5 Reasons Why You Should Be Storing Company Documents Off-Site

Document Storage North Wales

Despite being in the 21st century where organisations are encouraged to be environmentally-friendly and store their documents electronically, we understand why companies are still wanting to archive certain confidential paper records. For many businesses, retaining paper-based documents isn’t only preferable, but it can also be a legal requirement. For instance, certain hard-copy documents have to be kept for a long period of time Such as:

  • Patient records
  • PAYE details
  • Occupational health records
  • Accident reports

However, storing thousands of documents on-site can be rather problematic. It doesn’t only drastically reduce the amount of space within your offices, but your company may not be equipped with the security measures to ensure the safety and protection of your important documents. Fortunately, Cleardata provides a secure offsite document storage facility with a number of benefits to be had.

On the other hand, we understand that some files won’t need to be digitised, especially legacy ones. However, for compliance, there may be a need to retain them. This doesn’t mean they have to be on-site taking up space, waiting for the time to come when they can be destroyed.

The best option for these files is to archive them off-site. Cleardata’s purpose-built archive storage facilities provide a cost-effective and secure space-saving alternative to the old filing cabinet. What’s more, we’ll collect the documents using our tracked fleet of vans. In addition, here’s how Cleardata can help with offsite document storage:

  • Facilities are secured and protected by the latest technology, which translates to safe documents
  • Archived documents are never out of reach with our scan-on-demand service. Request their digital return and receive them in your chosen method in a matter of hours
  • Receive a fully-managed and compliant document lifecycle, all that will ever be asked of you is your consent to destroy documents that have reached end-of-life
  • Have access to a live statement of your archived documents via our cloud archive management system

5 reasons why your company should archive documents with Cleardata

With the transition to home working, a raft of both opportunities and challenges has arrived. Businesses have quickly come to the realisation that they no longer need large office space to house their home-based employees, which means a reduction in overheads, such as:

  • Utilities
  • Building lease costs
  • Maintenance costs

They’ve even started passing on these savings to employees to help them better furnish their home office. But those are just some of the reasons as to why you should choose Cleardata to storage your document offsite, the others include the following:

1. Space

Having your documents stored on-site can take up an enormous amount of space, even when they’re located in filing cabinets or kept in a specific warehouse. By moving your documents and having them stored at one of our secure archive facilities, you would be creating valuable space in your own premises. Whether this space is to be used for a less-cluttered working environment or it’s to be allocated for other purposes, it frees up the space needed for you to run your business.

Office space saving has never been more important to businesses. Every square metre counts. The problem is there’s only so much you can do once the office layout has been rearranged for maximal spacing. A common culprit that tends to get forgotten about is the filing cabinet. How many filing cabinets occupy your offices that are going largely unnoticed but taking up precious space?

Ditch those old fashioned cabinets and put your trust in Cleardata to archive your documents offsite. Alternatively, you could embrace a new digital lease of life for your documents. A combination of archiving off-site and digital office filing solutions provides an increase in floor space, business continuity and an easier time sharing and managing the lifecycle of files.

2. Security

Storing your own documents makes your company very vulnerable. This is because you’ll be risking important records becoming damaged, stolen or getting lost. As specialists in providing secure document storage services, Cleardata’s enhanced secure sites ensure that your sensitive paper files are completely protected against natural and incidental disasters.

The company’s two main document storage facilities are protected by the latest technology and security. Both sites are monitored by 24/7 CCTV and biometric fingerprint entry that is required to enter, as well as a secure perimeter fence surrounding the buildings. Cleardata also complies with the data protection act and is accredited with ISO27001 and IS09001 for quality management and information security.

Our facility is also equipped with Redcare security systems, which alerts the police and fire brigade team if an intruder attempts to enter. A Vesda-enhanced fire detection system and hydrosense water detection system is also installed. Cleardata has a Nordair Niche Air Rotation Gas Fired Heating Unit in its warehouses. This provides even heating over large areas. These systems are also able to detect smoke, water and temperature to ensure your documents are fully-protected.

3. Fast document access from anywhere, at any time

Locating particular documents may prove to be rather difficult if it’s stored in your own premises. Rummaging through filing cabinets to search for a single document can be frustrating and rather time-consuming. Custom indexing and retrieval methods can be required when you archive your documents with Cleardata.

Our company offers a scan-on-demand system which is part of Cleardata’s document storage services. This allows customers to request documents to be digitally sent to them within two hours. This way, Cleardata can locate and send the documents to you as quickly as if they were stored at your company.

Now all the files are out of the building and have left behind plenty more floor space, a business will want to get the most out of their new images and keep them in some form of order. We believe the best way to manage your digital files is with Cleardox EDM, our cloud document management solution. Cleardox has been specially designed with businesses in mind, for effective file storage, document management, compliance and security.

4. Increased workflow & increased employee efficiency

Filing, sorting and locating documents takes a lot of time which is subsequently wasting your company time and money employing staff to ultimately search through documents. Outsourcing your documents to Cleardata means your staff will be employed to do their actual job and benefiting your company rather than constantly filing documents.

As Cleardata can scan and digitally send required documents straight to your desktop within 2 hours, it saves a large amount of employee time. Additionally, sharing and promoting your documents online is much simpler and more convenient, which ultimately speeds up work processes.

5. Archive management

Not only is searching for your documents hassle but attempting to manage and identify what documents you actually have is equally annoying. Cleardata offers a bespoke online document archive management system that allows archive storing customers to manage their documents life cycle. As such, clients are able to:

  • Make a physical file request
  • Arrange collections and deliveries to add additional documents to archive
  • Manage the destruction of documents
  • View the activity and audit trails

This records management system means customers will always be in control of their own documents and can simply request required actions regarding their life cycle. It’s all well and good archiving older documents for office space saving, but live files need to be managed too. Cleardata offers a document scanning solution with state-of-the-art technology, providing quality imaging of the files you value most. The scan-on-demand service we provide during the scanning process ensures that your files are never far away. Cleardata will digitise priority documents within hours of the request and return them in the specified format.

What are your scanning & storage options?

You could choose to store paperwork in a room in your new office and take up that precious space. Alternatively, we at Cleardata can come and collect, prep, scan, digitally file and archive your documents. We can handle small format documents, such as receipts or A4 paperwork, as well as large format documents, like plans and drawings. Everything we scan is checked twice so quality is assured.

If you need your documents returned at any time our team can send them using our scan on-demand service via secure SFTP. If you want to go for a truly digital solution, our low-cost cloud document system is a fantastic way of keeping your documentation within arms reach and available 24/7, wherever you’re working from. There’s never been a better time to invest in a digital document management solution. Enable your departments to work uninterrupted wherever they are and spend their time on what matters to your business.

To conclude

All of these solutions add up to an uncluttered office with plenty of room to stretch the legs and social distance. It gives paper documents and files a new lease of life online with a comprehensive document management system, and anything archived remains compliant with the help of our online archive management system.

Business continuity is improved, as a paperless office means documents aren’t liable to be misplaced, stolen or lost. Homeworkers or field-based staff also benefit from having access to documents stored in the cloud from wherever they are at any time of night or day.

The key to a good office space saving solution is that it’s simple, efficient, cost-effective and permanent. The systems and processes that Cleardata have put in place are designed in such a way that it provides a stress-free transition into an agile, digital workspace.

For further information on Cleardata’s secure document storage services, contact our team on 0800 046 8081. Alternatively, you can view a quick quote on storing your archives here.