If you're looking for a long-term, secure, and GDPR-compliant home for your organisational records, it's worth choosing secure, offsite document storage for your old files. As well as saving you valuable workplace, offsite document storage frequently works out as cheaper, safer, and more accessible than in-house archiving. It's often subject to a better quality of oversight, too, as third party specialists offer professional archiving services alongside strong, around-the-clock security.
With controlled key card ID access, you can set out who can access archived records better than with piecemeal, limited in-house measures. Verification, unique server logins, and pre-collection checks ensure that your confidential records stay confidential. Off-site document storage allows for stricter security policies to be correctly enforced, too. With pre-agreed policies, staff can deny intruders access to your records immediately. Security and privacy are guaranteed.
Monitoring records takes up a surprising amount of time and effort. Unchecked and neglected storage spaces can become messy, while records can be damaged by damp conditions or poor ventilation. Remote storage helps keeps your records safe and intact for years on end in one place. Warehousing your paper in a dry, humidity-free unit increases the usability and stability of your paper archives. Dedicated management and professional-quality storage racks can also help get your library of records in order (i.e. alphabetisation, end-of-cycle file removal).
Flexibility And Scalability
One common problem businesses run into is that their in-house archive rooms become steadily cramped and overcrowded over time, making the space harder to access and organise. This makes it more difficult to keep track of sensitive documents and to ensure that deletion schedules are adhered to. Off-site document storage eliminates this problem. The warehousing staff will work with you to ensure that you only hire the space you need and anticipate any future influx. If you suddenly need more room, it's there for you to rent.
When anticipating an unforeseen crisis (i.e. fire, flood, accidental deletion), it's crucial to have a Plan B. It's also a good idea to limit access to trusted and trained employees - human error is a leading cause of accidental record destruction and loss.
Off-site document storage can serve as a backup location or a secure, central holding spot for your records, protecting them from damage. Many storage spaces also offer digitisation and paper backups, adding extra insurance. Cloud storage can scatter file backups between different locations to allow for wholesale recovery in the event of hardware failure, destruction, or errors.
By law, your archived storage must meet the data protection standards set out in the Data Protection Act 2018 (GDPR). The act applies just as much to paper files as to modern, digital information. All data you collect must be managed responsibly and disposed of when it's no longer useful, or after a final deadline. Investing in long-term document security and administration will ensure this happens, as it should, according to your record retention and disposal schedules. Remote storage helps keep you fully legal and liability-free.
At CAS, we specialise in secure archive storage for clients throughout the UK. Our centralisation and timed file retention plans save customers time, money, and effort, alongside giving them peace of mind. Get in touch today to find out more.
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