Paper vs. Digital Records: Why Smart Businesses Use Both (and How to Manage Them)

While a paperless or paper-free office is a great goal to have if you value sustainability and want to implement eco-friendly practices, it isn’t 100% practical for all businesses. Completely eliminating all paper from the office can create confusion or open you up to liability. Instead, utilizing a hybrid model is smarter and safer. Hybrid record management involves strategic use of both hard copies and digital documents for enhanced security, efficiency, and speed. Citizens Business Archives can help you institute the ideal plan for records management in Tucson, AZ with document storage, indexing, and shredding services. Here is our guide to digital vs paper records.

Why Paper Records are Still Necessary

Here are some of the situations in which retaining paper copies of documents or records might be necessary:

  • Contracts, deeds, notarized documents, and other documents that have original signatures should be kept for legal compliance
  • Valuable or vital physical files should be retained to protect them from cyber-attacks or security breaches
  • Financial and corporate documents should be retained for auditing purposes 
  • Microfilm, photographs, and other archival documents may have higher quality in physical form than a digital scan could achieve

Why You Should Also Digitize Records 

Here are some reasons why it’s also a great idea to digitize or scan and save records:

  • Documents are protected from fire, flood, and theft
  • They can be found instantly using keywords
  • Teams have global access from anywhere with an internet connection
  • You can implement automated workflows for document sorting, routing, review, tracking, archiving, and deadlines or reminders
  • You’ll save space and money on storage

How to Implement and Manage a Hybrid Document Management System

While each company is different, you can follow these basic steps for implementing and managing a hybrid document management system:

  • Scan documents as soon as they come in to prevent missed deadlines, information gaps, and backlogs
  • Use OCR software to make scanned text searchable
  • Maintain high quality images to ensure legibility
  • Create a unified indexing system that matches physical filing categories to digital counterparts
  • Use consistent naming conventions between digital and hard copies
  • Tag digital documents with keywords for easy searches
  • Attach barcodes or QR codes to file folders and storage boxes for tracking
  • Restrict access to the physical file room with a lock, keycards, or pin pad
  • Create digital permissions for scanned files so that employees can only see relevant documents
  • Create a unified indexing system that matches physical filing categories to digital counterparts
  • Use consistent naming conventions, and tag documents with keywords for easy searches
  • Create a universal retention schedule that corresponds to each document type’s lifespan
  • Set up automated digital alerts warning you it’s time to schedule document shredding
  • Use a certified document destruction company

Call Citizens Business Archives for Document Storage Solutions

Citizens Business Archives offers highly secure, scalable, and fully managed offsite document storage solutions in Arizona. Let us help you eliminate clutter, minimize cost, and reduce labor by storing documents in our secure facility, indexing them for tracking and retrieval, and shredding them at the end of their lifespan. We guarantee disaster protection through specialized storage for sensitive materials like digital media, x-rays, and blueprints. Our optional state-of-the-art indexing processes ensure efficient tracking and retrieval, with opportunities for deep data customization. Our document destruction processes maintain full compliance with HIPAA and chain of custody protocols. To learn more, call us today at (520) 882-4434 or contact us online.  

What Happens to Your Documents After Shredding? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Secure Document Destruction

If you work in an industry that requires secure destruction of documents that have reached the end of their retention period, it’s crucial to understand the ins and outs of the process. That will help you maintain compliance with laws and regulations, avoid penalties and fees, maintain the security of confidential information, and protect your reputation. Understanding the end-to-end destruction process also allows you to make an informed decision about what company you partner with for certified shredding in Tucson, AZ. At Citizens Business Archives, we take every precaution and adhere to every regulation and ensure your documents are protected every step of the way. Here is a behind-the-scenes look at our secure shredding process. 

Secure Pick-Up and Transportation in Locked Vehicles

Our trained, vetted drivers will come to your business according to a pre-determined schedule, or when you call us to schedule shredding pickup services. We will collect all materials from your locked shred bins and transfer them to the locked bins in our vehicles. We will scan the container’s unique barcode at the time of pickup to trigger tracking protocols necessary for chain of custody documentation. Our vehicles are GPS-monitored, access-controlled, and can only be entered by authorized personnel who have undergone rigorous background checks and training. They will transport your documents back to our secure shredding facility.

Storage in Access-Controlled Bins 

Documents will then be placed inside heavy-duty, locked bins in our facility. No one has access to these bins other than our certified document destruction technicians. The documents will remain in these locked bins at our high-security facility until it is time to shred them. 

Careful Adherence to Chain of Custody and Privacy Regulations

We guarantee meticulous adherence to chain of custody protocols and privacy and security regulations. Our team is trained and certified in HIPAA, GLBA, and FACTA compliance and regulations. We maintain the strictest confidentiality measures to protect proprietary, sensitive, and confidential records and data. No one has access to our facility other than those who have been carefully vetted, and documents are always contained in locked, secure bins. We keep detailed records of all document pickups, transportation, and shredding for chain of custody purposes. 

Secure, Certified Document Destruction 

We use heavy-duty, industrial-grade cross-cut shredding equipment. This is different from commercial paper shredders used in office environments. Our equipment cuts documents into tiny pieces of confetti using alternating horizontal and vertical cuts. These pieces are completely unreadable. Your shredded items will be immediately blended with paper confetti from other clients, making reconstruction impossible. 

Clear Verification and Audit Trail

Once documents are shredded, we will issue you a formal, legally binding certificate of destruction. This details the pickup and shredding date and time, shredding method, and volume. It is audit-proof and guarantees legal compliance with HIPAA, FACTA, and GLBA requirements. 

Bailing and Transport to a Recycling Facility

Mixed shredding is then fed into our industrial baler, where it is compressed into tight, multi-ton bricks. These are put on secure transport trucks and taken to a recycling facility.

Pulping, De-Inking, and Recycling

At the recycling facility, the shredded materials are put in a chemical bath, or a hydrapulper. This breaks the paper down into raw fibers and completely eliminates any information that was once contained on the documents. The chemical wash removes inks, dyes, toners, and adhesives and leaves behind clean, blank paper pulp. This pulp is then used to make new goods like shipping boxes, office paper, paper towels, napkins, and more.

Call Now to Get a Quote for Secure Document Destruction

Citizens Business Archives offers secure, full-managed document destruction services for companies of all sizes, across industries. Our fortified warehouse is secure, fenced, and access-controlled to ensure the security of your documents as they await shredding. Our team is certified and trained to comply with chain of custody protocols, privacy and confidentiality requirements, and HIPAA, FACTA, and GLBA regulations. We are certified to handle protected healthcare, financial, and legal documents. We offer highly customizable, turnkey document destruction services, including secure shred bins that can be placed around your office to collect documents prior to shredding. We then provide regular, scheduled shredding pickup services as well as on-demand pick-ups and records purge services. We have more than 100 years of experience in the industry, and guarantee compliance with regulatory, industry, and corporate terms. To learn more, call us today at (520) 882-4434 or contact us online to get a quote for secure document destruction in Tucson, AZ.  

How Professional Document Storage Saves Businesses Time, Money, and Office Space

Paper documents take up a lot of space, require regular oversight and auditing, and must be protected from pests, fire, flood, and theft. This level of maintenance can be draining, especially for small businesses with limited time, space, and staff. When you move files to an offsite records storage facility in Tucson, AZ, like Citizens Business Archives’ state-of-the-art storage facility, you’ll be able to take advantage of professional indexing, archiving, management, and destruction services that will save you time, money, and office space. 

Meticulous Organization and Instant Retrieval

Rather than having a dedicated team of employees who are tasked with scanning or filing, indexing, organizing, and managing business records in-house, we’ll take care of the most important elements of document management for you. We use a precise barcoded tracking system to catalog every box, folder, file, and electronic media item. This ensures you always know where everything is so that it can be instantly retrieved when needed. We also offer on-demand pick-up and delivery of files. This saves you time on general records management and will streamline quarterly or annual audits and purges. 

Reduced Labor Cost and Guaranteed Compliance

Keeping documents in your office will limit your usable space, which can prevent you from expanding or taking on new employees. A crowded, cluttered office makes items harder to find, which means employees will waste time looking for documents, which can affect client satisfaction or your company’s reputation. Storing files offsite frees up space in your office at a fraction of the price needed for maintaining commercial office space. You’ll reduce labor costs by eliminating the need for employees to sort, file, and search through paperwork. You’ll also ensure compliance with HIPAA, OSHA, FACTA, and IRS guidelines for records retention and management. This will help you avoid penalties and fees. 

Secure, Access-Controlled Offsite Storage

Our offsite storage services help you free up massive amounts of space in your office. You can convert those areas into usable space for new employees, client meetings, retail inventory storage, or collaborative projects. By decluttering your office, the environment will be more organized, safer, and more comfortable, which will boost employee morale and client impressions. Your storage capacity will be scalable as well, because you will only pay for the amount of storage you need, rather than paying a premium on extra office space that is only being used for boxes of records.  

Call Now to Get a Quote for Our Document Storage Services

Citizens Business Archives offers highly secure, scalable, and fully managed offsite document storage. We will assess your needs and help you choose the optimal level of services to free up office space, maintain compliance with laws and regulations, and reduce labor time and costs. Our 18,000 square foot facility is access-controlled and fire, pest, and flood protected, and we also offer a climate-controlled vault for storage of electronic media. We use precise barcode indexing processes to ensure you always know where records are, and same-day pick-up and drop-off of files. Our HIPAA trained personnel also provide certified document destruction services when records have reached the end of their retention period. To learn more, call us today at (520) 882-4434 or contact us online and we’ll assess your needs and give you a personalized quote for business document storage in Tucson, AZ.