Beyond The Cloud: The Real Cost Of Letting Physical Office Records Pile Up

Modern business growth and digital transformation go hand in hand. 

Most businesses today are moving to the cloud and automating as much of their workflows as possible to create a paperless environment. 

Yet there is a huge, silent reality in every office today: physical records, historical documents, and hard-copy compliance files piling up around the world.

Yes, simply having more filing cabinets or storing boxes of records in an extra closet in your office is not enough to manage your organization’s physical documents. 

A solid strategy must be developed, and it is a critical part of your organization’s overall operations. 

The strategy for managing your organization’s historical physical records impacts security, compliance, and productivity.

It matters. If Physical Document Management is left to chance, you risk creating a big mess. 

Documents could get lost, cause a data breach, or worse, fill up valuable office space that could be used for more productive purposes.

The Cost of Real Estate in the Modern Workplace

Every office has square footage dedicated to storing historic paper. 

Think about your office and how it is laid out. 

Every square foot of floor space is expensive, and it is being spent to house old financial statements, employee records, and historic legal documents.

We see offices with entire rooms filled with boxes, and others where employees are working in cubicles, but the space is not being used to its full productivity potential. 

We see offices where much of the square footage is devoted to storing paper that is of no value to the company. 

We often think about the value of a piece of paper, but in reality, it’s zero. So, why are we spending money to store something that has no value to the company? 

And that’s not even taking into account the cost of the space to house all of these filing cabinets and boxes of paper.

So, the answer to the issue of physical archive management is Strategic Partnerships. Several companies specialize in secure off-site document storage. 

This is where companies like Corodata come in. They can take all of your old files, whether they are financials, employee records, contracts, or whatever, and store them in a secure, climate-controlled environment. 

This means you can free up your collaborative workspaces and help your employees be more productive. 

They can work in a meeting area or a hot desk rather than a dusty storage room full of old files. Your documents will be safe, and your employees will be more productive.

Security and Compliance Beyond the Firewalls

Security today is a major concern for businesses and organizations worldwide. 

We spend thousands of dollars on firewalls, two-factor authentication, and server encryption. 

Still, a simple folder full of paper sitting on a desk or in an unlocked cabinet can pose a significant security risk to an organization. 

The physical archives of a business are left unattended daily. Do employees lock their desks when they leave for the day? 

Are cabinets and file rooms locked when not in use? Are visitors and contractors allowed in areas of the office where sensitive information is stored? 

The list of possible breaches to a business is endless.

No matter how many measures a company takes to protect against data breaches, there is always the risk that a serious breach of sensitive data can occur. 

And even the best firewalls, the most advanced data protection programs, and the strongest encryption are no match for a simple paper folder. 

If a visitor were to wander into an office and stroll past an open stack of files containing sensitive data such as medical records, financial information, or social security numbers, the potential for serious damage is severe. 

And that is why all of the measures taken to protect against data breaches are for naught if someone can walk off with a folder of tax returns.

Storage centers are built with strict access controls, 24-hour video surveillance, state-of-the-art fire protection, and other security measures far superior to those of the average commercial office space. 

And most importantly, by storing your physical archives at an off-site storage facility, your organization will have a verifiable chain of custody for all of its historical documents. 

This will be music to any auditor’s ears during compliance reviews.

Boosting Operational Productivity

The time employees spend searching for historical documents is incredible. 

Think about all of the filing cabinets throughout your offices, stacked floor by floor. Now, imagine that some of your documents have been moved to other departments. 

What happens when a request is made for a particular historical file? Will the request be filled in a matter of hours or days? 

The worst-case scenario is that someone will spend days or even weeks searching for a single historical file.

But organizational efficiency is reached when physical files are organized with the same level of sophistication as online databases.

It saves time.

Documents stored in archives that have been systematically logged, barcoded, and tracked can be retrieved in a matter of clicks. 

All it takes is a request to retrieve the file, and it will be delivered to the office door or scanned and securely delivered to the user’s inbox. 

This is how information gathering should work in the modern workplace: free employees from menial tasks so they can focus on more productive work that drives revenue for the organization.

A Balanced Path Forward

A truly modern workplace is one where physical and digital documents and data coexist and work together efficiently and effectively.

Managing your organization’s physical archives is critical to securing your company’s memory and information, as well as to protecting your clients’ and employees’ sensitive information. 

By taking control of your physical archive management today, you will optimize your use of your organization’s overhead dollars and ensure that all your information assets are used to their full potential.