How to Securely Manage Business Documents
Businesses are built on the foundation of valuable data. So, naturally, they must consider document security their top priority. Transferring, editing, and sharing documents can expose companies to countless security risks.
A lack of a secure document management system is directly associated with heavy financial and reputational losses and compliance issues. In addition, it can hurt your relationship with your customers. In 2021 alone, businesses ended up shelling out over 6.9 billion in revenue due to cyber-attacks. Cybercriminals can also pierce through 93% of company networks.
But what’s the best way to manage your business documents securely? Read on to understand.
Managing Documents Based on Importance
Businesses have oceans of data to manage. When these documents aren’t managed meticulously, it becomes almost impossible to access specific files when the time comes. A reliable document management system helps your company index each document and folder in a precise manner.
Clear and accurate indexing makes document finding a breeze. Different departments can quickly look up documents in specific sections of the business. Document security management solutions like SeraScript also support custom views, tagging, advanced filtering, and automatic indexing based on metadata. Through an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, it becomes easy to re-organize and find specific data when the need arises. Before transitioning into your DMS, however, it’s critical to first organize your documents based on their importance. Consider the following questions when managing important documents:
- Which documents are needed the most?
- Which documents include personal information?
- Which documents require signatures, workflow, etc.?
- Which workflows are the densest?
What Benefits Does Digital Document Management Bring to the table?
There are several benefits to glean from a document management system including:
Industry-Specific Storage Needs
When it comes to document security management, a one-size-fits-all option rarely works for businesses. After all, your business documents spring from a variety of factors based on the industry you’re operating in. For instance, using a management system crafted for the healthcare system won’t align with a company that operates in the manufacturing sector. If your document management software provider fails to offer customized service, integrating the system into your current business needs becomes a challenge.
An industry-specific document management system is tailored to the needs of a specific industry. It can be more secure, cost-effective, and efficient than universal DMSs.
Permanent Backup
In today’s highly globalized world, businesses are quickly replacing physical documentation with digital systems. Sadly, however, some companies continue to dump their data into countless filing cabinets. In doing so, they are inadvertently accepting the risk of irretrievable document losses. You cannot, after all, predict or escape real-world disasters like flood, fire, earthquake, and more. Once lost during these incidents, you cannot get your documents back. In addition, physical documentation also increases the chances of losing valuable files, document theft, sensitive information landing in your competitors’ hands, and sensitive copies abandoned at the printing trays.
Transitioning to a secure cloud document management makes your data “immortal” so you don’t have to worry about your data getting lost, stolen, or hacked.
Easy Access
When your data is housed in a secure online document storage system, you no longer have to worry about your files rotting away in filing cabinets. Since everything is digitized, accessing any kind of data – for the management and remote teams – is a matter of a few seconds!
No More Data Leaks
Exposed records, data leaks, and breaches drain companies of millions of dollars each year. Aside from financial disasters, data compromises can leave irreversible stains on a company’s reputation. Now more than ever, digital document security is critical for businesses of every shape and size.
High-end, secured document security ensures your business doesn’t become a victim of disastrous data compromises. These systems ensure the highest standards of digital encryption to not only keep your files protected but also take full control of who accesses them.
What are the Best Ways to Secure Your Business Documents?
Acknowledging your business’s need for solid document management is great. But what are the best ways to go about the process? These best practices include:
Using a Secure Document Management Platform
Shifting to a secure cloud document management security ensures all your data is digitalized. This system ensures easy access to documents, regardless of the location a user is situated in. A secure document management platform keeps your data encrypted and ensures no unauthorized user can access it. It sorts, organizes, and manages your workflows.
Bringing in the Power of Blockchain
Blockchain technology offers an immutable ledger that can be accessed only by authorized members. When one member tries to make changes to a document, all the other members must verify the step to ensure the completion of the process. This way, the blockchain mechanism makes it impossible for people to fake any information. It is the safest possible option for storing sensitive information today.
Password Protect Sensitive Files
Many small business owners keep valuable documents on their computers. This practice can be another reason sensitive documents are stolen or lost. When you password-protect your files, you add an extra layer of security. The password protection feature in Excel and Microsoft Word ensures no unauthorized person accesses or edits the document. However, this process becomes tedious when there are hundreds of documents to handle. This is where a secure document storage provider can make things easier.
Use eSignatures
Earlier, every time you needed your client to sign something, you’d need to go through a long process of scanning, printing, and emailing the document to your client. The client would then print, sign, and send you back the document. What most businesses using this process didn’t realize was the amount of risk sending sensitive information via email entailed. Using email as a medium opened a gateway for several data breaches and hacking activities which rained down heavy losses on businesses. With eSignatures, however, it became possible to sign documents digitally and in a secure manner.
Deploy Encryption
When documents within your organization are accessed by several departments, employees, vendors, and customers – there are heavy chances of sensitive information getting misused. Using end-to-end encryption when sharing your files is critical for document security.
Streamline Workflows
Streamlining your workflows can optimize the way your company does the work. Most businesses lean on thousands of documents to operate. These documents are circulated among different departments, employees, etc. for approvals, changes, and signatures. Streamlining workflows allows you to create, modify, approve, store, retrieve, and sign documents related to all your business processes.
To Sum Up 100
Investing in a robust document security management system has now become a critical part of every business. Aside from promoting ease of access, this system shields your businesses from any cyber threats. Understanding how a secure document management system works can be a good start for your business in managing your document security and averting any losses associated with cybercrimes.
