There has been so much controversy about the importance of converting traditional offices to paperless offices. The fact is the majority of businesses today are still living in the past. The move to the futuristic paperless workplace is not as difficult as some business owners believe it to be. Companies, businesses and industries with lots of customers have to implement several filing systems. Imagine what would happen to patient care services if hospitals relied on finding a patient’s paperwork every time he or she came in for treatment.
The patient would have to wait for an undefined amount of time until hospital personnel look through thousands of files. What would happen if that patient needed medical attention right away? Just the very thought of not being able to properly organize so many folders is enough to exclude paperwork all together.
What if a major corporation is in the middle of a multi-billion pound deal and the CEO has tons of paperwork in his or her office and the most important file needed to make the transaction is lost? There are only minutes left to place the winning bid and win the contract and the file is lost among tons of other paperwork that needs to be filed.
These are just a few examples of how disastrous it is not to implement a more effective method of storing information. Papers require manually filing which can take up valuable time and office space. File cabinets, copy paper, filing tabs and other office supplies will needed to be purchased. If a fire occurs the information is lost forever. Anyone can conveniently go to the file drawer and pull out any file they choose without permission.
With the privacy law in place this could mean a civil violation. The safest method of storing sensitive information is to invest in an office all in one machine. It should copy, scan, print and fax without any problems. Businesses will find that scanning information onto the computer hard drive saving it in a secure file format is the best way to eliminate paper trails. Next, saving it to some type of media like a CD rom is also an excellent way to keep private information private.
Some companies shred their information as soon as it is saved and others hire a shredding company. A confidential shredding company will come to any home or office and provide onsite shredding. This mobile service is available in nearly every state. Imagine how much money businesses can save on storage devices, office equipment and possible lawsuits when they make the decision to take alternative measures to protect company information.
Shredded papers can be recycled and used as packing material or as scratch pads for the office. Many companies take their paperwork after it has been saved and shred it and then use it in a number of ways. Smaller businesses sell their recyclable paper to paper recyclable companies. There are lots of great ways to use shredded paper to save money around the office.
Robert Dean has worked in the paper shredding industry for several years and believes in the importance of data security and the sustainability of business practices. He currently works for The Shredding Alliance.
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