If you’re a business owner, chances are you’re doing more than just trying to keep your company above water. You’re aiming for something much higher – whether that means making greater profits, bigger waves in the industry, or having a profound impact on your clients’ lives.
Sometimes savvy business owners who are used to thinking outside of the box don’t think to consider how one of the most fundamental parts of their company’s day-to-day operations can be the anchor holding it back. Unfortunately, a poorly implemented or optimized record management system can limit how high your company can reach – or keep it grounded altogether.
While other factors can certainly weigh in on the challenges your business is facing, it’s worth doing a temperature check on how your company uses and manages its files. Paper isn’t quite a thing of the past yet, but it’s quickly becoming second fiddle as far as how a lot of businesses that rely on their records function. Law firms, real estate companies, accountants, medical practices, and other companies are adopting record management practices that involve a lot less paper than they used to.
Paper records are certainly part of the process, especially for intake forms, notes, or patient charts, but these types of materials are now being scanned uploaded to companies’ databases. This is because scanning and archiving documents on a hard drive or in the cloud preserves them indefinitely and eliminates the need to keep any physical files on-hand for reference.
1. Your Business Operations Rely on Where Your Files Are
While the concept of “the office” as the central locus for productivity might shift as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic for some companies, your business may have weathered the storm without adapting its business model. Don’t fix what’s not broken, right? Well, not so fast.
If you rely on your company’s office to get any work done – because that’s where all of the information you and your employees need is stored – chances are your operations would benefit from the flexibility that digitizing your archive would bring. By scanning all of your company’s files and records and uploading them to the cloud, you and your workforce can access whatever is needed safely and securely.
2. Documents Are Hard to Find, Getting Lost or Destroyed by Accident
Another problem with keeping all of your files on paper is that they can be hard to track down, easily lost, and damaged or destroyed by fire, water, pests, and all sorts of other hazards. If you think you’re reasonably safe from a fire, flood, or plague of locusts, consider that hazards don’t have to be Biblical in proportion.
A burnt lunch can set off the building’s sprinklers and a plumbing malfunction can wreak just enough havoc to ruin your records. While you probably won’t have to worry much about locusts, termites and cockroaches both enjoy eating and nesting in paper and cardboard. Suffice it to say, things happen. Scanning your files can ensure you have the information you need in case chaos, large or small, decides to pay your office a visit.
3. Too Much Room Is Dedicated to Physical Paperwork
If your company has records of any kind going back years or even decades, all of that paper has to be stored somewhere. Whether it’s in a series of filing cabinets throughout your office, a shelf behind your receptionist’s desk, or in a closet, chances are your company has a place where files go to be “stored” (read: forgotten) – and don’t they take up a lot of room?
You can free up a lot of space around your office by scanning your documents and digitally archiving them for future use. That space can be used for more productive purposes or just to relieve some eyesores for your staff and visiting clients. Not only does digitally archiving records free up physical space around your office, but it can protect them from hazards and help your team collaborate more cohesively.
4. Manual Data Entry Is Causing Errors
You may have hired the best possible talent you could find, but everyone makes mistakes. Nowhere is this more true – and potentially hazardous for your company – that if your employees are tasked with taking data from paper forms and entering it into your company’s computer system.
Thanks to Optical Character Recognition (OCR) scanning, however, you can turn typewritten forms into editable PDF documents. OCR-scanned PDF files are searchable, which means the search function will work on these scanned documents – allowing your staff to find exactly what they need quickly and accurately.
5. Your Digital File Management System Isn’t Optimized
Although our four prior points concern problems that relying on a physical, paper-based archive can cause, don’t be mislead into believing that simply digitizing your documents is all you need to do.
Without a clear file management system in place on your company’s servers or in the cloud, you run the risk of simply digitizing the problems you had in the first place:
- Your company’s files are in one location (on individual computers not linked by a network, or a company network that can only be accessed at the office).
- Your files and folders are disorganized, making it difficult to find what you need and accidental deletion.
- Your digitized your whole archive without selecting what should be kept or tossed, leading to space issues on hard drives or what your cloud provider permits.
- Your employees are mistaking documents for one another, leading to confusion and errors.
Implementing some basic measures, such as our digital document management tips, can prevent these problems from plaguing your company.
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Acro Photo Print Inc. offers a broad range of services to help you lighten the load that’s weighing your company down. As a business owner, you’re in a unique position to enhance your company’s operations from the ground-up. Consider the difference that scanning and digitally archiving your records can make for how quickly, efficiently, and sensibly, your business can run.
Learn more by speaking with an Acro Photo Print Inc. representative about our services. Get in touch with us today by contacting us online or calling (929) 244-4322.