Digital Documentation Storage

Easier & More Cost-Effective Compliance

To satisfy their legal obligations, some businesses must retain a vast array of documents and other records.

As business is carried out increasingly in the digital world, using electronic means to maintain records is simply the best practice.

Where a business is required to comply with an order for the production of records, effective electronic document retention and records management systems reduce the risk the business can:

  • Incur costs by way of financial fines for failing to produce materials when required.
  • Incur costs by way of financial fines by failing to store records as required by law.
  • Lose privilege over documents being requested because the business does not have sufficient time to review all data before supplying the data in accordance with the order.
  • Fail to comply with a request for documents and be found in contempt of court.
  • Incur additional legal costs as a result of lawyers having to review an excessive amount of irrelevant or duplicated material.
  • Incur significant costs to employ external service providers to undertake due diligence each time the business receives a substantial request for information.

Businesses with good electronic document retention and management systems will also be better placed to provide evidence in the event of a dispute.

 

The National Archives Of Australia

The bureaucracy continues to spend well over $200 million a year to store and archive paper records¹. It has come to the point where the system cannot cope with the the volume of all documents to be processed, and by taking the step into moving digital the immediate benefits of saving money, accessing the information faster and saving space will all become apparant.

 

References:
1 According to ‘Archives call for paperless offices‘ (The Canberra Times, March 15, 2012)

Related Articles