January 30th, 2011 
admin 
Whatever happened to the concept of the paperless office? If you were around when computers were first being rolled out into the general business environment, the so-called paperless office was supposed to have been one of the major benefits. No need to print documents any more, just store them on your hard disk and retrieve them whenever needed. Not only that, but in addition, there was the supposed saving of all of those trees – the brave, new paperless, greener world. Unfortunately, it never quite got off the ground.
If anything, we generate more paperwork today than ever before, simply because, with the aid of these same computers that were supposed to free us off from reams and reams of documents, it is so easy to do so. If you’ve got loads and loads of storage space, your archiving problem will not be as severe as it is for those who do not have that space. But even if you do have the space, surely you can use it far more productively than for just storing old dead paperwork? Space is a valuable commodity and the premiums have never been higher than they are today.
It is for precisely these reasons that a new service industry, geared for remote document storage, was born. From the early days of simply providing off-site safe storage, the service mix has expanded dramatically, and the services that are provided by the specialist document management providers today include things like:
Safe storage Easy referencing Fast document retrieval Scanning technology Digital archiving Safe destruction Information protection Guaranteed confidentialitySecurity is often one of the main concerns that many companies have when they consider using an outside supplier for their document storage. Some types of information, be it personal or financial, can be considered to be highly sensitive, and people become very concerned about this either getting out into the public domain, or falling into the wrong hands, and being misused.
However, client confidentiality is one of the prime services that the specialist document management solutions providers promote. This is particularly important when it comes down to the destruction of documentation too. The larger the company, the bigger the problem. But companies don’t come much larger than the NHS or the High Street Banks, both of whom have enormous amounts of paperwork and records, all of which is sensitive and highly confidential. It is therefore comforting to know that these organizations handle their document storage and destruction problems by outsourcing to one of the UK’s national specialist service providers.
As well as using up valuable space, archiving documents on your own work premises also represents a fire hazard. Your business insurance people, and the health and safety guys will want to see appropriate safety procedures (bespoke sprinkler systems etc.) in place. These can be quite expensive not only to install and commission, but to keep regularly serviced too. In addition to this, any sizable volume of stored documentation is likely to increase your insurance premiums.
You can get rid of all of these problems by outsourcing your documentation storage and destruction needs to a document management services specialist. You can even have all of your records scanned and laid to disks for you to keep in secure storage on your own premises. The advanced scanning and referencing technology used provides vastly reduced storage and lighting fast information retrieval. The benefits of outsourcing clearly speak for themselves!
By: Charlotte J Wilson
About the Author:
TNT Business Solutions offer secure and efficient document management services and can handle the whole process from collection and digital archiving to storage and retrieval. For more information about document management for your business, visit the TNT website.
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