One of the biggest reasons businesses decide to use offsite storage is to make more room available in their premises. Freeing up space is a huge factor but have you considered the other benefits of storing your documents with a professional Records Management company?
If you use a professional storage provider like Archive-Vault, you will not only free up space but you can take advantage of a range of services that will have a positive impact on the way you work. You will also get peace of mind knowing that things are being done the right way.
From improving staff safety to enhanced data protection and greater office efficiency, there are many reasons to use offsite storage for your documents. Whether you’re responsible for Records Management in a law firm, NHS Trust or construction company, read on to discover ten benefits that will make a clear difference for your organisation.
Why you should use offsite storage for your documents
1. Health and safety
Office documents can be stored in a range of premises from office buildings to lockups including self-storage units. Onsite storage could include cellars or basements and offsite lockups could have leaky lights, damaged roofs or challenging staircases.
These can represent a health and safety risk to staff and even more so if they need to use ladders to access boxes. Using a professional offsite facility for your document storage will ensure that your staff are safe and help to prevent accidents in the workplace.
2. Data protection and security
When you think of storage what comes to mind? When we talk about offsite storage, we’re talking about a professional purpose-built storage facility with data protection and security both top priorities.
Wherever you store your documents, you need to check that there is adequate protection. Does the space have CCTV and alarms? If the documents are stored in a basement, does it have the same security measures as the main building? If storage is a garage or a lockup, are security measures in place?
We get it. Every business wants to save money. But economising on your storage could cost you down the line with businesses facing hefty fines from the Information Commissioner’s Office for data breaches.
At Archive-Vault we prioritise the safety and security of your data. Your documents will be stored in our purpose-built secure facility with 24/7 CCTV and intruder alarms. Access is only granted to our DBS checked staff and secure vehicles. We can help to ensure that your business is data compliant and meets the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
3. Safety and security
Paperwork is at the heart of many businesses. What would happen to your business if you lost all your data? Could it function effectively? It’s crucial that there are systems in place for damp, fire and flood protection.
A professional storage provider will ensure that there are effective measures to protect your documents from natural disasters and reduce the risk of loss or damage.
The Archive-Vault storage facility is flood and fire resistant giving our clients confidence that their records are safe and secure. We work with a wide range of organisations, including Law Firms who choose us to store their important legal documents such as Wills and Deeds and the NHS who store confidential medical records with us.
4. Full traceability
Do you have a barcoding system to help to trace your records? if you want a file in your storage room, how will you find it? Can you find the exact box and where it’s located quickly?
Retrieving documents from storage boxes can take up a lot of valuable staff time. They have to get to the storage location which could be in a basement or offsite. It then might take a while to locate the file. Is spending hours searching for documents a good use of staff time? If you’re paying someone on an hourly rate, is this a good return on investment?
You may well have efficient systems in place. However, if you’re limited on storage space it can be really difficult to organise your files. Professional offsite storage providers have the capacity and use barcoding systems giving full traceability.
What’s more, our barcoding system helps to ensure you are compliant with relevant data protection legislation, providing an audit trail of your documents so you have a chain of custody and know where they are at all times.
5. Improve productivity
Are your files organised? Could you benefit from reviewing the way you do things? Storing unnecessary data can cause central database errors and incorrectly storing files that are in regular use can cause confusion. Indexing files so that everyone in the team can find them is a must-do for busy organisations. However, this takes time.
But it doesn’t have to take up your time. A professional storage facility like Archive-Vault can take the task off your hands so that you can focus on other more urgent priorities.
At Archive-Vault, we offer a consultancy service and can advise on the best way to index your data to suit the needs of your business and the way you work. We index, scan and store your records to help you boost productivity in the office.
6. Get easy access to hard copy documents and digital files
Can you access your documents easily? If you’re working in a team it might take two weeks to circulate a paper file internally. An offsite storage provider should have a range of solutions to help you access your files when you need them.
Our secure online client portal gives you instant access to an online inventory of your documents and keeps you in control at the touch of a button. You can login 24/7 from any PC or smart device, whether you’re in the office, travelling for work or on your sofa!
Via the Client Portal you can also request the box or file you need and book a same day retrieval to get your hands on an urgent physical document. It could be with you in less time than it takes a staff member to locate it.
With our robust barcoding technology, when you’re ready to return a file this will be scanned away to it’s original box within our facilities. If your staff return documents in a hurry, do they have time to return them to their original box or might they add them to a pile of filing? We can help you work more efficiently.
7. Prioritise your onsite documents
A typical four-draw filing cabinet could hold up to 12,000 pages and a large cabinet could house 30,000 images. What if you don’t need to access all these paper files every day?
The great thing with offsite storage is that you can prioritise the documents you keep in your office while your archive files can be stored elsewhere.
Some offices might want to put all their paper files in storage and work from digital files. Perhaps you need to retain documents for legal reasons but don’t have to access them regularly.
Our clients have a variety of reasons for using offsite storage. However you want to work, it’s likely that storing your files offsite could be beneficial.
8. Store larger documents offsite
For architects, builders and construction companies, storing and accessing large documents can be problematic. Not only do they take up a lot of space but oversize documents need to be available in site offices and easily accessible for a project team who may be in different locations. This is where an offsite storage company like Archive-Vault can help.
The solution. Oversize documents are much easier to view in digital format and can be viewed by more than one person at any time leading to greater efficiency for teams. We offer large format scanning for documents and drawings up to size A0.
If you use Archive-Vault for your storage and need a construction drawing, map or blueprint quickly, we can ensure that you receive it in no time. We’ll locate the hard copy for you, scan it and upload it to our secure Client Portal on the same day you ask for it. So, whether your team is working remotely or in the site office they can all have eyes on important project documents.
9. Secure destruction of documents
Disposing of documents properly is not only the responsible thing to do but it’s essential for your organisation to be GDPR compliant.
Secure destruction is a vital part of efficient Records Management with some offsite storage facilities offering this service. Here at Archive-Vault, we prioritise looking after your documents throughout their entire lifecycle and that includes ensuring they’re securely destroyed when you confirm they’re no longer needed.
10. Full range of support services
If you use an offsite storage company like Archive-Vault you’ll benefit from much more than extra space in your office.
We offer a consultancy service to help you find the best way to manage your documents to improve organisation and lead to more efficient ways of working for your business.
When you work with us our expert team support you from the get-go. We can provide storage boxes, box everything up for you and transfer your files in our secure vehicles to our purpose-built storage facility where we carry out your bespoke indexing.
You can take advantage of other services offered by an offsite storage facility. We offer back-up tape rotation to keep your data safe and scan on demand to mention just a few of the ways we can support your business.
We’re always at the end of the phone should you need anything. As a small family business based in Norwich we offer a personalised service to clients across East Anglia and throughout the UK.
Archive-Vault’s offsite storage ticks all the boxes!
So, as you can see whilst freeing up space is a key motivator there are many more reasons for using offsite storage for your documents.
At Archive-Vault we believe that we tick all the boxes. Why not join the other businesses and organisations that choose us as their preferred offsite records management provider.
Want to know more about how we can help? You can call us on 01603 720722 or email info@archive-vault.co.uk.
