What To Do with All the Paper|Solutions to the Paper Mountain}
Ten years ago, people talked of the Paperless Office, yet these days more paper is used in offices than ever before. Yes, we are all sending emails by the million, but many have to be printed out, and there are all those invoices, receipts, instructions, etc, which also need to be in print.
Needless to say, a loot of these documents that we keep in the office are needed to meet legislation, which is different wherever you are, but is quite a problem in Ireland. Also, some businesses are more paper-dependent than others, particularly those that are obliged by law to issue receipts for every sale and to keep those paper records.
The big question is: What do you do with all this paper, building into a mountain in every office? You can store it on site or offsite, but the important thing is that you have self-contained storage. If you doubt that this is a problem, just look around the office copying machine and take a look at the paper around, not to mention the packets of new paper waiting to be used.
The answer is to find a method of secure document storage. This could be in a warehouse in your factory, or it might be in the safe in the back office, but neither are the real answer. Instead, you need offsite document storage at a purpose-built storage facility.
A search of the internet or in local newspapers will give you some firms that can provide offsite document storage, or storage for equipment. You can rent rooms which are purpose-built to be secure. Mostly, they will have a 24-hour security system.
What are the criteria for finding a good one? First, it needs to be conveniently placed relative to your office. Secondly, it needs to have been purpose-built, so that each store room is secure and fireproof. Thirdly, it should have adequate parking, and be in a suburb which is not congested with traffic. Fourthly, it should have facilities for secure shredding and rooms where you sort documents to be stored, and can look through the documents already in storage, and make copies if needed. With these facilities, you will be able to get in control of all that paper again.
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