Up until a few years ago, the concept of enterprises going paperless was simply an idea—an aspirational goal. And enterprises did very little groundwork to get there. Paper records dominated every aspect of the workplace, from incoming mail and meeting invites to invoices, taxation documents, and payroll exercises. 

So your organization is now paperless! You belong to an elite club of organizations that have achieved a paper-free workplace. But the paperless state is not a one-and-done sort of story. Maintaining a paperless workplace is a challenge—fighting the inflow of paper documents takes work. 

For decades, organizations used filing cabinets stuffed with paper to organize their business information. There wasn’t an alternative. Now, the scenario has changed completely—paper documents are no longer considered the ideal way to store business records. Organizations around the world have transitioned to a paperless work environment. 

2020 was a leap year for the document management industry. Businesses still holding onto paper went digital—finally. It’s a two-part process: paper is scanned and then paper is shredded. But some businesses are still waiting in line for their own digital revolution. Until a high-volume scanner comes along and turns those old paper records (that are expensive to store and cumbersome to retrieve) into lightweight electronic files, you are obligated to take care of them. In most industries, regulations require retention. That means keeping documents for a defined period until their expiration date. While we recommend a solid paperless office strategy for all forward-thinking companies, here five tips to secure and protect physical documents from potential threats in the meantime. 

As we move faster toward an increasingly digital world, the importance of digitizing data makes its way to the top of corporate productivity lists. The trend toward going digital accelerated as companies realized its many benefits in the last decade. The pandemic fast tracked digital adoption and businesses, not already fully-digital, scrambled to keep pace. 

Organizations are lining up paperless processes heading into 2021. Document scanning is part one on the road to managing information. But what happens after scanning and what’s the best way to go about storing scanned documents? Good questions! First, let’s talk about why businesses are going paperless, what the easy part of that process is, and what elements are more difficult to accomplish during digital transformation. 

You’ve decided to become a paperless office—great move!—and the first thing you need to decide is how to find the right document scanning company to digitize your old paper records. Paper records are critical assets. They’re your documented business history. When you choose a scanning company, your documents must be in safe and reliable hands throughout the chain of custody. 

Do you have large backlogs of paper documents that need conversion to a digital format? 

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic flipped the corporate world on its head. It fast-tracked digital transformation, propelled brick-and-mortar businesses into online models, and pushed traditional organizations to adopt new-age remote work options.