Regardless of industry, managing records correctly is the best way to ensure ongoing compliance. As your company grows and paperwork multiplies, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of retention dates and ensure the security of sensitive information. The best way to keep track of your paperwork and the important information it contains is to digitize your records management system.
Check out five benefits you’ll see immediately if you do.
1. You’ll comply with document retention guidelines.
Document retention is a serious matter, as non-compliance can lead to legal penalties. While some companies think that the best way to avoid these penalties is to just keep everything, keeping documents too long is just as bad as not keeping them long enough. The more information your company has in storage, the higher the likelihood of theft and leaks.
With a records management system, optical character recognition (OCR) and record indexing can be used to track record retention times automatically, alerting you when a document is eligible to be destroyed.
2. You’ll keep records safe and secure.
Storing your records in filing cabinets or boxes doesn’t provide enough security for sensitive information like financial records, health records, and employee documentation. Digitizing records keeps them under layers of password protected security, and also tracks who accesses a document and when. Automatic retention policies eliminate documents once they have passed their retention dates, reducing the potential for information breaches.
3. Your records are backed up in case of a disaster.
You can’t prevent a flood, fire, or earthquake, but you can certainly plan for one. Think about the process of recovering all of your company’s vital records. At best, its tedious, and at worst, you cant recover those records at all. Having digital copies ensures that even after an unpredictable event, you can get back on track immediately.
4. You can access documents within seconds, anytime and from any location.
Digging through dusty piles of paper to find a single record among hundreds can take valuable time out of anyone’s workday. When records are digitized, you can find them in seconds with a simple keyword search, boosting productivity and giving your employees time to focus on tasks that add value to your company.
5. Everyone is doing it.
As more businesses in a variety of industries begin to realize the scope of the benefits provided by digitization, paper management is becoming obsolete. With the ability to access records quickly, keep them secure, and even automate some of the tasks surrounding paperwork, why wouldn’t you digitize?
