In 1978, Frederick Wilfrid Lancaster predicted that society would one day be entirely paperless. In those days, he had to rely on document archiving systems that were decidedly clumsy, and even he was convinced there was a better way to handle paper documents. In today's day and age, the choice for your document archiving system is torn between digital and paper.
Additionally, thanks to document management software, document archiving is no longer limited to mere record keeping; it's a data goldmine waiting to be excavated for new insights into your company and clientele.
Traditional Document Archiving
Traditional forms of document archiving include keeping one or more versions of the same paper document in a storage file, folder or warehouse facility. Typically, one documents were no longer immediately needed, but still required to be kept for legality or internal referencing, these paper files would be placed out of sight and mind.
The most obvious problem with this form of document archiving however is that the file becomes incredibly hard to access when you need it immediately. Additionally, physical storage of documents opens up the possibility of accidental destruction of the document should an emergency situation occur, like a flooding or fire which would fully ruin the document.
Digital Document Archiving
Digital document archiving is a more modern approach to archiving techniques, that will make your file saving and storage significantly easier. For the documents your business currently has in paper format, document scanning can be simply done. A document scanning service provider like MES will undertake your document scanning services and will ensure that every file your business needs achieved is scanned clearly and accurately. MES will also offer you document management software solutions so you can best interact with these documents to retrieve all important data at the click of a button.
Security
Archived files need to provide access, reliability, and security simultaneously. It can be a scary thought to keep your valuable corporate secrets in a cloud storage system on within a physical hard drive, but the sheer breadth of today’s security systems makes those files even harder to access than they were in paper form. Personal data encryption keeps private data from prying eyes. When you’re the sole arbiter of locked and encrypted files, all information is completely private.
Automated Intelligence
The data age has begun, and its true power lies not only in the efficiency of digital formats, but analytics and automation as well. Everything from outbound marketing to bill payments can be automated intelligently, removing an incredible workload from every department’s figurative shoulders. Instead of relying on your archived documents and having to move information from one file to another by hand, automated document management software will do this for you and save significant amounts of time.
Document archiving can be a difficult process for any business, especially those with many years of physical documents that need to be saved for any number of reasons. But instead of filing up filing cabinets and physical storage rooms with paperwork, a digital system will save you significant amounts of time, money, and grow your business into the future.