Old legal regulations meant that keeping physical records was a requirement for many businesses. However, now that e-documents are recognised as suitable in the majority of situations, many companies have been left with a stacks of old documents. Keeping an organised archive can feel like a full-time job in itself, though, and many companies neglect this responsibility. It’s only when need to find a specific file that they later realise its importance. To make sure this never happens to you, consider using a specialised third-party to handle your documents management.
Help save the planet
Studies show that while 70% of office waste is recyclable, only 7.5% of it ever reaches a recycling facility. Approximately 80.6m tonnes of paper enters the UK’s waste stream each year, making up almost a quarter of the total UK waste figures. In fact, at 17.7%, Britain has one of the lowest recycling rates in Europe for the 335m tonnes of solid waste it produces annually. Remember that going green not only has a positive effect on your conscious, it can also improve your company’s brand and image as well.
Create valuable office real estate
The average office in the UK is reported to print off around fifty sheets of paper everyday. This means that it doesn’t take long before even a small company can start to amass a staggering amount of files. Office real estate is a valuable commodity though. To ensure your business is as efficient as it can be, you need to be making the best use of the space you have available to you. You could use this space saved to provide an additional area for collaborative projects, or you may even be able to accommodate an extra employee. If you feel you’ll need to access your data regularly, invest in a cloud storage plan that gives you access to your files wherever you are.
Protect your data
In order to properly protect their data, many companies feel they should bear the responsibility of housing it. However, one of the main issue with these kinds of on-site back-ups is that while they may protect you against a hard drive failure, they fail in the event of a theft or some kind of natural disaster like a flood or fire damage. In order to truly protect your company’s data, you should also make sure you have backups of your information on an off-site premises, be it via cloud storage or as part of a physical archive.
