HOW WILL A DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM BENEFIT YOUR COMPANY?

Many businesses encounter day-to-day issues as a result of using an outdated or inefficient document management system. Such issues are often related to the use of paper documents – which usually need to be kept in physical form for reasons of legality and security – and the lack of a digital system for tracking and locating those papers.Some of these issues are as follows:

• Loss of documents due to damage or poor management
• Badly filed paperwork that is difficult to locate
• Lack of office space due to excessive physical storage
• Insecure and unprotected data
• Lost man hours due to poor retrieval time
• Compliance issues and difficulties with company policy

All of these problems can add up to create a situation in which companies are losing money and wasting time as a result of poor document management. But none of these issues are incurable, and especially in the wake of GDPR it is important that businesses take measures to improve their handling of physical documents. In this post, we’ll be looking at the benefits managing your documents with the assistance of an external company like Flexible Storage.

MORE SPACE, LESS STORAGE

Whether you paperwork is kept in filing cabinets or storage boxes, both can take up large amounts of valuable space in your office. As such, perhaps the most obvious benefit of an external document management system is the fact that it can free up a significant amount of space and give you more room – both physically and financially – to grow your business.If all of your paper documents were to be moved out of the office, securely processed and barcoded for easy access, you would benefit from increased floor space and fewer costs. This in turn frees up space for more desks and employees; the effects could be transformative!

FASTER RETRIEVAL

When you have an abundance of physical documents to rummage through, finding the right one can be a big headache – or at least when you don’t have the necessary procedures in place! You may not even have the means to determine whether the document is held in your system, let alone how and where to find it.Here at Flexible Storage, we offer the service of documenting and tracking all the documents and boxes you keep in storage with us. By giving each file a unique barcode, our customers can directly login to our online management control system and securely access the information which will confirm where the file they require is located.Overall, this helps ensure the safety of all documents during the storage process and even in transit, including the ability locate any file in just a few clicks. The upshot is that you can then run your business safe in the knowledge that all your papers are fully secure and easily locatable.

BETTER SECURITY

It is the responsibility of a business to ensure that documents cannot get into the wrong hands. Unfortunately, there is a unique risk associated with keeping physical documents – confidential papers are often taken out of the office and kept in completely insecure conditions, free for anyone to access.Plus, there are risks within the office. A good portion of data breaches originate from an internal source; anyone with a key to your filing cabinets could leak documents and compromise the safety of your company.While no method of storage is without its risks, document management systems at Flexible Storage come close! All your files are not only kept safe in heavy-duty storage with 24hr CCTV, but they are also barcoded and tracked through our online system. In the event that a document has been taken out of the office, our barcoding system will still allow you to easily locate the file.

GDPR COMPLIANCE

Under the GDPR, it’s imperative that all companies holding sensitive personal data – including patients records, staff records, legal records, and financial records – are taking all the necessary measures to protect such data. While physical documents may need to be kept for a certain retention period, this does not mean you should risk non-compliance by keeping them stored in unsafe locations with insufficient management.However, with the ability to barcode and track each file they keep in our storage facilities, Flexible Storage customers can guarantee strict compliance with the GDPR due to the improved retrieval our service offers. All sensitive data is kept secure and access is quick and efficient.You can easily locate the files you need to access or manage, request certain files for delivery, and determine which files are due for destruction – all of this helps stay in line with the GDPR. Ultimately, by using a company that has ample knowledge and experience with data protection, you can focus on the growth and success of your business rather than matters of compliance.Get in touch with one of our professional storage consultants to learn more about our document management service and receive a tailored quote.