In the modern era, keeping digital files seems like common sense. It’s almost without thinking that many businesses are trading in their filing cabinets for software. Just like any other business decision, though, it’s important to think through the benefits a decision will bring. Document scanning, in particular, can be a great decision for any business.
It Saves Space
This is a pretty obvious benefit. If an office doesn’t have stacks and stacks of paper files, they have more space. There’s no better way to clear up clutter than to cut out the need for it altogether. When documents are scanned into a system, businesses don’t need to worry about keeping every little physical sheet of paper around.
There are a few ways that this extra space can help the company’s bottom line. For one, it can be used for something more helpful such as an office for a new employee. Alternatively, the need for less space can lead to the ability to move into a smaller office. This can reduce the cost of rent that cuts into overall profit.
A cleaner office will also help attract more customers. If clients come into an office and see a mess of paper, they’re likely to have a poor first impression of the company.
Increased Organization
Less clutter leads to better organization. When documents are being scanned into a central system, there’s less of a worry about putting things in the right spot in the filing cabinet or on the right person’s desk.
However, once these documents are scanned into a management system, they aren’t simply let loose into an unorganized system. A good document managing system will help users to carefully use a naming and searching system to find the file they need.
When you visit FileCenter DMS, they explain how they’ve simplified their naming system. This can often be the hardest part of file organization, so the special attention paid to this feature is important.
This saving system helps users choose naming options from the information they need to be tracked. They can use dynamic information such as dates and names or even use barcodes and optical character recognition. As they’re being edited, users can rename documents with the Drop Renaming feature to keep all information up to date.
Going Digital Saves Companies Money
Buying office supplies adds up more than most people might think. An industry research company named Gartner Inc. estimates that companies spend about 3% of their revenue on paper products. This might not sound like much but companies have to watch all their expenses to make the most out of their profits. CarolineVencil is here to help you with effective ideas about how to reduce expenses by cutting down paper products.
In addition, there is a cost for printing, copying, and even storing paper files. These costs can be greatly reduced by working digitally which requires much less physical resources.
This decreased paper waste is also good for the environment. If a company is trying to go green, this can be a good place to start.
Easier Collaboration and Sharing
When documents aren’t on a shared network, it can be pretty tedious to collaborate on them. It often ends in messy email chains and dozens of files on the same project.
When you scan documents in and use a management system, it’s much easier to collaborate on them. Because you’re scanning them into a central system, anyone with access to that central system can view or edit those documents. A team working in one system will be more efficient than one that has to depend on multiple points of contact to operate.
Scanning Documents Is More Secure
When keeping paper files, there’s only so much that can be done to keep them safe. When it comes to the wrong people accessing them, the answer is usually to lock a filing cabinet. Unfortunately, this isn’t very secure and files that are left in in the open are even less secure. This can mean a lot if there is sensitive information that requires strict discretion.
If documents are scanned into a management system, it’s a much more secure method. For one, the system can be password protected. For instance, one department or managerial level could have the password to log into the system.
There are also ways to lock in user permissions on certain files. While one person may be able to edit a file, it can be locked to someone else for viewing only.
Better Protected Than Physical Documents
With physical files, there is also the threat of physical damage. If an intern spills coffee on a document, the damaged document will need to be replaced or at least as dried off as possible.
This can become a bigger threat on a larger scale as well. In the worst-case scenario of a natural disaster or fire, paper files aren’t likely to survive. This is another reason that these files are going digital more and more every day. I think digitalized documentation is more secure than physical appearance. Do you know why digitalized documentation is more secure? Please check this link and get your answer.
A benefit of scanning these documents in is that they aren’t going to get destroyed anywhere near as easily. When the documents are kept in an online file system rather than limited to a single computer, there’s even more security. That way, even if the computer they were scanned in on gets damaged, the files aren’t gone forever.
Also Read: 5 Types Of Business Sensitive Information You Must Protect At All Costs
There are even ways to retrieve accidentally deleted files. Many online drives don’t feature a recycling bin feature like a desktop does. Some file management systems, like the FileCenter system, allow you to turn on a recycling bin feature. This way, there’s a fail-safe when a file is deleted rather than it just being gone forever. This gives users some room for accidental deletions.
Better Customer Service
Customer service is crucial – it often serves as the face of the business. The quality of customer service means a lot and it depends on a few features. First, the quality depends on how helpful the service is. For example, did the representative thoroughly answer all the questions the customer had?
Next, customer service has to be quick. Even if all of their questions are answered in full, a customer will be upset if they have to wait forever.
Both of these requirements are met when everything is digitized and easy to access. It’s going to pay off if a customer or client asks a question and an employee can immediately search their information. Learn how to improve your customer service from Neil Patel.
Increase Efficiency
All in all, implementing a digital system by using document scanning in your office will increase overall efficiency. It’ll help save space, protect the files, and increase the security of the file contents.
More than anything, scanning documents into a management system is going to increase the efficiency of a company. Since things can be done quickly and accurately, less time will be spent filtering through and organizing files. As the old adage goes, time wasted is money spent. This means that if time is saved in these areas, there’s more time for profitable practices in that time.
A business taking the time to scan their documents into a management system pays off in both the short run and long run. There aren’t any disadvantages to weigh it down either, so it’s an all-around profitable choice.
