Document Scanning vs. Document Shredding: What Do I Need?

Data breaches can happen to anyone, regardless of the size of the company. A breach, whether of physical or digital documents, can cost you a lot of money. You could be fined, and the person whose identity was stolen could sue you. You can take steps to minimize the chances of a data breach. Combining document destruction, document scanning, records storage, cloud storage and implementing a strong security system for your computers are all things you can do to minimize a data breach.

Document Scanning

If you do not have a records retention program in place, that is the first thing you should do. Then scan documents that you must keep. The retention program should have an end date for each document or file. You can use our records scanning services and our secure document storage to keep inactive files that have not reached the end of their retention period.

You will still have access to the files you need. Once they reach the end of their retention period, notify your client to see if the client wants a copy of his or her file. If not, we can destroy the digital and physical documents.

You have two choices when you use our document scanning services: We can use our secure document shredding services to destroy the physical documents or place your files in our secure document storage facility.

When you use our cloud-based system to store the documents, you have access to them to edit documents, manage them, send them, and track their location. You do not need to keep paper copies of the documents.

Once you decide on document scanning, you need to create permissions and rules. You can password protect individual files. Only give employees that need access to the documents the password. For example, if you are a law office, all paralegals might have access to master documents that do not have personal information in them, but only those who work on probate cases should have access to those cases. If you have more than one probate paralegal, you can further increase security by allowing each paralegal access to the files he or she is working on.

You should check your documents on a monthly basis to ensure that you do not have duplicates and that those who are at the end of their retention time are deleted and their physical counterparts – if you chose to keep them – are destroyed by securely shredding them.

Document Destruction

If you prefer to keep your files in your office because you are not ready to go fully digital, you should have a retention program for your paper files so that you can securely shred the documents once you are no longer obligated to keep them.

Keeping documents means that you should have them in locked filing cabinets in a locked storage room. Gilmore can provide locked shred boxes so that you keep the documents secure, even while they are pulled and waiting for secure shredding.

Contact Gilmore

Regardless of the method you choose to keep your documents and files safe, Gilmore can help you. Whether you prefer document shredding, document scanning to secure cloud storage, or a combination of both to protect your documents, contact Gilmore to discuss your needs.