only got a single paper copy of a document which then gets destroyed or goes missing, you risk damage to your business’s reputation and fines for data breaches, both of which can lead to irreparable damage. The rise of remote working also presents an added challenge, where sending paper records to employees’ homes could breach GDPR regulations leading to a fine of up to 4% of your annual turnover. Digital document management allows you to protect your data on secure digital servers, provide document access to staff members that require it, view audit trails of document activity, as well as allowing you to make back-up copies of data.

Free up valuable office space

Not all businesses have acres of free space for filing cabinets and document storage, and even when they do, oftentimes it all just looks a bit unsightly. Paying for physical storage off-site could be a quick fix, but then again this comes at a high price. ‘The office’ has transformed into something entirely different in recent times, with there no longer being a permanent base for many members of staff. Many businesses are looking to make better use of space and reduce their spending on rent and overheads. Consequently, it’s important to make sure your workforce can access the documentation they need wherever they are.

Speed up document retrieval

Trawling through mountains of paper documents is all too often an overly drawn out process. If your documents are housed off-site, the time involved in requesting files from your storage provider each time means retrieval takes even longer. If all employees only had to log into a secure online platform to access the documents they need in seconds, think of all the efficiency benefits this could bring.