Is it time to rethink your document management? If you’re still reliant on a paper-based archive, the answer is yes.
Paper-based archives are costly (and they’re such for all the wrong reasons!). A company will spend 20 dollars in labor for paper-based document filing, 120 dollars to find a misplaced document, and 220 dollars in labor for the reproduction of a document that’s been lost.
Not only that, employees will spend only five to 15 percent of their time reading documents but about 50 percent of that very same time in attempts to find the right kind of information.
These statistics already show some of the biggest challenges that paper-based document management brings to the table. Unfortunately, they’re not the only ones.
Security Issues
This isn’t a recent problem – in fact, security issues linked to having a paper-based archive were pinpointed a decade ago (and maybe even before that).
Paper document management poses some major security risks and a major data leak can easily mean the end of your business. This is why you shouldn’t be accepting such potential threats in a highly digitized world.
Company documents that aren’t stored correctly, a failure to follow through with archiving procedures, and human error can all contribute to serious challenges.
Digital document management is not 100 percent foolproof but it does give you more control. Documents can be encrypted and access to sensitive data can be limited or withheld altogether.
Keys and locks can’t keep your company secrets fully protected. More than 60 percent of data breaches in small and medium-sized companies involve paper records. Careless sharing, people who aren’t aware of correct document management protocols, and even simple mistakes caused by workers being over-tired can lead to issues. Going paperless is one of the easiest possibilities to overcome such challenges or eliminate them altogether.
Need for Large Archive Space
As your business grows and as the years go by, the size of your archive will increase.
As your archive grows, so will the need for a space to keep all of your paperwork together.
Business space is rather costly and it can also be difficult to find. If you try to put a large archive in a fairly small office, you’ll have to deal with clutter and the fact that people are simply not feeling comfortable in such a workspace.
Information Access, Modification, and Document Management Challenges
The paper contains some information that can be very difficult to change or upgrade when new data becomes available. In this regard, paper-based document management is very rigid and it simply doesn’t correspond to the dynamic nature of doing business today.
If you need to just edit or slightly modify a paper-based document, you’ll have to go through the editing of a file and the printing of a new copy. Corrections (minor ones) can be made on a paper document itself but such modifications will look anything but professional.
In this regard, a process that should last just five minutes can be extended to quite a lot more. Needless to say, that is major time waste and a source of productivity loss for your business. An innovative document management system benefits make it easy to change files, do version control, and keep track of the edits so that everyone would know how the file has evolved.
Paper- Based Document Management and Archive Aging
Granted, this isn’t an issue most businesses would run into but it could be.
Paper-based documents that are very old and the ones that get used often will be difficult to handle and manage.
Obviously, paper isn’t the most long-lived medium. Additionally, ink can get smudged and important information can become difficult to read.
This can be a challenge for businesses that have a single copy of a document and no digital version for the creation of additional copies.
Such issues can be addressed through document scanning services and digitization. This procedure allows for the document to be captured in its current state, preventing further decline. A document that’s very old and somewhat damaged, however, can be difficult to scan and preserve this way.
It’s also important to mention the fact that paper can be easily damaged in natural disasters and accidents. A single instance of fire can destroy an entire archive, leaving no trace behind. Unless you have backup copies, you risk losing all of your valuable data in such events if you insist on maintaining a paper-based archive.
Old-school archives are difficult to manage, transport, and upgrade. They can also be challenging to work with since documents can get misplaced or lost.
Digitization is an affordable, readily available alternative worth exploring. If you haven’t taken the required steps to digitize your archive, you’re missing opportunities to enhance security, productivity, and workplace protocols. The challenges of dealing with a paper-based archive can all be eliminated effortlessly. You simply need to choose the right digitization solution and take it from there.