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Developing A Document Shredding Strategy For Your Business

A comprehensive document destruction policy is an important part of any business, small or large. Protecting customer and employee data is not only common sense, but is also legislated.
Here are a few tips and resources to make the process easier.

Keywords:

document shredding, document destruction, paper shredding

Article Body:

Creating a document shredding strategy is an important aspect of almost every business. Not only are there lots and regulations that require businesses to shred documents, but it is also part of running a trustworthy, excellent business.

Why do business is need to destroy documents?

Practically every business is creating and managing new paper documents every day and the list of documents that legally need to be shredded is constantly growing.

Bills, customer order information, contracts, employee applications, in-house memos, receipts, piles of mail, insurance documents, old tax records, payment records, account records and balance sheets, personnel files and bank records… Practically any document that has a first name last name address, and other information probably needs to be shredded.

What can happen if this information falls into the wrong hands?

Well, aside from forgery, credit card fraud, con schemes, corporate espionage, there is of course the potential for bad publicity, loss of customers, lawsuits and fines.

It is important that all businesses shred or destroy certain sensitive documents. Law enforcement, legal industries, government agencies, banks, health care providers, insurance providers, financial brokers, and real estate are just a few industries where managing paperwork is crucial. Not to mention hospitals, insurers, doctor’s offices, retirement homes, drugstores, legal papers.

So how can a business manage their documents safely and effectively?

A detailed security policy for every type of document your business uses is essential and employees need to know these policies!

For example: What are the shredding requirements for the various document types that your company frequently uses? What are employees allowed to photocopy? Who has access to files with private information?

Signs can be posted in the workplace and next to trash cans and recycling bins were sensitive documents may inadvertently be thrown out, un-shredded.

Also, whoever is overseeing the destruction of documents should closely consult with the company’s IT staff and any other department that works with electronic records and files to ensure safe handling.

Training employees about disposing of sensitive documents and developing a very specific policy about how long to hold and went to discard documents will go a long way. Access to company read records should be controlled and restricted to a small number of individuals and there should be rules relating to records.

And finally, use a certified document destruction company that has a good track record.

For a more information about safe document disposal and list of document shredding services including mobile document shredding services, you can browse our services directory.

Document Shredding And Document Security: Protecting Your Vital Information

Keywords:

document shredders, paper shredders, paper shredding, document shredding, document protection

Article Body:

Document security and document shredding have never been more important before and are bound to impact our lives in a way that we just can’t imagine. If you see a proliferation of caro document shredding or Davison document shredding, or even curtis document shredding, you are witnessing the new wave of privacy protection.

Document shredding, document security and what they mean to us is symptomatic of the world we occupy. The times that we live in today are new, wonderful and enchanting times where technology and a more evolved intellect ensure that the outmoded lifestyles of the past are but just a legacy remaining in the inner recesses of some of our minds. Information today is absolute power and the keeper of this Holy Grail remains strongeth for ever. That’s precisely why document shredding and document security have not only just rose in prominence but have advanced to a sophistication level that makes caro document shredding or Davison document shredding or even curtis document shredding look like the run-of-the-mill shredding technique.

The reason why document shredding is important is because your identity is not just yours. Not unless you protect it. A glance of your newspaper over the past few months and you would stumble upon innumerable cases of identity thefts, of loss of property and money, and in some cases a loss of life as well. And the victims became the victims not because they were ignorant of caro document shredding or Davison document shredding but because they did not fully appreciate the need to protect sensitive information either about themselves or their business entity. Information in the wrong hands is like a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. At that point in time it stops becoming a question of ‘if it will happen’ and starts becoming a question of ‘when it will happen’.

Your personal documents therefore are more important to others than they are to you, just a little bit of malicious intent and you could be facing a financial loss or legal suit slapped against you because some one did something they were not supposed to in your name. Document security therefore becomes important and ipso facto so does document shredding. And with it, the growing practices of curtis document shredding, caro document shredding and Davison document shredding among others. Of course, you don’t have to own a paper shredder to do document shredding. There are several shredding agencies who for a very nominal fee, come in a truck with a high power paper shredder installed in the truck right up to your doorstep, and shred your documents in no time right in front of you. What more could you possible want?

Thus it makes tremendous business sense to take good care of your personal documents, your sensitive information and any similar information of your business as well. Tearing up sheets of paper is a small price to pay for insuring yourself against any fraudulent activities that could be committed in your name. Feel free to explore more of justpapershredders.com to get an insider view on the world of document shredding and paper shredders.

Document Shredding: ‘Destroying’ The Things That You ‘Value’

Keywords:

document shredding,document shredder

Article Body:

What do the following industries have in common?

Law enforcement
Legal industries
Government
Banking
Health care
Financial service (brokerage)
Entertainment
Technology
Manufacturing industries

The answer: The above-mentioned industries regard information as a very important aspect of their operations. They are information-sensitive – they have a need to ensure that important and confidential data are secured and protected at all times.

What data are considered classified? Some are listed below:

Disbursement records (Wages, etc.)
Accounts records (financial statements such as the balance sheet, etc.)
Sales receipts
Bank records
Social Security records
Business letters
Customer information
Personnel records
Computer printouts
Computer discs or tapes

Why is there a need to protect such data? Industries are in constant danger of having such sensitive information to ‘fall into the wrong hands’ – people that are out to inflict damage, such as a discontented employee or a competitor, which could result to either of the following:

Bad publicity
Humiliation
Loss of staff or key personnel (probably to a competitor)
Loss of customers
Loss of job or running out of business
A possible indictment

This is why every information-sensitive industry needs a proper and secure records storage and management. However, such course of action usually requires much room (think of all those years’ worth of papers and electronic tapes piling up); it also incurs high costs. In addition, there will also come a time when the company will need to purge itself of the age-old materials. But these outdated materials will still be sensitive, and throwing away classified documents in a wastebasket will not do the trick – they can still be collected and sorted out, the information still made available to whoever would want them.

There is a truly a great need for a secure disposal of sensitive data, and an effective solution to this crucial aspect of an industry is document shredding.

Document shredding is a safe and secure option for discarding restricted documents and materials. In document shredding, sensitive files and records are destroyed, turning them into bits that can no longer be recognized; thereby ensuring that confidentiality is maintained.

The document shredding process is entirely flexible that it can adapt to any industry’s distinct requirements in destroying sensitive records. Depending on what would suit it’s needs, a company can either purchase it’s own document shredder or employ outsourced document shredding services, who can then perform the document shredding process on-site or off-site.

On-site document shredding provides industries with the opportunity to observe the actual shredding of their materials ‘on site’, right at their doorsteps. The use of mobile shredding vehicles and equipment will especially fit those who do not want their records to leave their site intact.

In an off-site document shredding, the document-shredding company collects the materials in security containers and hauls them in a safe location that may be monitored by security cameras where they are destroyed into little pieces. Aside from the surveillance cameras, industries can also send representatives to personally observe the actual document shredding process.

Once the classified records are destroyed in a proper and secure manner, the document shredding company will then provide its client with a “Certificate of Destruction,” which notes the date and time as well as the accounting of the materials shredded. This not only serves as a proof that the documents were destroyed properly; it also gives the client the necessary data for an audit trail.

There are many advantages in making use of the services of an outside document shredding company:

A document shredding service enables the company to save thousands of dollars by not having to buy a document shredding equipment and not having to worry of the depreciation as well as the maintenance costs.

A document shredding service also enables the company to save in terms of labor. Employees would not need to spend hours to do the document shredding. Employees can spend the time more effectively by doing their own jobs.

A document shredding company also helps the environment by recycling. Recycling is the final step in almost all the document shredding process. The shredded materials are collected and, through baling and/or pulping, can be used again to form other items such as boxes and copier papers, among others.

We cannot deny that protecting the interests of a company remains a crucial phase of every business, especially in this age of information. And with document shredding, we are not only securing an industry’s information, we are also helping the environment – a win-win solution.

Database And Document Management Systems

Keywords:

Document Management Systems, Electronic Document Management Systems, Document Management System Software, Database And Document Management Systems

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Different business organizations use different types of software to manage their documents. This software performs the function of creating, full text indexing, controlling the different versions of documents, retrieval, and so on.

The vital component of any document management software system is the inherent database management technology that classifies and tracks the documents created and stored. The database system locates and retrieves the requested document from the archives or from the documents under its control on the basis of query submitted to it.

The database management system prevents unauthorized persons from accessing the information. Only users with passwords have access to the entire database or a portion of it. Any addition made to the data is carried out without altering the existing database. The system is also designed to filter out duplicate copies of the records.

For all documents created and stored, the database system generates a host of information about the documents. This information is maintained separately from the document itself. The information includes the name of the author who has created the document, the date of creation, the last occasion on which it was accessed and the subsequent changes made to it. The system also maintains information on the main topics or subjects contained in the documents, as well as details of documents that are relevant to the document requested for.

The database system has to be reliable and must have a high level of operational efficiency in managing large volumes of text-based documents, images, sound and video. The database may be either centralized or distributed, depending upon the data management software system installed in an organization. A centralized database, which stores document profile information in a single database, offers quick and efficient searching but faces the risk of losing information in case of failure or corruption in the document profile repository. In a distributed data base system the information is dispersed and stored at various points based on the company’s network or on the disk structure. This minimizes the risk of losing all the information, in case of failure or corruption.

Finding A Document Management Solution - In-House vs. Hosted Solutions

Keywords:

document,management,software,solutions,compare,in-house,hosted,scanning,services

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Before we get started, some of you may be asking what is document management?

Document Management is the ability to manage all of your paper documents in an electronic format. Let's define "paper documents in electronic format".

Basically, there are two types of document management systems, either an in-house solution, or an outsourced hosted solution.

So,which one will best suit your needs? Good question. Most companies base their decision on available staff to maintain these systems, and the technical abilities of those staff members. Cost of a solution is also a deciding factor. While the cost of an in-house solution is higher up front, having the technical staff to support it, it typically pays off in the long run due to the calculated Return On Investment (ROI). The lower cost of a hosted solution is appealing to many companies because this solution puts the technical responsibilities on the solution provider. It's also beneficial in that most of these solutions are web-based. While some companies can truly benefit from the hosted solution, many can't due to confidentiality of the information contained within their organization.

Finding a solution to fit your company's needs can be a time consuming venture. We recommend you first determine what solution fits your organization best, then shop for a solution with the features best suited to your business needs.

How much office space can I save? Good question. It depends on the amount of paper files you have taking up your valuable office space.

In most offices, there are filing cabinets everywhere. We've become attached and dependant on our paper files. Since most companies are mandated to hold their records from 3 to 7 years, that adds up to an exhaustive amount of paper needed to be maintained and stored. Where do you store it? In your office? A records storage company? What are those costs? All these questions lead this topic in a new direction. Why are you keeping these records in paper format? Why not an electronic format?

OK, let's look at some statistics. But before we do that, let's set the standard office environment so we have a reference point to start from. Now for the breakdown:

A typical filing cabinet drawer holds about 3000 pages when full.
So a full 4 drawer cabinet holds about 12000 pages.

A lateral file drawer holds about twice or 50% more files.
So a full 2 drawer lateral cabinet holds about 12000 pages.

The Simple Math

Ok, now that we know what we have in the space of our filing cabinets, let's look at space on storage media.

A standard 8 1/2 x 11 page scanned at 200x200 DPI (dots per inch) is about 50k in size (average)
There is 1024k in 1 megabyte of space.
There are 700 megabytes of space on a CD.
There are 4,700 megabytes of space on a DVD.

Ok, here's the simple math.

1,024k (1 megabyte) divided by 50k (standard scanned document) = 20.48 documents per megabyte
700 megabytes (1 CD) x 20 (scanned images per megabyte) = 14,000 documents per CD
4,700 megabytes (1 DVD) x 20 (scanned images per megabyte) = 94,000 documents per DVD

So here are the facts.

1 CD = 1 filing cabinet full of paper documents (12,000 documents)
1 DVD = 7 filing cabinets full of paper documents (84,000 documents)

Once these documents are scanned and placed on a CD or DVD (write once only media) they become legal documents that can be archived and retrieved later in the event you would like to print, fax, or email them.

Document Security – Not Just Paper Shredding

Keywords:

document security, paper shredding, document destruction, shredit, shred-it, identity theft

Article Body:

What is document security? Why is document security important to me? What are the best methods my company can use to enhance document security? Is it expensive to do? These are some of the questions you may have about document security.

In this article, I will explain more about document security and why it is important that your business implement some sort of policy or plan to improve the way your employees and you handle documents.

Almost every business has documents that they have to process on a daily basis. Contracts, Invoices, Receipts, Purchase Orders, In-house Memos, and documents related to sensitive information are some of the examples of documents you may use.

Document security includes how those documents are stored, backed up, processed, delivered, and disposed of. First we will talk about storage and backup of your documents. This involves a lot more than just which type of filing cabinet you want to buy.

Even in this electronic age, paper documents are a necessity. The storage of these documents safely and securely is often ignored. For sensitive documents, you do need locked file cabinets. You need to be aware of who in your company will have keys to those file cabinets and they need to be stored in a secure location. Fireproof filing cabinets are also a good idea.

This might seem to be inconvenient, expensive, and time-consuming, but the loss of your documents is going to cost you a lot more time and money than having security in place for them.

Transferring all of your documents into electronic format is essential to document security. Either through data entry or through scanning of documents you can back them up in electronic format to help ensure their safety and recovery if you lose all the paper.

Many of your documents today are already in electronic format. Those and the electronic backups of the paper documents you make also need to be backed up besides just on your computer. There are electronic data storage services you can use online that will give you storage space on secure servers.

Some of these can be relatively inexpensive, others charge too much. I suggest you research several of them to find the solution that is right for you. You can burn those documents to CD, but then must find a secure way, off of your business premises to store those CDs.

You can store the data on other computers you have at home or elsewhere, but need to keep in mind who might be able to access them. The companies that provide secure storage for electronic documents and data are usually a much more secure method.

You need to implement a specific security policy in regards to every type of document your company uses. Your employees need to follow these specific document security guidelines at all times.

Document and data delivery is also an important consideration. Do you use encrypted email when sending and receiving documents? Do you require a receipt from the receiver of your emails to show they have gotten the data you sent them? These are easy to implement. PGP for email is one of the best methods. Do a search for PGP and you will find more information about it.

When you mail sensitive documents, do you use registered mail? Do you insure it? These are important pieces to your document security policy. Your employees should know which specific types of outgoing mail are to receive special attention.

Who opens the mail your company receives? Is it ever left out in the open where just anyone can pick it up? Your employees should be aware that document security extends to incoming mail as well. There needs to be specific instructions as to what happens to all incoming mail.

Now we can move on to document disposal. Do you have an office shredder? You may want to have one in each employee’s work area who might be handling or creating sensitive company documents. Have a policy of shredding the documents they throw away. Better to be safe than sorry. Thieves and others will go through your trash to find any information they can use to their advantage.

If you have a lot of sensitive documents or wish to be more careful, there are services that come to your office to shred and destroy documents then remove them to be incinerated. These companies guarantee the safe disposal of your documents.

I hope this article has helped answer any questions you may have had about document security. I further hope that it has made you aware of the need for you to have a document security policy at your business.

Document Scanning Services: Needed Or Not?

Find out more about how document scanning can help you business...

Keywords:

document scanning

Article Body:

It is hard to imagine anyone in today's age of computers not being able to
scan a document, let alone know what to do with it once it is scanned. Yet,
there are countless services offering to do just that--scan, upload and make
your file as you want. Whether you want it simply stored on your computer,
changed into a PDF, converted into c.d. form or simply sent out as an email, these services will do it. The question is: are they actually needed? Do you have to have someone else scan and create your documents?

The answer is both yes and no, and below we will offer the advantages and disadvantages of using such services.

Why To Use It:

Most companies suffer from poor storage. They have row after row of filing cabinets, all stuffed with documents and important papers. What most services will do is offer to convert all of these into computer files, saving you the time of 1) having to scan all the papers yourself or 2) continually rummaging through the cabinets in hopes to find what you are looking for. They will go through your mountain of paper and organize them on the computer. This can save you a great deal of time both now and later. Now since you don't have to spend your time organizing, as opposed to focusing on current projects. Later since you won't have to try and find what you need in a messy file cabinet.

Another reason to use a document scanning service is the quality. These companies guarantee that you will have perfectly scanned and organized files. They will do whatever you need to be done, so you won't have to waste your time guessing against a piece of equipment that you swear hates you since it never seems to work.

Why Not To Use It:

Ultimately, most--if not all--office workers know how to scan. It's routine. To pay someone else to do it can seem wasteful and, since the prices can be expensive, it can also seem foolish. Scanning and organizing are traits that any worker should have, and employers may hesitate to send for someone else to do what is, essentially, your job.

Also, since the prices can be expensive, it has to be viewed from an objective point: is it better to spend the money and save some time, or just have a worker come in an extra day? Employers may look toward the latter.

Is It Worth It:

Depending on your situation, document scanning services can either seem very appealing or very pointless. If you are unfamiliar with how to fully use your computer (perhaps you can scan but the rest is just guesswork), then using a service might be an excellent way to learn and get yourself organized. If you are competent with scanning, however, you may see this as a waste of money and time. It all comes down to how much faith you have in your skills and how much money you are willing to spend.

Document Security? – Why?

Keywords:

document security, paper shredding, document destruction, shredit, shred-it, identity theft

Article Body:

Why should document security be so important to me? What exactly is it anyway? These are just a couple of questions you might have when someone mentions document security to you. With today’s technology, thieves are getting smarter and attacking both large and small businesses.

Where it used to only be financial institutions, security firms, and those working on government contracts that had to worry about document security, now it involves everyone. Even if you don’t own a company, document security is important to you as an individual.

Ever hear the phrase, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”? Well in today’s world, your trash is treasure to identity thieves, con men, corporate spies, forgers, blackmailers, and others. What you throw in the trash can get you ripped off.

Identity thieves today can find information on documents, bills, canceled checks, and other items that you throw away. Sometimes they use that information to apply for credit cards in your name and other times they can simply use technology to make a duplicate of the credit card you already have. Most stores don’t even check ID when taking a credit card, so once a duplicate is made, they are in business.

Con men need only to learn a little bit about you in order to cook up some scheme involving you. The personal information in your letters, bills, and other documents can give them all they need to con you into believing they are someone other than who they really are. The personal information they obtained from your documents enhances their story to make it believable.

Forgers enjoy the documents you throw away even more, since you probably signed some of them and they now have a copy of your signature. However, copying your signature is not the only definition of forgery. They can take canceled checks and make a new checkbook with all the proper numbers. They can forge other documents and do a lot more damage than you might think.

Corporations make big money. Not everyone who works for or runs a corporation can be trusted to be ethical, as we have seen with all the recent scandals involving big corporations. Some corporations use spies to learn what their competitors are up to. This is so common today, that some don’t even think it is unethical. They see it as a business necessity.

That means document security for your corporation is now a business necessity you have to take very seriously, if you haven’t already done so. Your competitors may not hesitate to obtain documents from your company in any way possible. They may use bribes, go through the trash, have the trash hauled to them directly, or simply sneak in and take them.

This is not just some stuff from a spy novel. Corporate spies get paid big money for the information they can get from the documents they can steal or “find”. You have to take document security seriously, especially where your plans will only be successful if kept secret until you can legally protect them. If it involves intellectual property, document security is even more important.

Don’t think this leaves you out if you only own a small business. If your ideas are patentable, copyrightable, or trademarkable, then your document security is important as well.

Even if you don’t plan to patent, copyright, or trademark anything, your financial document security is still very important. A thief knows as a small business owner, you probably don’t have very good security for your documents. Some thieves especially target small businesses because they are much easier targets.

Well, now that you know document security is important for various reasons, what do you do about it. How can you be sure you have a good plan for document security and document disposal?

There are several options for you, each depends on your specific circumstances. There are companies that are specifically in the business of document security for large and small businesses. They actually come to your business and do all the shredding and document disposal. This is one of the most convenient ways of being sure your documents are destroyed properly.

Is document disposal all I need to know about document security? The answer is no that is only the beginning. It all depends on what type of company you run.

Do you allow your employees to take sensitive documents home with them? Do you allow them to photocopy anything they want with no record of what they copied? If you are a financial institution, do you use new Pantograph methods for your documents? Many of the old Pantograph methods no longer stop today’s thieves from copying your sensitive financial documents.

There is a lot more to document security than just shredding documents and disposing of the material securely. I plan to address more of those methods in future articles about document security. In this article I just wanted you to see that everyone needs to take document security seriously.

Document Storage Scanning To CD

Fast and easy retrieval of you information is critical to your business success. And your documents, both on hard drive and paper, are the lifeblood of your organization. So it makes sense to preserve them for any eventuality. But should you try to do it yourself or find a professional firm to do it for you? Read on to find out.

Keywords:

Document Storage Scanning, outsourcing, document conversion, document imaging solution provider, vertical market expertise

Article Body:

Fast and easy retrieval of you information is critical to your business success. And your documents, both on hard drive and paper, are the lifeblood of your organization. So it makes sense to preserve them for any eventuality. But should you try to do it yourself of find a professional firm to do it for you? Read on to find out.

Document Storage: Why You Should Outsource

But whether your documents are on paper or in electronic form, your data can still be at the mercy of natural or man-made disaster or hard-drive failure. Such loss could cripple your business so it's essential to have an effective back-up system in place. So how to do it?

Transferring you paper documents and hard-disk data to optical media is the first step. This allows easy retrieval of any information you need. With an efficient indexing system, just pop the disc into the drive and voila. No need to search through dusty storerooms and cart out heavy boxes.

Once you've decided to go ahead and backup your critical data, you have to decide whether to do it yourself or outsource to a professional company.

It really depends on the volume of documents you have to work with. But considering the importance of your company information, it makes sense to bring in a professional firm for the following reasons.

Firstly, they're up-to-date on the latest and most effective methods of data storage. For example, perhaps you've already backed up some of your hard disk data to standard Cd's. After all, they last forever, right? Unfortunately not. Some statistics on the shelf life of recorded Cd's might shock you. Unless you take great care, standard CD/DVDs can degrade to the point of being unreadable in as little to 2-5 years. Professional data storage firm will be knowledgeable of the latest media such as the latest Kodak Gold discs which offer effective lifespan of 80-300 years.

Another important reason to outsource to a document imaging solution provider is that their staff are trained and knowledgeable experts in data conversion. Scanning workflow, for example, is a complicated undertaking, especially if large volumes of documents and deadlines are involved. This really needs an expert's touch. Solution providers also offer data entry services to key-in important meta data from documents to create a searchable database of your paper.

Then professional firms have the state-of-the-art equipment to handle any kind or size of job. The resulting efficiencies lower production costs which leads to lower costs for you. Buying, installing such hardware yourself and then training you own staff in its use would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming.

In addition, a solution provider will manage your entire document conversion project. This means there's no need to tie-up any of your own resources in the conversion process. Such projects can be complex, requiring needs assessment, planning and estimating before the actual scanning begins. And the imaging company's staff can work on-site on your own premises so there's no need to your confidential documents to leave the building.

Considering the inestimable value of your documents, you need to entrust your project to a reputable firm. Look for one with a proven track-record of working for blue chip clients which should include vertical market expertise. If you deal with large format documents, make sure the firm employs technicians familiar with architectural or engineering drawings and who can effectively handle such jobs.

New York Document Scanning, a global outsourcing company, is headquartered in New York, NY with offices in Kolkata, India and provides scanning services and data entry at some of the best prices found anywhere. Get free quotes for all your document scanning needs.