There are over 4 trillion paper documents in the U.S. alone and that number is growing at a rate of 22% per year. An organization can no longer thrive or even survive in the commercial market without taking advantage of document digitizing services. Though document digitizing is essential for businesses of all types and sizes, it’s just as imperative for individuals in 2018 to digitize all their personal files.
In addition to the possibility of your documents being lost, stolen, or misplaced, your physical files are also vulnerable to damage from fires, floods, and malicious acts. For these reasons, many businesses use safety deposit boxes to secure sensitive files, such as contracts, titles, and receivables.Â
With the advent of digital technology, people can scan hard copies of crucial documents to create digital backup files. It’s worth noting that securing files in safety deposit boxes and creating digital backups are the best ways to guarantee the lifetime existence and safety of vital data and documents.Â
Document Digitization And E-Signatures
Digitizing documents necessitates using scanning machines and cloud-based software programs to provide secure processing and storage. However, this technology poses cybersecurity risks. Typically, cyber hackers deliberately infect your computer systems with malware to steal digital files and sell them on the dark web for fraudulent trading and other cybercriminal activities. For that reason, many organizations hire tech experts to monitor and secure their digital files and systems.
Aside from creating digital files, electronic signature or e-sign plays a crucial role in the validity of digitized documents. E-signatures hasten the approval and processing of proposals, invoices, agreements, tax returns, and other business documents. Hence, many businesses adopt e-signatures and digitization of documents to keep up with rapid digital transformation.
Therefore, why should you consider digitizing your documents?
Here are some statistics that will likely make you rethink the way you file, store, and manage all your important documents:
- Document challenges account for 21.3% of productivity loss.
- Professionals spend 50% of their time searching for information and take an average of 18 minutes to locate each specific document.
- As many as 83% of knowledge workers lose time to versioning issues every day.
Additionally, here are some of the main reasons to ditch the conventional form of paper storage and digitize all your financial, personal, and essential documents:
- Smarter use of your work area — Whether you’re working at an office cubicle or a work area in your home, if you have boxes of overflowing files all over the place, you’re not going to be very productive. You’ll not only be able to locate any essential document much faster with digital services, but you’ll have so much more open space to focus and remain productive.
- Your valuable information will be secure — No matter what kind of sensitive documents you are in possession of, it’s your responsibility to keep them safe, secure, and out of the wrong hands. It’s been reported that 71% of professionals find that controlling sensitive documents is actually more difficult than controlling electronic files.
- Improved accuracy helps increase productivity — Roughly 89.4% cite accuracy of the collection of information as extremely important. Since you’ll be able to locate files right away, you can also get back to handling all of your other essential daily tasks.
- Improve your own customer satisfaction rating — If your job consists of dealing with customers, you’ll be held in quite high regard if you quickly and efficiently manage all their documents.
Whether you’re a college student hoping to get a better handle on all your financial records or you want to digitize all your family’s personal and professional information; document digitization is here to help.