Keeping your business-critical records secure is more difficult than ever. To follow GDPR and data protection legislation, it is important to store your documents and keep them secure. It is very easy to misplace or lose a physical document, resulting in non-compliance. Making documents digital is a popular option for businesses who want to modernise and better protect their records. Then they can be destroyed or stored by a professional for your peace of mind. There has been a push for digitisation in recent years, yet many companies don’t have the measures in place to protect their documents. Keeping them in a windows folder within a folder within a folder and so on is the way many manage their documents. But it is not enough. 50% of office workers spend their time creating and preparing documents. Subsequently, it has been found that without a proper document management system a quarter of these documents end up lost.

Getting the right protection and keeping your system up to date is time-consuming and tedious – a waste of an employee’s time. Without it your company could face serious consequences regarding your reputation and finances. If you misprocess personal data, your business could face fines of up to 4% of your worldwide revenue or €20 million, whatever’s higher. In 2020, only 2 years after implementing GDPR, over 20,000 reports of non-compliance were filed. They found 30% of EU companies to be non-compliant with GDPR. For records to be secure, several security measures must be in place, such as encryption, firewalls, and password protected authorisation. This is something that you are not guaranteed with folders on your device. It requires research to get the appropriate security measures. This can take up more time and effort than it’s worth. So, how can you keep your business-critical information secure while getting the most out of your teams’ time and resources?

The short answer: a Document Management (DM) system to store digitally captured documents, such as Kefron DM. If your records aren’t already digital, it’s easy to make happen. It’s even easier when you get the help of an external expert to ensure the output is of the best possible quality. Then each of your electronic records can be uploaded using a secure VPN to your chosen DM solution. To guarantee your files are secure, DM systems should offer, as a minimum, the ability to assign various levels of access across the business, tracking of files so a full audit trail throughout process, and high-level security against malware, hacking, phishing, and other forms of cyber-attack, among other features. Files are accessible and fully text searchable with Kefron DM. This means you no longer need to stumble through nesting dolls of windows folders just to source a piece of information. It is especially important to have easy access to your records for audits, which is better facilitated by a DM system.

Business Disaster Recovery is smoother with a Document Management system as well. If natural disaster strikes, files held in filing cabinets or similar storage will be destroyed so there is no recovering this information. If the softcopies are on your device’s storage, they will also be irretrievable is anything happens to your device. This is not an issue on a cloud-based DM solution. Even if your laptop is destroyed, your documents are accessible so long as you remember your login details! Business-critical records will never be lost or damaged. In fact, even if you delete a document by accident, it is recoverable within a set amount of time.

There are many different DM systems on offer, it can be hard to know which is right for your business. Kefron DM offers a variety of features for DM, along with tight security and an intuitive system. A dedicated and experienced team are continuously researching ways to update the solution and are available to assist you with any issues. Before committing, you can talk to one of our experts and book a live demo. Or see how it has benefitted our existing customers. If you decide Kefron DM is not for you, you can seek advice from us on other options whether it be for hard or softcopies.

Authored by Tony Cockerill
Tony is a document management specialist with over 30 years of experience helping organisations improve efficiency through smarter information management. As Business Development Manager at Kefron UK, he shares insights on document management, digital transformation, and operational efficiency.