Aside from maintaining computer and online security, businesses that keep paper documents need to dispose of them properly. In the U.K., businesses are at risk of fines if they do not adequately secure or dispose of papers containing vital information. Document shredding is one of the best ways to ensure the proper disposal of these papers.

Some businesses may consider document shredding on their own. However, they may have other important tasks to consider; they have to set aside their scheduled task to shred paper documents. The longer you delay on these shredding tasks, the bigger the chances of these papers ending up in the hands of unscrupulous individuals.

Hiring a document shredding service ensures regular and timely destruction of documents. Generally, these services destroy documents on the premises of businesses or at their own location (usually a secured facility). They also maintain well-trained staff whose backgrounds are rigorously checked and maintain a high-level standard from pick-up to disposal.

Businesses that use a document shredding service gain other benefits. By entrusting the disposal of paper documents to this service, businesses minimise their risk of having documents appropriated by unauthorised individuals. In turn, they steer clear of fines for not securing information.

Jon Brown for TechTarget discusses the increase in demand for data storage solutions. The trend isn't expected to change any time soon as companies' unstructured data continue to increase. The main factors driving the demand are issues such as cloud computing, business continuity in disasters, and storage for virtualized environments.

In the past, storage space purchase heavily focused on finding a storage provider that offers the lowest price per megabyte. With today’s advancements in technology, storage considerations have become a strategic, well-thought-out decision. The focus is more on applications and data usage models rather than raw storage capacity, cost per hard drive, and access times.

Free Up Space

As your company continues to file financial transactions, employee and customer data, and sales figures, it can become harder to accommodate the cabinets and hard drives required to house it all. By storing data in an off-site facility, you free up important space you can use for your company's more pressing needs.

Protection From Risks

When a natural disaster strikes or any untoward incident happens, your most valuable files will remain protected. Hiring a document storage service makes sure your business can continue to operate even in the face of the toughest adversities.




Document management service providers know it's important for your business to keep its paperwork and financial records safe. That's why they offer long and short-term storage services for various items. 

Are you unwittingly helping criminals steal your identity? As it often happens, people discard a lifetime of bank statements, tax returns and credit card bills by simply sending them to the garbage bin. Of course, identity thieves are only happy to go dumpster diving for these documents as they can use the personal information these documents contain to embezzle money from you.

Probably the most secure way for people and businesses to discard personal documents is to rely on professional document storage services provided by reputable companies. These professionals will shred a client's files in accordance with the Data Protection Act of 1998 (DPA) to ensure that no information can be gleaned from them. After being shredded, the files will be recycled, completely removing any chance of identity fraud.

Your employer also holds vital information about you such as your address, social security number and the names of your family members. Fortunately, businesses and organisations are required by DPA to treat such information confidentially and carefully, including its proper disposal.

Identity theft can be a real nightmare, but properly disposing sensitive documents can help prevent it. If you have heaps of files that need shredding, make sure to contact companies that offer document shredding services.

Computer viruses, Trojans, hackers, identity thieves; you name it, the shady, criminal underbelly of the online world seems to be rife with villainous entities just waiting to grab your data and run. While many people choose to invest in efficient data protection programs, the paranoid choose instead to get back to their roots and dust off their office typewriters for reuse.

Of course, reverting to paper is one step to avoid possible leaks since most documents today are created electronically. This allows an errant employee to easily leak confidential documents—whether intentionally or not—thru e-mail or by storing them in a USB flash disk. That being said, important documents, whether they're stored as electronic files or printed on paper, will always be in jeopardy if they fall into the wrong hands.

Thankfully, there are professional document storage firms that can collect, store, and protect a client's files in an offsite location that is heavily secured with fire preventive measures. Files will only be retrieved upon a client's request and will be delivered according to their instructions.

Such companies can also help clients save money. It is a fact that files of an agency or a business eventually pile up, consuming valuable office space and requiring additional manpower for their maintenance. Having the documents professionally managed offsite, however, can reduce the expenses of the client in the long run.

Among the ongoing problems of businesses today is data loss (usually as a result of a disaster or poor data management) and data and identity theft. A big factor that contributes to the latter incident is that some companies don't practice proper document shredding, or data destruction in general, to get rid of the hard copies of important files and documents after they have been converted to a digital format.

Document shredding typically involves two processes: 1) the scanning and conversion of paper files into soft copies that are then stored in private internal networks and/or online-based cloud storage systems; and 2) the consequent shredding of the hard copies to prevent unwanted parties from exploiting them.

However, a lot of companies simply do not have the time and manpower to scan and shred all of their paper-based documents. This is why many opt to outsource the task to third-party document management and storage specialists. When you take into account the time that will be spent shredding, the cost of a shredding machine, the cost of maintenance and disposal, and not to mention the additional hassle and effort, it's easy to see that outsourcing the task is indeed a much better option.

Save your company's money, time, and resources. Document management and shredding companies have more than enough resources and manpower to accomplish the job in a fast and efficient way, making sure that your documents are safe and secure, and will not fall into the wrong hands.

Businesses and organizations of all sorts will produce documents to keep records. In turn, these records will need to be stored so that the companies that own them will be able to retrieve them for later use. While saving reports is entirely possible on computers via digital files, many organizations still continue to record on paper and keep such documents in physical containers.

Archiving documents might be a little archaic by modern standards, but it's a tried-and-tested method that allows companies to refer to their files without having to go through a device, specifically a computer. However, the problem with sticking to paper as a medium of data storage is that it's not exactly the most durable of materials. To complicate matters even more, companies will need to put considerable effort into archiving each and every document so that future referencing doesn't have to be a time-consuming wild-goose chase.

For hassle-free archiving, companies can turn to document storage services that can keep files for them. These services can even be tasked to properly file and archive records according to their classifications. Companies that deal with numerous records every single day, such as banks and medical centres, will surely find such services very useful in organizing their paper-based records.

If your house is starting to look like a giant filing cabinet from the documents you've amassed over the years, it's probably time for a clean up. In the middle of your cleaning rage, however, don't just dump these files into the trash, because identity thieves see your garbage bin as a treasure trove of information they can steal.

Before tossing anything out, make sure to set aside the following documents for a date with the shredder:


Tax Return

Your tax returns contain not only your social security numbers but also those of your dependents.

It's recommended to keep these returns for at least five years in case Revenue and Customs decides to audit you, but afterward feel free to shred them.

Bank Statements

If it includes your bank account number, it should be shredded. This is true for credit card bills as well. To avoid a pile-up of bank documents, you can ask your bank to deliver statements and billings as e-mails instead.

Pay Stubs

You're probably often asked for your payslip as proof of financial capacity. Again, it may also contain your social security number as well as other personal details. Take note that it can be used by fraudsters to open accounts in your name.

Before throwing away any document, ask yourself first if it contains anything that identity thieves might use. To be extra sure, you can hand over sensitive files to a document shredding company that could properly dispose them for you.

For a medium that seems to be on its way out, paper is definitely taking its time. Every year, millions of resumés, memos, reports, and contracts still find their way onto people's desks. While electronic or scanned files are becoming more popular, paper files are still a major part of every business or organization.

Of course, physical documents will require space for storage. To store these files, businesses must allocate a certain part of their office just for storage. Considering that most of these documents contain confidential information like budgets, business strategies, and even client data, additional manpower has to be hired to organize and protect them.

One way to free up extra space and cash is to hire a reliable records management company. They will collect and inventory a company's business records before storing them in an off-site facility for safe-keeping. Should the client need a file, the records management company can be contacted 24/7 to schedule a delivery in the format desired (as an email or as snail mail, for example). The storage facilities are also fire and earthquake proof, which ensures that disasters will not damage or ruin your vital records.

Indeed, until the time when all documents are digital, paper will remain a staple in offices worldwide. Fortunately, document management services can free a company from the hassle of managing records by itself, and allows it to reallocate important resources like manpower and office space to grow the business further.

Since every company or institution accumulates piles of paperwork at some point, the need for document storage and management solutions is obvious. While most storage companies offer vaults and facilities to provide reliable and secure storage services to their clients, some also employ computers for the same purpose. It may be more complex and requires more advanced facilities, but electronic or “paperless” document management is steadily growing in popularity for a number of reasons.

One of them is convenience: electronic files can be accessed easily with a few mouse clicks, as opposed to opening a file cabinet and searching the desired files by hand. Aside from that, electronic files can be duplicated and shared with other employees almost effortlessly. There is also the fact that electronic files can be scanned for specific parts, statements, or words; allowing employees to find exactly what they're looking for in them.

Another benefit of electronic document management is security: electronic files are a lot harder to steal so long as the server that holds them only allows a handful of people to access it. In case the server gets compromised, storage companies can simply transfer the files to another server. This is also another reason why electronic management is used to form continuity management and disaster recovery plans since it is faster and less bulkier than traditional document storage solutions.

Risk management involves the identification of possible risks to a business that can hinder or disrupt its operations, and setting up measures that would mitigate these risks. Risks can include disasters such as earthquakes, fires, and terrorism, and threats from individuals or entities, such as sabotage.

One of the effects of these risks is the loss of important documents that a company needs for the continuity of its operations. They can also result in the leaking of confidential information to the wrong persons, which can be used against the company or the individuals in it. One of the best ways to avoid such possibilities is to subscribe to the services of a document management company.

A document management company typically offers the following services: document storage, document shredding, and document scanning. They provide secure boxes and facilities where important documents are stored and protected round-the-clock. The document storage service also often comes with a cataloguing and security system that informs you when a document is retrieved, and keeps you posted on the location of any document.

A document shredding service allows the thorough destruction of documents containing confidential information that may be used in individual or corporate identity thefts. A document scanning service archives digital copies of your documents within a system that allows you to retrieve the copies any time you want, and provide back-ups as added protection from document hard copy loss.