Office Document Strategies Blog

From Paper To Digital

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Jul 4, 2018 @ 07:07 AM

It is over twenty five years ago that our company started to actively work in the field of document management.  In the early days it was called document imaging as the primary technology involved using high speed scanners to scan and capture images of paper documents for long term storage and retrieval. 1 Century Place from Google Street View

Since that rather basic beginning (in hind sight but highly innovative at the time), we have seen a major shift in not only the storage of documents and data but in the manner in which it is captured and utilized.  The big issue today is the protection and proper use of all of the data which is accumulated through the massive volume of digital transactions which are undertaken each day.  For much of the work of business and also consumers there is never a paper record created and their transaction history is capture only in digital form.

From newsprint to data

A telling example of this conversion from a paper documentation world to one of bits and bites is the announcement that the largest data centre in Canada is being built in the old Toronto Star Newspaper production site.  The last of the paper runs to occur in the site were done in 2016 and it is now being converted to a major data centre with state of the art data storage and processing.

The centre is being built by Digital Realty and international data centre operator and it will house up to 23 computer rooms each holding up to 3 Megawatts of power capacity.  This is a massive collection of data processing and is being added to the significant capacity that already exists in Ontario and Canada.  It shows how much growth and demand there is for the continued collection and storage of digital information.

Digital workflow is critical to business

Given the heavy digital load that every current business manages the design and management of the digital workflow is a high priority need.  Understanding how your information is going to be captures, used, disseminated and stored is a critical part of every component of your business.  Of course the tools to help do this are also much more available, whether in the form of a comprehensive line of business suite or in integrated individual components.  Keeping systems and employees up to date in the digital realm is a mandatory part of every business's planning.

How documents are held, used and processed is part of this process and while many pieces of the work flow may be captured through underlying data streams there is still a need to format and create understandable output which can be shared and utilized internally, externally and over time.  Things can break down quickly if care is not taken to understand these components of your operations.

While electronic information flows have been streamlined and made easier they still have not replaced every physical form of document in many businesses.  This makes it necessary for tools to be available to deal with both electronic forms and physical forms as required.  Of course the growth of massive data storage capabilities has occurred because the need for capacity continues to grow.

Take time to understand how both aspects of your data needs are being met, digital and physical so you can be sure you have the right components and tools to manage all.

Lee K 

Document Processing - 10 Case Studies Download

Learn about cloud based document management

Image credit: 1 Century Place from Google Street View

Topics: technology tools, document filing, document storage strategy, Hosted document management, data security, Kyocera Canada, digital filing