When paperlite is right

SECURITY IMPLICATIONS

When it comes to deciding if storing documents electronically is safer security wise than with paper, it is a little more complex. Both options have differing implications and depend on the security measures involved and the level of digitisation.

Although one of the main advantages of digitising is that accessing the information is a lot easier, it also means that it is likely to be easier for that information to be accessed or misused by malevolent individuals, particularly when compared to the likelihood of someone being able to physically break into a high security facility and access a specific box. Therefore, from a criminal security standpoint, physical storage is probably the safest option.

On the other hand, there is no back up when a document is kept just in physical form. If a document is lost or the box is destroyed prematurely, then that information is permanently lost.

Taking all of this into consideration, there are inherent risks with both approaches, so having the appropriate standards and measures in place is important to ensure that all reasonable precautions have been taken.

PRIORITISING DOCUMENTS

There are several factors that will determine which documents should be digitised and in what order of priority. Understanding the documents and associated relevance means we can then work with the customer to conduct an analysis and agree which would provide the most benefits by being digitised. These factors include:

• Budget and required ROI – digitisation requires an immediate upfront cost, so understanding a customer’s budget helps to determine whether physical or digital is the best option.
• Considering the organisation’s information strategy and available digital maturity – if their processes and systems aren’t set up to handle the digital content/ output then there is no point digitising.
• The number of people who need access to those documents – it is more cost effective and efficient having a digital document if a lot of individuals/ teams need access, and even more so if they are remote workers.
• Level of activity and required access – the more active documents provide faster ROI as it removes the cost and time to physically deliver the original paper document each time.
• Downstream BPO (business process outsourcing) and the impact on the next stage of processing the information- if the information needs to be available in further systems for processing or needs fast actioning by the customer’s team, having it available digitally speeds up the process and removes the need for manual data capture further downstream.
• Retention period – digitising a document has a higher upfront cost than storing it physically. Analysis of the length of time to realise an ROI of the digitisation in comparison to the document’s retention period will determine the most cost-effective solution.
• Information criticality – highly important business information may want to be digitised to ensure that it is backed up in case of damage/ loss of the original.
• Legal/ regulatory requirements – documents that must be retained physically, whether digitised or not, will require additional advantages from digitising to be needed to justify the additional cost.
• Change management – it’s about changing the culture as customers transition from using physical to digital information and the training of systems to access.

The prevailing consensus on whether digitising documents or keeping them, as physical paper is that it overtly depends on many factors. While going entirely paperless is not the best solution for everyone, it’s about finding the right balance and beginning the transition to a digital future can bring many advantages to your organisation.