How Document Archiving Can Help Your Company Run Smoothly

Many successful businesses use document archiving system to help their business store and secure important file. These help them save their document from damage and improper handling. It also reduces the chance of files being lost. They also use document archiving system to help store and secure important files. These are often the reason they look for companies offering document archiving solutions.

Why Should I hire a Document Archiving Company?

Businesses need these companies to help organize important files. These companies can help organize important files. They can help file legal and financial document properly so you can easily access them, also save you time and effort from browsing through each cabinet searching for a document.  Aside from archiving media and electronic files, these company’s also provide document imaging services, these are useful tools in business operations because it can convert text, diagrams, charts and pictures into accessible digital files. These processes allow your company to run ‘green’ operations by reducing paper usage. Not only will your company help the environment, it will also cut costs on expenses.

What Should I Consider When Archiving Document?

The methods for storing documents may vary every time a new technology emerges. You need to consider the rules involved in this process and decide which files you need to archive and which one you should get access to immediately. This is because there are many new tools offering efficient and affordable solutions and the number of software tools used for document imaging service and archiving consistently increase giving businesses more opportunities to archive at a lower rate.

Are There Risks With Document Imaging Services or Archiving?

You need to consider that risk are part of any business, and also exist in any archiving system and businesses must consider this when making archiving policies. The business owner should employ adequate safeguards to protect the stability and security of the archive because risks of these processes depend on how secure the archives are.

What are The Benefits of Hiring These Companies?

The benefits of having efficient document storing system have increased along with the technological solutions. Using a secure storage provider will not only free up space but offer a secure storage facility equipped and protect records from floods and fire. If your company requires long-term record retention but has a low volume of retrieval, it will most likely not be feasible or cost to convert every single file. A viable alternative is to partner with a provider that can store and manage large volumes of existing files and deliver records in an on-demand electronic format. The files will be digitally arranged, it is easier to find the files you need, the exact file you are looking for with just a few clicks.

Businesses can now scan or convert files into digital items, reducing the amount of physical space required for systemized record keeping. If you’re thinking of giving your business an organized archiving system, try services offered by document managing firms.

Document Digitization – Not An Expensive, All-Or-Nothing Leap

Every business has documents that they must maintain for legal compliance, and operational business needs, including contracts, legal filings, personnel files, and even marketing materials.

As time passes and the business grows, the sheer volume of documents that are generated and stored regularly can overwhelm a traditional filing cabinet system.

Although many companies look for document storage solutions for their physical records, the most efficient way to manage paperwork is to create digital copies of their important files and store them on shared drive, portable hard drive, on-site document management system or on the Cloud.

Every important company record or document can be scanned and converted to digital files (digitization) because it provide quick access and instant backups (disaster recovery and business continuity) for a business’s entire collection of records.

Why a Document Digitization Is Beneficial

Reducing paper dependency and inefficiency doesn't have to be an expensive, all or nothing leap. By inserting affordable scanning, storage and paper to digital uploading into existing processes, organisations can progressively move to digital records while retaining the option of outputting key documents to paper chart.

Transitioning to digital records from a traditional or offsite file storage system has a several advantages:

Space: Anywhere from 1 to 3 filing cabinets can be stored on 1 gigabyte of disk space. This frees up a little over 3 square feet of office space.

Time: On average it takes 10 minutes to get up; go to a filing cabinet; find a file; find a document, process it (copy, fax or scan and email) and then return the file to its proper location. You do that just 6 times and you waste an hour. Time is money. Electronic file retrieval takes under 30 seconds and is done without leaving your desk. You can print a copy, email or fax from your computer.

Safety: You cannot spill coffee on, smear, tear or lose your original document. And if someone else loses the document that you sent, you can easily resend it.

Compliance: All of your documents are available for compliance inspection electronically. Compliance can inspect your file without removing them from your system so you work without interruption.
Disaster recovery and business continuity: Documents are backed up to a remote location weekly, daily or hourly and easily for disaster recovery. An electronic document management system functions as an automatic insurance policy against loss or damage to your files.

How to go about it?

Tecres Technologies Bulk Document Scanning (on and off site) is a professional services helping organization to transform manual paper records and conversion of back office operations to digital records.

Tecres Technologies can help you;

1. Collate – group and classify all documents
2. Sort – arrange and label all documents to remove duplicates
3. Index - create metadata of each documents in a spreadsheet (Document title, type, date and other key fields)
4. Digitize - scan each documents arranged in a chronological order using accepted index fields for digital preservation
5. Migrate - present digitized records in appropriate storage media, and or solution.

To get started, fill out the form at www.tecres.com.ng, send us an email at enquiries@tecres.com.ng or give us a call on +234 802 061 9478. Within minutes of receiving your request, you will have free quote from us.

Tips for Creating a Paperless Office

The paperless office coined as a marketing slogan in the early days of the IBM computer has not yet arrived. For proof, just step into the office of any small business.

At a time when almost every employee has access to a computer terminal, and when mobile devices with pixel densities indistinguishable from that of print media are now commonplace, it's strange that the usage of paper hasn’t been reduced.

Today’s businesses probably can’t go completely paperless, but these tips will at least keep them wasting money on paper and start improving productivity.

Paperless Office Not Without Limitations

One big reason is that, when it comes to eradicating paper, organizations should be realistic. Completely eliminating paper may not be economical or even practical for everyone. The realities of paper in our society force even the most tech-savvy businesses, even start-ups with no legacy processes and habits, to contend with external forces such as client needs and regulatory or legal requirements. Moreover, industries such as law and auditing may not be good candidates to go paperless due to the historical prevalence of paper.

With this in mind, here are some practical strategies for significantly reducing your overall volume of paper usage. We also take a closer look at how you can better equip your employees to work more effectively in a paperless environment.

Reduce, Discourage Paper Usage

The first step toward reducing paper usage is simply emphasizing the move toward reducing paper usage. This can be done in a variety of no or low-cost initiatives that underscore the seriousness of the paperless drive.

1. Track the number of pages printed per person, generate a monthly report and email it to everyone. Obviously, this works best if the ability to track printing is already supported by the existing multifunctional machine or printer server.

2. Make it less convenient to print. Reduce the number of printers in your office by consolidating smaller, low-end machine with printers capable of higher print volumes at a central location. Without printers on their desks, employees are less likely to print frivolously; this has the added benefit of improving cost-effectiveness.

3. Request paperless statements from banks and service providers such as the telecommunications company. Make a conscious effort to pay bills online, too, as this reduces not just the use of paper checks and envelopes needed to post them but also improves overall productivity.

4. While it's decidedly low-tech, actively advocating a culture of reuse and recycling can change prevailing attitudes toward paper usage. An empty box for collecting non-confidential documents for recycling can help, as do email signatures that discourage the unnecessary printing of emails messages.

5. Do away with physical signing printed documents, particularly internal ones. Even for external contracts, the need for a signature has roots more in historical precedence than the actual legal requirement.

6. Reproduce internal documents on Wikis or online notebooks such as Google, Docs or Evernote instead. The latter supports the sharing of entire notebooks or individual notes, which is handy for disseminating both static and dynamic materials such as an employee handbook or meeting notes.

7. Completely discard fax from the business process and replace paper forms with fillable PDF forms that are submitted via email or a Web browser. The free PDFescape online tool will create PDF files with the relevant form fields, while paid applications such as Nitro Pro 9 and Acrobat XI offer more sophisticated functionality.

Support Infrastructure to Enable Paperless Office

Getting the right infrastructure can go a long way going paperless office. Below are a number of software tools, services and pieces of hardware that can be put in place to support the paperless office.

8. Consider a dual or multi-monitor setup. One common reason that workers print documents is the need to cross-reference them with another document. You can reduce wasteful printing by setting up a multi-monitor workstation. Giving employees two (or three) screens provides more digital real estate and offers a productivity boost at the same time. LCD monitors typically outlast computer upgrades too, so this is one cost you'll only need to pay once.

9. In order to work with vendors and clients that insist on using the fax machine, sign up for an online fax provider that will email an incoming fax direct to your inbox. This mature market includes various free and paid options that essentially eliminate the need for a physical fax machine. For example, the eFax paid option allows users to send up to 150 pages per month from an email message, through an online portal, or from a mobile app.

10. Digitizing paper notes and printed literature makes it easy to share documents electronically and lowers the temptation to make photocopies. Aside from network scanners, recent years have seen the rise of "personal" scanner meant for a small group or even individual use. 

11. Optical character recognition (OCR) software turns the static images or PDF files created by hardware scanners into editable files that are substantially more useful.

12. For the inevitable paperwork that must be printed, using both sides can cut paper usage by half. Printers that support duplex printing today are highly reliable and available at just a slight premium over non-duplex capable models. In fact, many mid-end printers set this feature as default.

Up the Ante on Paperless Productivity

Of course, digitizing documents isn't just about reducing waste. In many cases, digitized notes offer the convenience of being searchable and occupy no physical space when stored as binary bits on a storage drive. Why not take it to the next level and attempt to increase personal productivity through the use of digitization technologies?

13. On this front, a variety of smartphone apps, including CamCard and WorldCard Mobile, will capture the content of business cards and generate a digital contact.

14. Meanwhile, for businesses that don't own a hardware scanner, apps such as TurboScan and Scanner Pro can capture documents with a smartphone's built-in camera. These files can be subsequently uploaded to a cloud storage service, where they can be shared and subsequently viewed from a smartphone or tablet.

Successfully reducing the use of paper isn't a one-time event. It's a series of continuous efforts to move away from paper and establish a culture that frowns on waste. Re-architecting business processes to reduce paper usage is an unavoidable activity, but adopting the right tools can go a long way toward creating an environment to support the paperless office.

Ultimately, businesses shouldn't stop at eliminating paper but should push for greater digitization in order to reap its full benefits.