The changes brought on by the digital world didn’t occur overnight. Many organizations continue to delay the essential changes needed to adapt and move ahead in the digital era.
Adapting to change requires an investment. However, postponing adjustments can have unforeseen negative effects and irrecoverable consequences. The speed the digital economy is developing with now makes the time to go ahead or fall back.
The information included in physical documents, books, microfilm, and plans is a crucial business resource for every enterprise. So, when you need to access, process or share it promptly and safely, paper isn’t the best choice at all. Paper-based files lead to inefficiency, reduced productivity and even risk. Paper falls short in respect to the highly important customer experience today.
Source: Unsplash
Digital content and computerized processes are far more customer-driven approaches to manage your company records. Plus, digital documents like, for example, ready-made business proposal sample templates can drive sales in any organization. At the same time, they save precious time and increase productivity and efficiency.
Digitization is a process that every business should do sooner rather than later. So, whether or not you’ve set up your business’ digitization process already, here are the top reasons why you should digitize your papers right away.
Improved CX That Acquires and Keeps Customers
Today, customer experience is the most significant competitive distinguisher across sectors, regardless of the company’s size. In the digital world, customers expect outstanding service. That applies to both the public and private sectors, so governmental agencies can’t afford to fall behind the private sector in meeting those expectations.
Paper-based files and manual tasks can’t keep up. In fact, they can have a highly negative impact on customer experience. Paper is naturally unreliable and prone to error. With paper-based files and records, it usually takes hours to days to carry out a records request, and that doesn’t meet today’s amplified customer expectations.
Consumers have become very intolerant of paper-based manual forms and processes that slow them down or require waiting time. They want quick service and expect instant access to information. When companies fall short, consumers are dissatisfied, and their loyalty transfers. That’s a misfortune for you, and an opportunity for your competitors.
However, with the proper document scanning services solution, you can get accurate documentation of organized and searchable digital records that are simply and promptly accessible. You can easily trail document activity, set up retention periods, and have secure access to files anytime. That type of fast and efficient service translates to a good CX that forms loyalty and gains new business continuously.
Source: Pixabay
Higher Productivity Of Labor and Space
Records requests are very labor and time-intensive. Gartner reports that employees spend 20-30% of their workweeks to manage documents and search for information.
The usual process includes an employee receiving a document request, going to a particular and secure area to recover it, submitting the paper for revision, waiting for the revisioned paper, then picking it up physically and supplying it to the petitioner. Every time a document is requested, the same procedure is repeated all over.
When digitized, content is organized and searchable. It reduces time to respond to information requests and eliminates costly and time-consuming manual processes. Streamlining the process by utilizing digitization can have direct effects on productivity, and, ultimately, your business’s growth potential.
Manual processes were prone to loss, misfiling, repeat requests and delays in response times. Plus, they contributed to the high cost of training new staff. But once digitized, it took a fraction of the time and effort to fulfill request and it meant not only was staff more productive but the space that was used to store and manage paper files could also be repurposed for more productive use.
Source: Pexels
Greater Security And Lower Risk
Data stored physically isn’t viable, and it decays further each time it’s managed. Document imaging guarantees that your company’s most important information is securely preserved.
Besides, scanning and converting paper documents to digital formats lowers the probability of loss from fire, catastrophes or age-related decays, plus it eradicates recovery costs. Digitizing enables a safe data format. It allows documents to be stored and preserved. It also means document recovery can be done with one click only. That way documents have a reduced risk of loss, and they are way more secure.
Paper is naturally unsafe. Paper documents stored in filing cabinets or file rooms show a security risk. A printed paper with information can be easily vulnerable to no liability. On the other hand, with a digital file, there’s far greater control over who accesses it and from where.
When documents are scanned and stored on the cloud, companies gain much higher control over data. Activity logs, firewalls, file encryption, data mirroring, etc maintain digital content securely stored.
Final Words
For many governmental agencies and private entities, digitizing content is the initial step toward digital transformation. That initiative alone is influential enough to better CX, boost productivity, reduce operational costs and lower risk – a valuable return on investments.
