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5 Reasons Why You Should Digitize Documents in 2022
The amount of documentation you have to keep on hand to maintain a good record-keeping system can be daunting. For larger businesses, record keeping often involves off-site storage facilities dedicated to managing documents. For smaller businesses, paper records can quickly overwhelm small offices. The more files you keep on paper, the more challenging it is to keep track of important documents.
In contrast, switching from paper to a digital document system immediately saves both money and storage space. When you digitize paper documents, they take up far less room than the same number of paper files. Digital files are also easier to backup, making them more secure. In many cases, digital documents are also easier to search through when you’re looking up information.
However, not all methods for document digitization are equally useful. When you digitize documents in 2022, make sure you use the best tools for capturing and storing digital data. Modern document management systems are so much more than a digital version of a filing cabinet. At their best, they’ll save your company time and money while also making data more useful and accessible. Here are five reasons why you should digitize documents this year.1) Save Space
Paper documents can easily take up several rooms worth of storage space. Even for a small business, all the files you need to keep track of can quickly fill up multiple filing cabinets. Many large businesses have whole rooms full of files and may even need to store files off-site.
If you digitize paper documents, you can store many thousands of pages per Gigabyte (GB) of storage space. The number of pages per GB varies widely depending on file type. For example, you can store an average of 15,477 scanned image files per GB. For Microsoft Excel files, you can store about 165,791 pages per GB. Either way, you’ll be saving a huge amount of physical storage space by digitizing your documents.
2) Store Files Securely
With paper documents, the only way to make sure your important records aren’t destroyed in a fire or other disaster is to have an off-site backup of every file. This doubles the amount of storage room needed and isn’t practical for most businesses. With digital files, though, you can keep records in secure cloud storage and backup files on hard drives for a fraction of the space and time needed to copy paper records.
With NextProcess’ document management software, your secure information is protected. All of your hard copy documents that arrive at our secure facility are scanned into a database you can access at any time. We store all your digitized documents directly in your password-protected electronic archive. You decide what happens to paper files after that. We can either destroy the paper copies for you or send them to a secure off-site location for long-term storage.
3) Save Money
Document digitization immediately reduces costs across the board. When you digitize, you’ll drastically cut back or eliminate costs related to paper storage, copying, and mail and courier services. You can stop paying for off-site paper file storage. Your employees can stop spending their work time in lengthy file searches.
Another perk of NextProcess software is that we don’t charge additional fees for user licenses—just one fee for your whole business no matter how many people you give access to the documents portal. You can customize the portal for each user and add new users whenever you want, all at no extra cost.
4) Increase Time Efficiency
Digitizing files makes them simple to search. Instead of wasting time hunting down paper files or spending the money to have them transported from off-site storage, you can find exactly what you need with a few keystrokes. NextProcess’ document management software offers full-text search functionality so you can find the right file fast. You can also access metadata analysis and reporting at the touch of a button.
To save even more time, NextProcess’ Business Process Outsourcing features high-volume mailroom scanning that ensures same-day turnaround. Once your document management software is set up, the system will automatically handle electronic image submissions, such as email and EDI. We can also continue processing your hard-copy files for you.
5) Improve Accessibility
Digital documents can be accessed anywhere, but only by the people who you decide need passwords. These systems keep your records secure and highly accessible at the same time. In addition to the time and money-saving aspects, this is one of the biggest advantages of document digitization. Remote accessibility for business documents is even more important now in the post-pandemic world when employees may need or want to work from home.
Approved users can access the online document management system anytime, anywhere and from any device with internet access. Every digital file is right there at your fingertips, and you can grant access to as many employees as you like. Our system makes it much easier for employees to work remotely as needed.
Digitize Paper Documents in Your Company
You can get started working with digital documents right now. NextProcess’ digital document management software makes keeping track of digital files simple. Whether you’re implementing this system on its own or alongside other business process automation such as our accounts payable or purchasing systems, we can help your company take advantage of all the benefits offered by document digitization. Contact us today to learn more or set up a free demo so you can see first-hand how our software can support your company.
