Document scanning and proper management is essential for better workflow and productivity in an organization. All the important paper documents can be digitized, saved and organized systematically with the help of document conversion services that facilitate records management. Data management refers to the process of managing all important data in an organization throughout their lifecycle. All organizations have the responsibility of properly storing, securing and maintaining proper legal records and other documents relevant to the company. Legal documents are more important because of their extreme sensitiveness. Therefore, a secure system should be in place to manage these records. Proper storage of documents eliminates the risk of losing or damaging documents as a result of fire, flood, theft or other unforeseen catastrophic events.
Digitization offers advantages such as the following.
- Digitization of paper documents reduces the use of paper and this will also make your organization environment friendly.
- Less use of paper also reduces business cost related to purchasing stationery and photocopying.
- Once all the documents are digitized, documents can be accessed and retrieved easily.
- This saves time and the employees can spend quality time in improving customer service.
Efficient document management enables the following.
- Organizes all important data for retrieval when required
- Ensures compliance with legal and regulatory record-keeping requirements and helps avoid fines and costly penalties
- Eliminates risks such as government investigations and other legal processes
- Protects records that are essential for mission-critical business operations
- Reduces the time and effort required to restructure all vital information at the time of any theft, disaster or other losses
- Less storage requirements and less labor requirements for the creation, retrieval and dissemination of recorded information.
In the United States, many regulations have been implemented to protect business owners, employees, vendors and customers. Heavy fines are imposed on organizations breaking or ignoring these regulations, and the fines can run to millions of dollars depending on the severity of the issue. So, compliance is an important requirement when it comes to managing business documents. How can a document management system (DMS) help?
- A DMS simplifies, upholds and ensures compliance. It ensures the accuracy of, and speeds up compliance processes. However, document scanning and uploading to a DMS alone may not ensure compliance, some form of adaptation from the DMS vendor or the organization using the DMS may be necessary.
- Some files may need to be retained for a long time – a decade or even longer to ensure compliance. Here the DMS becomes almost indispensable, especially when there is the risk of damage and spotting to the documents as time passes. People who store important files may forget where they placed them, which could lead to the loss of such files and consequent non-compliance. The rising legislative demands in the wake of increasing data breaches in organizations not using DMS can be successfully met by using a reliable document management system.
- Internal data breaches that account for more than half of all data breaches can be reduced with efficient use of the DMS. Maximum security of the stored information can be ensured by applying appropriate user permissions within the DMS.
- A DMS helps classify data for legal purposes in audits and audit personnel can retrieve the same on an internal as well as external basis.
Be GDPR-compliant with Efficient Document Management
One of the main requirements of GDPR legislation (which came into effect in EU on May 25 this year) is that all personal data handled by organizations should be accessible on demand. The law also states that in case of a data breach, it should be reported within 72 hours and you should also be able to present necessary proof of compliance efforts and recovery and remediation plans. A good document management system enables you to have a centralized location to store all business data and ensuring the required level of accessibility to the data. Managing, auditing, and safeguarding data is easy with a DMS that is governed by a logical structure wherein everything is kept together.
Thus, document management using a good document management system has become essential to ensure compliance with various regulations. The role of a reliable provider of document scanning services cannot be underplayed in this regard. Apart from helping businesses manage their files and media assets, a reputable document conversion company can play a dynamic role in the regulatory system that is deeply built into most office workflows.
