Digitizing Paper Records as a Part of Your Disaster Recovery Plan
While the dream of the paperless office is getting closer all the time, the fact is, paper use in the office is still commonplace. Many companies, particularly law firms, continue to create, consume, and manage huge amounts of paper. Yet, little is actually done to protect these paper documents.
The average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper every year.
Digital data is another story. Businesses will go to great lengths to keep data safe, employing primary storage, backup systems, and secondary backups specifically for disaster recovery.
Taking these types of protections with critical data can ensure that in the event of a disaster, natural or otherwise, their data can be recovered quickly with little impact or no impact on the business.
So why is there this disparity between protecting paper and digital data? Paper is difficult and slow to process in large volumes. It takes up a lot of physical space to store. Paper can degrade over time, it is vulnerable to being misplaced, and it can present a serious security risk. Sometimes, retroactive measures can be taken, but they can take time and effort determining which records to protect. Today, companies should take proactive measures to protect all of their records.
Disaster Recovery: Digitization and the Cloud
The best way for any business to protect paper records is to digitize them and store them in the cloud. This is the first step towards secure document management. However, many companies put off digitization because they are concerned about the time and money involved with manually scanning, indexing, categorizing and classifying all that data. Today, technologies exist that can manage the logistical headache of digitizing paper records. Using technologies like robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning can greatly accelerate the process. Once your records are digitized they are stored on the cloud and are searchable, sharable and trackable. Plus, digitized records are safe from unpredictable events.
Digitization Enhances Security
Beyond natural disasters, cybercrime is a growing concern to businesses of all sizes. Globally cybercrime is expected to become a 6 trillion-dollar industry by 2021. In 2018, the average enterprise cyberattack cost $1.7 million. The more data your business processes daily, the bigger a target you become.
Keeping track of paper records even in an organized, effective way is difficult. Especially when most of your employees have access. Digitization offers better security opportunities. Document access can be restricted by using password protection, or biometric data, and can be restricted by user. Digital documents should be encrypted when in transit and at rest. Automating the compliance process by running a remote system check against defined compliance requirements can make sure everything matches up. Plus, you’ll improve productivity and reduce the costs of document management.
Digitizing your paper documents is an important part of a disaster recovery plan. Ready to learn more? Give us a call today and let us show you how a digital document management system is more secure, less costly over the long-term, and can take your business to the next level.
