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Does your office rely on old-fashioned paper documents to operate? If so, you may want to rethink how you store, share and protect important or confidential information.
Even in today's digital world, research suggests that up to 40% of all business processes still require paper-based information. For decades, businesses have operated by maintaining paper-only records that fill everything from banker's boxes to file cabinets to onsite storage facilities.
And while many like the old-school feel of a real piece of paper, it opens your business up to additional risks and costs that a digital document database circumvents.
Green Office Partner is the trusted managed print services provider for clients across the United States. We understand the benefits of digitizing your paper workflow, and we want to help your business take the leap forward and leave your paper file cabinets behind.
In this article, we’ll review three reasons why paper documents are considered risky business.
1. Paper is a Fragile Medium
When your business data is stored on paper, water damage or a building fire could destroy years of work in moments.
That's why many organizations are creating Backup and Disaster Recovery plans to ensure business continuity in the event of an unforeseen catastrophe.
Often, these plans include a simple scanning strategy to convert fragile paper documents into digital files that reside in the cloud. In almost all cases, digital documents provide a more durable and secure method of storage.
2. Digital Documents are More Secure
Converting paper documents into digital files allows organizations to restrict access to specific users and lock out unwanted eyes.
Results from a study conducted by the Ponemon Institute revealed that 70% of organizations have had one or more accidental data breaches due to hardcopy documents. Unsecured file cabinets, employee desks, and other vulnerable storage methods are often prime targets, where confidential information can be easily lost or stolen, compromising the security of your business.
3. Paper Documents Cost Time and Money
Paper documents require extensive resources to produce and considerable physical space to store.
According to a study from The Association of Information Professionals, a four drawer file cabinet holds 15-20,000 pages, costs $25,000 to fill and costs $2,000 per year to maintain!
That's because when someone needs to locate a paper document, it can be time-consuming to find the exact document and return it to its proper place for future use.
According to an article from Tech Republic, “Nearly 1 in 5 of the 1,000 U.S. office professionals surveyed ranked ‘digging for files they need’ as the No. 1 problem to to support the future of remote work; another 58% of the office pros said a quick search for files and documents is a top-three problem.
Conversion from Paper to Digital Documents is Easy
Today's technology has made converting hardcopy documents to digital formats easy and affordable.
For many businesses, the first step is to explore digital workflows for current paper-heavy tasks. Newer MFP technology has made this transition very simple with one-touch scanning to cloud storage providing a safe, secure, and accessible location for your information.
This means you don't have to worry about losing your records in the event of a fire or flood and your confidential data is more secure. When you combine the benefits of user-friendly scanning with saving time and money, transitioning from hardcopy documents to digital files makes a lot of sense.
To explore your specific security vulnerabilities and learn how your business can make the shift away from paper documents, contact Green Office Partner today with the link below!
