k_Street Consulting, LLC Blog
When it comes to storing your business’ documents, you have a couple of options available to you. Some professionals enjoy the chaos of having documents strewn about their office, while others prefer the organization that a system of filing cabinets can bring with it. However, both of these options pale in comparison to the document management system, a technological innovation that could allow your organization to go paperless and improve efficiency in ways you might not have guessed.
Businesses must often store documents for the purposes of compliance, but anyone who has managed a document storage system that uses physical documents, like filing cabinets or otherwise, knows that it can get a little complicated and messy. Technology offers better alternatives that make things easier, efficient, and most important of all, more secure.
If your business is trying to limit costs, then printing should be one of the first things you look at. Paper documents have historically been important for businesses, but they take up a ton of space in the office and are incredibly difficult to regulate effectively. Let’s go over how you can decrease the resources you spend on printing and maximize efficiency elsewhere in your paper practices.
Digital file storage has been a game-changer for many small businesses that rely on dynamic file retention. Instead of storing paper records in a huge room dedicated to file storage, businesses are focusing on digitizing their records and storing them electronically in cloud-based storage systems. This is a great alternative to all those printing costs.
A file cabinet might seem like it’s necessary for operations, but it’s actually not as useful as it used to be in the past. This is primarily due to the implementation of new solutions such as the document management system. By taking advantage of a new digital storage system for your business’ documents, you can optimize operations and ditch that filing cabinet for good.
Paper documents can hold businesses back for several different reasons. For example, have you ever tried to move to a new office and drag along countless heavy filing cabinets? What about digging through folders just to find one specific document? It’s difficult to sort them in the first place as it is. Technology has made this job much easier, providing businesses with tools to better manage and maintain their wealth of paper documents in the form of a digital cloud environment.
Since the late 19th century, office environments have used the filing cabinet to keep records stored in an efficient order. However, today’s workplace environment contains more technology than ever before, allowing for more efficient document management solutions. This begs the question, what’s better; the traditional file cabinet, or the digital document management solution?
In the 1800s, two pieces of office equipment were invented that revolutionized the business world. In 1843, the fax machine was conceived and a prototype was made by Alexander Bain, and in 1892 offices were introduced to the new-fangled file cabinet. What's so amazing about this old technology is that both of these pieces are still used in the majority of offices today!