Nowadays, new data is created at lightning speed. To put this into perspective, the data created between 2011 and 2013 accounted for 90% of all of the data that had ever been created in the world. In the three years since, the pace at which data is created has rapidly accelerated.
The primary impact of this increased data volume is twofold:
First, you can make more informed decisions, because detailed facts about a given topic are available to you.
Second, it has become much more difficult to manage your data. If you aren't careful, the mere management of your company's data will take up most of your time.
Fortunately, it's possible to reduce – or even eliminate – document management issues associated with the increase in data.
Recognize your problem
The primary causes of document management issues are information silos. This is when your documents are stored separately from each other; this makes it difficult to find documents, compile data or share information. For instance, if you need to analyze and share the data on an important graph that is stored in a paper file, then you have to dig through file cabinets to find it, key in the data manually and then conduct your analysis. This single process can waste hours of your day.
With the right document management approach, you can protect your business from information silos and the issues that they bring along with them.
Consolidation is key
In order to prevent your employees from being mired in a chaotic pile of information silos, you have to consolidate everything. As you probably already know, successfully consolidating your documents will require you to do a lot more than putting everything in one pile.
How to approach the consolidation of your documents
Only use a single storage medium
If your employees are constantly switching between computer files, filling cabinets and emails, then their efficiency will be significantly reduced. That's why the first step that you should take in the consolidation process is to move all of your documents to a single storage medium.
Due to the efficiency, accessibility, security and cost-effectiveness of digital technology, the best storage medium for you to use is computerized storage. To this end, you will need to convert your current collection of physical documents to digital files. Regardless of how much paperwork you have locked away, this doesn't have to be an overwhelming process. You should work with a professional document conversion company in order to get your paper files converted and indexed securely and efficiently.
You should also approach this with the understanding that you may continue to receive paper documents in the future. Prepare to immediately integrate these documents into your unified document storage system by investing in a high-quality scanner.
Invest in a reliable document management system
Even when all of your documents are digitized, your documents can still end up being siloed. This is due to the fact that basic computer file management efforts will cause your documents to be split between file folders and devices.
You can unify the management of your digital documents with a good piece of document management software. Such a system will automatically consolidate your documents into a single point of access. This system will also allow you to securely manage your company's documents from anywhere in the world.
Is your company protected from information silos?
Your company doesn't have to suffer the lost time or wasted money that information silos can cause. You can destroy your information silos by enacting a document management approach that includes digital storage and a powerful piece of document management software.
