How to securely store your important documents with a digital solution

Navigating the hybrid world of paper and electronic documents can prove difficult for even the most proficient of workforces. Without a unified view of your information, time spent sourcing the right documents can have a negative impact on productivity.

If critical data is strictly paper-bound, not only is finding it difficult, but sharing it with your remote-capable workforce presents another efficiency-draining challenge. This article will showcase how the digital migration of your documents, records, invoices and data to a secure cloud storage repository can streamline your business processes and increase the productivity of your workflows.

Why it is important to securely store your data and documents

An increased ease of access to your documents isn’t the only reason Australasian businesses are deploying a digital document storage procedure. These platforms can maintain visibility into the regulatory compliance timeframes associated with key business documents. Adhering to compliance regulations outlined by the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) can present its own series of challenges. Without a level of understanding regarding the records retention periods associated with your key business documents, metrics and records, you may be unfamiliar with the period of time your business needs to store information in accordance with corresponding governance rules.

Balancing records management with information governance can be a complex process – understanding the differences between the terms can affect your ability to manage your sensitive information effectively. Oftentimes, maintaining regulatory compliance boils down to the effectiveness of your document oversight processes.

Record keeping is an important element of business operations, but given the sheer volume of paper- based data most businesses have accumulated over their years of operation, finding the right document can present a time-consuming headache. Disposing of personally identifiable information (PII) within an established time frame is important to maintain compliance with data protection laws, but you can’t dispose of old information if you can’t find it.

Your sensitive, regulated information – customer data, intellectual property, contracts, etc. – can be difficult to manage if it exists in a paper or hybrid format. If your organisation is facing compliance audits or rights to access requests, time spent sourcing the right data is time wasted.

In order to prevent the risk associated with non-compliance penalties or fees, digitising your archives and sensitive data and storing them in a secure online repository provides you with the comfort of knowing your information is accounted for.

Many platforms offer increased document control with keyword searchability so that you can source requested information with just a few keystrokes. Some cloud-based secure storage solutions even offer a digital dashboard for you to monitor your PII so that you’re always aware of when it’s time to discard obsolete documents.

The benefits of digital migration

Ease of access and increased knowledge of compliance with governance laws are two of the main benefits associated with implementing a digital document storage solution. Beyond that, the significant cost reduction benefits are among the most convincing reasons Australasian organisations are making the transition.

By saving on paper and printing – as well as storage space and equipment – 84% of organisations generate return on investment on their digital transformation in under 18 months. When cost reductions associated with utilities and business insurance – as well as efficiency increases observed by your personnel – are factored in, the impact on your bottom line becomes substantial. The retrieval of paper records can consume up to 40% of an administrative staff member’s day – imagine the productivity increases they could enjoy with three hours back on the clock?

Here are some of the other benefits your business will enjoy when you adopt an electronic records infrastructure:

• Free space: You’d be surprised at how much storage paper-records require. Depending on your length of operations, you may have dedicated filing rooms filled with cabinets that are packed with old paper records. A document control procedure that takes your information digital could give back generous amounts of office space.
• Increased protection: A digital solution allows your electronic information to be encrypted at rest. In the event that you're transmitting data to another authorised user, a secure network can restrict unwanted access by assigning encryption keys to your information. The use of role-based permissions enables authorised users to access only the information that they need.
• Centralised access: The ability to ingest documents and data from other locations – cloud repositories, enterprise content management systems (ECMs) or file shares – to your centrally stored scanned or digitally native documents provides your business enhanced visibility, connection and access.
• Near-instant sourcing: Thanks to the optical character recognition (OCR) technology built-in to many central storage repositories, the contents of your cloud-based data vaults are searchable via text or index, with support for a variety of file formats and languages.

How to store your critical documents in a secure cloud-based repository

Now that you’ve seen the benefits associated with a digital migration for your paper-based and hybrid documents, it’s time to detail how to get the job done. While some organisations attempt to handle the transition process themselves, the sheer volume of documentation can make efforts cumbersome and drain your resources and reduce productivity.

Tasking your workforce with document digitisation eats away at the efficiency of your operations. In order to save their office scanners – and their administrative staff – the wear and tear associated with moving years of paper-based information to a cloud-based platform, many businesses turn to third party providers to handle their migration.

Iron Mountain has been the global leader in storage and information management services for over 70 years. In addition to providing all of the benefits you’ve learned about, our records management and document storage solution handles the entirety of your digital transformation needs.

Here’s how we’ll facilitate your journey to a future-proof digital infrastructure:

• Iron Mountain will arrive at your business (or multiple locations) in order to obtain all of your mission-critical documents.
• After transporting your confidential information in our specialised safety containers, your data will arrive at one of our secure processing centres.
• Our comprehensive document scanning procedures will handle indexing and quality assurance processes that verify the integrity of your data.
• Ingestion and transformation procedures utilise OCR technology to ensure an accurate translation of handwritten records, images or invoices. This process will attribute searchable keywords to aid in the indexing capabilities of your cloud-based repository.
• Once your documents have been successfully transformed, Iron Mountain can store physical copies if requested, dispose of your old assets in compliance with regulatory standards or return your documents safely to you.
• Iron Mountain will work to ensure your authorised workforce is aware of how to navigate their digital architecture and utilise the robust search functionality and role-based access control features of your new platform.

No digitisation journey is complete without understanding the new information management abilities associated with a secure cloud-based repository. We’ll partner with you to ensure that the navigation of your digital infrastructure is fully understood so that you can take advantage of the productivity boost your platform will provide.

Iron Mountain secure storage solutions

You can count on Iron Mountain to handle the transition of your paper-based documents to a secure digital repository. Our scanning experts have the experience, processes and infrastructure to scan, index and ensure quality control to meet your requirements.

Choosing to entrust your important documents to Iron Mountain not only protects your company from potential data leaks but also from additional fines that you may incur from improper storage.

Not only will your organisation enjoy centralised access to your critical documents and data digitally, but we’ll also ensure that your teams can get their hands on physical copies when they need to. By ordering online through Iron Mountain Records Management web portal, we can schedule a delivery from our offsite document storage facility straight to your location.

When you’re ready to begin the migration to a secure online repository that accelerates your operational efficiency, contact Iron Mountain.

Together, we’ll establish a digital architecture and document management solution that future-proofs your workflows, while securely protecting your past.