The 26th May 2021 saw us celebrate our 17th anniversary of providing professional Document Scanning services. Whilst document scanning has been around for a long time now, we understand that some businesses are still unsure about its benefits and why it is worth the investment.
The following are what we consider to be the top reasons for you to scan your documents:
1. Save Space
This has easily been one of the top reasons that our clients have chosen document scanning over the years. Using prime office space to store your documents is a costly way to hold information.
Our clients have switched filing cabinets for desks and revenue-generating team members or down-sized offices after realising there is no need to lease such a large space. You can store thousands of files securely on encrypted USB, hard drives or your own servers.
2. Save Time
Repeatable tasks such as locating and retrieving documents are often hidden resource drains that can be difficult to spot. The minutes spent on each individual retrieval often add up to eye-watering amounts of wasted time over a year. Digitally transforming your documents will provide quick and easy access to your business-critical information right from your desk.
3. Enhanced Compliance
Making your records fully searchable will hugely improve your ability to respond to Data Protection rights requests, such as Data Subject Access Requests and the Right to be Forgotten.
You must be able to locate all information relating to an individual before it is assessed for redaction and disclosure or erasure. Paper records are absolutely in the scope of the GDPR. Our Digital Scan & Redact service is a fantastic way to enjoy the benefits of a digital archive and also understand your exposure to data protection risk.
4. Work from home with ALL of your information
Global pandemic? Documents stuck in the office or storage? No problem. Throughout the pandemic, our clients enjoyed access to ALL of their information, not just what they had access to on local or shared drives, but also their digitised paper archive.
Choosing to scan your paper records will empower your team to work flexibly and never be away from the information it needs to get on with the job.
5. Increase Business Resilience
Your paper documentation is especially vulnerable to both fire and flood, but also natural degradation if not kept in optimum conditions. Over the years, we have rescued archives from partially flooded and extremely damp garages, warehouses and containers, to name a few – each time salvaging and protecting valuable information at risk of irreversible damage.
With the appropriate backup infrastructure in place, you can operate safely in the knowledge that your digital archive is protected.
6. Improved Information Security
Protecting hard copy documentation can be challenging. With document scanning, your digital archive can be password protected, securely hosted inside your own IT infrastructure, and also encrypted. In combination with the appropriate Electronic Document Management System, you can also ensure specific access is designated, for example, per-user, team or department. These benefits become advantageous when moving your organisation towards certification for important standards such as ISO27001.
7. Heritage Preservation
From valuable, rare and delicate books to photo archives of historical significance – our heritage preservation work through our Document and Magazine Scanning Service, has ensured the safeguarding of countless important volumes for organisations across a wide range of sectors.
One of the most significant risks with delicate books or photographs is that they are subjected to ‘accelerated degradation’ each time they are handled. With old texts, in particular, it is often the case that we can improve difficult-to-read items through proprietary digital restoration.
Beyond this, a digitally transformed heritage archive can be shared in new ways previously impossible – easily re-printed, posted online and shared on social media with your organisation’s audience.
Now you know a little more about some of the major benefits of document scanning, why not take the next step? If you’d like to discuss your potential project in more detail, please get in touch by phone or using the form below. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
