From paper to digital: easing the transition

With predictions of a paperless office looking increasingly misguided, more companies are using digital technology to help them preserve paper records securely but cost-effectively. Companies such as Iron Mountain Europe are helping companies make the transition to digital in a sensible, affordable way.

Given the explosion in digital data, underlined by the 31 billion emails sent worldwide every day, you might expect paper usage to be in decline. In fact, 70 per cent of European companies believe the paperless office is just a vision, and 61 per cent of European managers prefer reading hard-copy spreadsheets, offers and reports. Even in those offices that are attempting to reduce their paper use, there are still huge amounts of paper dating back years, even decades.

The fact is that the paperless office is unlikely to become a reality any time soon, least of all in the financial sector. For a host of legal and regulatory reasons, many documents need to be stored in hard-copy form. Furthermore, it simply doesn’t make financial sense to make a wholesale transfer from paper to digital. Many existing paper records will never be used again, so creating digital versions would be a waste of both time and money.

This is not to say that paper should simply be left to accumulate on-site. In Munich the cost of a single square metre of office space per year is Ä502, in Paris it is Ä864 and in central London Ä1712. Given that many organisations in the financial sector store millions of customer files, paying for on-site storage is simply not an option.

What is needed is a way of preserving paper files safely but cost-effectively while gradually creating a digital archive of those records to which central and branch offices require access. With so many products and services now available ‘on demand’, it makes sense to seek a similar solution for records management.

Creating a digital archive

Interpolis, a leading Dutch insurance company, managed to control the cost of managing its 1.7 million life insurance files by embracing digital technology – without destroying its paper legacy. On an average day, Interpolis receives 300-400 requests for copies of policies from various parties. Employers, solicitors, banks and customers themselves are all entitled to access these documents.

Until 2003, all 1.7 million policies were stored at Interpolis’s head office at Tilburg, near the Belgian border. Every time a request came through, staff were responsible for negotiating their own way through the archives. A two-part strategy was developed to change this practice, with the ultimate goal of improving efficiency at the office and thus offering customers better, faster service.

Initially, all 1.7 million files were transported to Iron Mountain’s warehouse for safekeeping. Here each one was indexed and registered on an electronic database, which meant that both Iron Mountain and Interpolis had a live record of the files, accessible 24 hours a day.

The next stage was to establish a system for the digitisation of those records requested at head office. The individual steps are very simple. Every time a member of staff receives a request for a policy they can search for it on their PC using an enterprise document management programme. If it has been requested before, a digital version will appear immediately on screen and can be sent directly to the customer. If it does not appear, a request is sent to Iron Mountain to retrieve the paper file from the archive, scan and index it, and send the digital version back to Interpolis.

A digital archive is gradually being created, but only where it is needed. Modernisation is continuing apace, and it is here that new cost savings can be found. The Interpolis experience is a good example of how financial organisations are marrying the old with the new. The success of the outsourced scan-on-demand
programme shows that while paper continues to be an integral part of Europe’s offices, the transition towards digital data needn’t interrupt day-to-day business; in fact,
it can make it much easier.

Further information
Iron Mountain Europe UK Ltd
Website: www.ironmountain.co.uk