5 Document Storage Solutions

Storage and organization tips. Send them all my way. 2 things I am constantly working on professionally and personally.

After downsizing my house from 3,000 square feet to 2,300 square feet and 1,300 miles across the country this year, I appreciate the idea of good storage, and space is a precious commodity.

Space is precious.

Every square foot matters.

While the paper is a vital and inseparable part of running a business, it doesn’t allow for multiple locations, remote workers, and scalability. Flipping through folders upon folders of documents to locate a tiny piece of information, can be frustrating. Some teams receive a lot of documents electronically (hello AR & AP teams!) every day. But sometimes close to half of their documents still come printed in the mail.

Here are 5 Document Storage Solutions:

Solution 1 = Space Savings

File cabinets take up a lot of space in many organizations. Have you added up how much space they occupy at your business? After all, real estate ain’t cheap. If every department had at least 1 cabinet, that could easily equal a whole office or room that you could free up for extra space for meet-ups or desks. This would create an aesthetic work environment that inspires creativity and productivity. These antique-looking cabinets can be replaced by going paperless and moving to an electronic document storage solution.

And if you were looking to locate a vital document easily and quickly, would you be able to access it at a moment’s notice?

We can help you use this premium office space efficiently and reduce the office overhead with storage and space expenses.

Digital document storage = no physical space constraints!

Multiple locations all can have access to the documents. Archived for 7 years (or any timeframe you need). All your documents and associated data can be saved on your servers on your premises or in a cloud environment. For tax and auditing purposes, you need to have these documents on-hand, be able to access them, and email them as necessary.

You can get rid of the filing cabinets and offsite storage costs. Integrated with your ERP (enterprise resource planning) software, electronic documents across the organization can all be in one place. Teams across the organization can place their supporting documents into the software which can be searched and emailed on demand.

DISCOVER DASH DDX™ SOLUTIONS FOR DOCUMENT AUTOMATION

Solution 2 = Time Savings

Have you ever added up the amount of time it takes to locate a document? If you were looking to match up an Invoice to a PO, how long would it take? Even worse, the inability to locate a document like a PO, invoice, bank statement, or budget can result in missed payments, department overspending, and overall poor financial performance.

Does it take more than a minute or two to find a document typically? Multiply times hundreds or thousands in any given day, week, or month. After all, time is money.

Think of the time savings if you only need 1 piece of information to locate a document.

Search on a keyword = supplier number, PO number, etc.

Our searchable interface allows you to locate any document with that information on it (that your user can view of course!). And we also have cross-referenced data so all supporting documents will appear for you to view that are related to the document you’re looking for – like having an electronic stapler to link your documents together.

DISCOVER DASH DDX™ SOLUTIONS FOR DOCUMENT AUTOMATION

Solution 3 = Sustainability Savings

Creating a paperless office can also be a “feel-good” moment for the environment.

The less paper we process, print, and file, not only do we save money on business expenses, but we also cut down how many trees we cut down each year.

Going paperless can reduce your company’s carbon footprint and help save our forests. You can start with just one team at your organization to digitize documents and workflows and roll out this paperless solution across the organization.

The good news is, that the more companies that go paperless, the fewer trees industries will need to cut down.

A related environmental impact is also ink cartridges. Most of them are made of plastic and packaged in cardboard. If you can find a local supply store or ink brand that accepts used cartridges, they can help with recycling. And some newer brands can refill their cartridges which helps too! The less printing we do, the less ink we need, win-win!

DISCOVER DASH DDX™ SOLUTIONS FOR DOCUMENT AUTOMATION

Solution 4 = Protection Savings

Some areas of the world have a higher risk of natural disasters. Just looking at the United States, we have earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, floods, tornadoes, snowstorms, etc. Maybe I listed one that could happen near your location. Is your business prepared in the event of a natural disaster? If all the paper was destroyed, lost, or scattered, could your business continue operating?

Years of important information (on those documents) – are gone.

In 2021, the Emergency Event Database (EM-DAT) recorded 432 disastrous events related to natural hazards worldwide.

Remove physical paper from the recovery equation.

Digital documents are backed up routinely so if the business experiences a natural disaster, the data is secure. And if workers are dispersed remotely, they can access the information as needed from their home devices. They can perform their jobs, no matter the weather.

DISCOVER DASH DDX™ SOLUTIONS FOR DOCUMENT AUTOMATION

Solution 5 = Security Savings

Can an electronic document solution be safer than a locked file cabinet in your locked office?

Yes.

Problems with a file cabinet:

• There is no way to track who accessed the documents and when.
• No way to track a document’s breadcrumb trail.
• No control over duplication or editing of a document version.

Electronic document solutions increase the security of your documents because the right users have access to the right documents. All of it is tracked and the version control history clears up any confusion on which version is the newest.

Schedule a demo today and see how you can say goodbye to outdated paper storage permanently while ushering in a future of security, accessibility, and visibility.

About the Author:

Stephanie is the marketing guru at DASH. For over 20 years, DASH has been authoring, delivering, and supporting DASH DDX™ and DASH AP Robot™, its ERP-integrated software to small and mid-sized manufacturing and distribution companies throughout the USA and beyond.

Let’s chat!