Improved Document Security: One Benefit of Going Paperless

Is this a common scene at your office? It doesn’t have to be!

It’s true that there are still some paper documents that you can’t escape so don’t throw away that paper shredder just yet! There is a way, however, to lessen the amount of paper you print, copy, scan, store, mail and shred.

We learned that the average office worker in the United States uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year. That’s more than 833 sheets per month—and potentially 833 chances for secure information to be incorrectly edited, stored or deleted. Instead, consider eliminating the need for most of these paper documents with an integrated document management solution. Electronic document storage keeps paperwork private. Security permissions can be set per user, dictating whether one has the capability to view, edit and/or create certain documents. Also, a document management system will track who has accessed and edited each file. Should a mistake occur, users can always find out how and when it happened. This tight control over file histories improves document security by making it easy to keep documents in the correct hands.

Any employee would appreciate this document security paired with ease of access. Human Resources departments, for instance, must retain confidential employee documents for a certain amount of time before destroying them and would surely appreciate knowing that these files are safe. Neither money nor time would be wasted by manually shredding outdated documents. Ask your resident shredder how she/he feels about that!

Threats to document security can come from nature as well. Natural disasters such as earthquakes, fires, floods and tornados can damage, ruin and mix up paper documents. Just because they are filed away in a sturdy cabinet or locked in a closet of boxes does not mean they are safe. Should a disaster strike, companies with document management solutions in place won’t have to worry about their electronic repository of files. One company, Aspen Square Management, survived a violent Category-3 tornado because they were already using an integrated document management system, providing an excellent example of just how crucial document security is.

Don’t risk it! Consider going paperless, and rest assured that your critical data will be kept safe.