Document digitizing involves taking physical assets and converting them to a form that a computer can read. It requires a time commitment, but digitization offers many benefits in the long term, making the initial effort well worth your while. Learn more about how your office could benefit from going digital.
Wasting Paper
Of all the information in the world, paper documents still contain about 90%. When documents are no longer needed, thousands of pounds of paper still end up in landfills, which are already packed. Paper requires wood pulp, which involves cutting down trees. Technically, trees are a renewable resource because they can be replanted. Nevertheless, trees bear a great deal of the responsibility for converting oxygen into carbon dioxide. Cutting down more trees indirectly contributes to global warming because the carbon emissions in the atmosphere are more than the dwindling number of trees can handle.
Hiring data digitization services are the first step toward becoming a paperless office, meaning that you do not waste any more paper. As for the original documents, you can have them recycled so that, insofar as new paper documents need to be produced, fewer trees need to be chopped down in the process.
Increased Security
You can keep paper documents locked up, but that security system is susceptible to human error. If a sensitive paper document should fall into the wrong hands, there is nothing to prevent that person from reading it. Digitized documents have more layers of security. For example, unauthorized personnel who get a hold of an encrypted file still won’t be able to read it.
Better Organization
When you have a large volume of paper records, it can take a long time to sift through them to find the one you’re looking for. That’s assuming that every file is always put back in the right place; if not, it could get lost forever. Large format scanning allows you to digitize documents even if they are oversized and store them on a server. Once you scan and store the documents, you can find what you are looking for almost instantaneously by doing a keyword search of the database, and the file always stays in the same place, so you can’t lose it. Not only does this result in better organization, but it is also much more convenient and can save you time.
Faster Communication
When you have to send a paper document by mail or courier, it can take some time. Even faxes are relatively slow. It is much faster and more convenient to be able to scan documents and send them as email attachments.
Reduced Costs
All of these increases in efficiency have the potential to save you money. Additionally, if you have to store paper records off site, digitization can save you from having to pay to lease storage space. Depending on how much you spend on rent per month, you could recoup the cost of digitizing your files in a shorter amount of time than you think.
Learn more about how digitization works and what you need to get started.
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