The world is slowly moving over to digital documents. Your banking, school, work, and tax information is likely all stored on the internet. However, there are still a large percentage of U.S. businesses that have yet to move to a digital storage format. The document scanning process itself can be time consuming, but once all document scanning is completed, there are many advantages to paperless document management.
Decrease in labor costs
The entire digital document system is more convenient. It requires fewer man hours and labor to complete tasks. Once the document scanning is completed, the documents can be viewed and manipulated in seconds. Not only will businesses save time, but they will also cut their labor costs. Recent data reveals that companies spend $20 in labor to file a document, $120 in labor to find a misfiled document, and $220 in labor to reproduce a lost document. With a digital document control solution, the costs are minimal.
Increase in document efficiency
Perhaps the biggest advantage to document scanning is the increase in efficiency. A senior partner requires a specific form. This form can be pulled up within seconds. A customer calls in with a question regarding their account. The account can be pulled up within seconds and the customer?s question answered, all in under a minute. The internet has an advanced retrieval process that significantly increases the overall efficiency of all document related tasks.
Better security for confidential documents
The security around physical documents is minimal. In most cases, the documents are locked in a filing cabinet. If someone were to break the lock or the building were to suffer damage, the documents would be lost. According to data from Gartner Group, 70% of today?s businesses would fail within 3 weeks if they suffered a catastrophic loss of paper based records.
Most digital storage systems are backed up and the information could be retrieved, even if it is deleted. Additionally, businesses can install firewalls and other protective measures to keep documents safe. Although security breaches do occur, they do not occur at the same rate of physical documents.
Decrease in wasted resources
Using physical documents means using millions and millions of paper products. The average American office worker uses an estimated 10,000 sheets of paper every year. This means that millions of trees are being cut down to meet the office supply demand. Moving to document scanning services and a digital document management system means that fewer physical resources are needed. A single business can significantly decrease the number of environmental resources they use by switching to a digital system. Additionally, they can cut the costs of office supplies.
The ability to take advantage of advanced digital programs
In addition to faster retrieval, digital storage systems also offer many other advantages. Programs allow business owners to evaluate their digital data. They can gather information including number of clients, demographics of clients, and marketing information. This same information in physical form would take many months to compile. Instead, the digital programs combine all of the information, giving business owners a digital report that they can base their future marketing efforts on.
Surprisingly, many businesses are still stuck with physical storage systems. The internet is here to stay and it is time to upgrade to a digital storage system. The digital system provides businesses with many advantages including decrease in labor and supply costs, an increase in efficiency, more advanced data analytics, and better protection of confidential information.