You are probably aware how important it is to store business documents safely, but have you ever thought about all the reasons why? Storing your business documents safely has some serious benefits to businesses. You are leaving your business exposed if you don’t follow procedure and make sure all your documents are kept somewhere safe that you can rely on.
1. Organisation
If your documents are stored efficiently then your company will run much more smoothly. Having documents all filed correctly keeps things well organised. You will feel much better about your business if you are on top of all your paperwork and people can do their jobs properly.
2. Access
Staff often need to have access to important company documents. You need to make sure they are stored somewhere where staff can access them easily, but they should still be safe. Having documents stored online or on a company intranet is a convenient way of managing this problem. Staff can be given log-in details so that only authorised personnel can see important company documents. According to a recent article by ITBusinessEdge entitled 9 steps to keep your electronic documents secure, “Make sure you have a plan beforehand regarding access and that it is scalable for new members”.
“Keep me safe”. Document Me by swanksalot, on Flickr. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
3. Legal Issues
Should any legal issues arise you will need to draw on your resources to support your case and check your rights. All relevant documents should be put into storage so that they can be referenced at a later date for legal purposes. By doing this you will be protecting your business and keeping valuable evidence and important company policies safe.
4. Data Protection Act
According to David Seagers of Storetec, “If you run a business then you have a responsibility to protect data about your employees. This is in accordance with the Data Protection Act”. “Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data”. For more information see http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/schedule/1.
5. Intellectual Property Theft
The last thing you want is your documents to fall into the wrong hands. People can steal your intellectual property, business ideas and strategies if they gain access to your documents. Depending on the nature of your business, this could be a serious problem. Keep your data and intellectual property away from your competitors or anyone that may gain an advantage from accessing documents.
6. Sensitive Documents
Documents containing sensitive information about people and the company should never get into the wrong hands. They also need to be kept safely so that they can be accessed in the future. If you know you have particularly sensitive documents then you should find a way to ensure they are stored efficiently and kept safe.
7. Loss of Documents
We all know how easy it is to lose documents when work gets stressful and things aren’t filed adequately. If you don’t want to lose track of important documents then find a way to keep things filed properly. It will save you a lot of stress in the long run.
