Document digitization offers businesses like yours a wide range of efficiency and cost-saving benefits, but only if it is performed properly with the right considerations in mind. There are many mistakes that businesses make during digitization that lessen the impact of its benefits or even create new problems that didn’t exist before.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common document digitization mistakes and how you can avoid them.
Going in without appropriate planning or a clear strategy
It’s important to establish a meticulous workflow when planning your digitization journey, as errors will likely leave long-lasting and far-reaching impacts on the overall effectiveness of your operations. A haphazard approach -- one without clear goals or a strategy to achieve them -- likely will lead to poor efficiency and overlooked documents.
Before starting any digitization process, collaborate with all stakeholders to determine the overarching goals, and build a strategy to tackle your mountain of documents in a way that meets these goals efficiently. Avoid trying to do too much at once, and don’t be afraid to continually refine your processes.
Failing to set up adequate cybersecurity measures
Simply converting documents to digital formats and storing them on drives or in the cloud does not automatically make them secure. Digital documents still come with their own distinct security and privacy concerns.
Your data needs to be encrypted while it is at rest and in transit, and you should use secure off-site backups to ensure that you have the data needed to continue operations in case of downtime or data loss. Furthermore, you must implement strict access control solutions and authentication measures. Failing to do these not only raises your risk of a data breach, but also prevents you from achieving compliance with common data security regulations, such as GDPR or HIPAA.
Ignoring the human element
Your digital documentation system could be fully optimized, but it won’t do you much good if none of your workforce uses it. Change is not always easy in business, and employees who have been working with paper their entire careers will underutilize or fail to adopt a new paperless process if it’s user-friendly and/or they have not received proper training.
Consider this transition before implementing any digitization solution. Keep the user experience in mind when developing each component of the process, such as the interface, search functions, and navigation process. It’s also important to conduct your training in a way that motivates and excites your team, to help minimize resistance and maximize retention.
Passing digitization off to an unvetted partner
Partnering with a document digitization services provider is an easy and cost-effective way to go paperless, but you can’t blindly entrust your most sensitive information to an unproven partner. As with every service, not every provider is reliable, and their processes may be inadequate to meet your cybersecurity or compliance needs. Their way of digitization may also be sub par, leading to poor-quality and error-riddled documents that don’t provide the promised benefits.
Be sure to thoroughly vet any prospective managed document solutions provider. Look and ask for client referrals and reviews to get a better picture of how they do things, and check if they are affiliated with any trustworthy organizations. Also inquire about their adherence to industry standards, such as the National Association of Information Destruction (NAID) or the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).
Minimize errors to maximize benefits
If your business is looking for a document digitization solution and you want to maximize value, Complete Document Solutions can assist you with planning, implementation, and management. We’ve been handling the document needs of businesses in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas since 1994, and you can leverage our experience and expertise to ensure a highly secure, efficient, and cost-effective digitization solution for your organization.
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