Across the UK and Ireland, our heritage has been around storing and managing paper. As the push to a more digital age continues, leaving legacy boxes in storage is either costing money in additional real estate or an expense with an external storage provider, which can amount to many thousands across the retention of the data stored.
We estimate that within the UK alone, 200 million boxes of corporate information are stored, not only costing millions of pounds in storage annually, but also adding to the negative impact to our environment.
Our legacy back scanning services ensure that every single record either stored with us, with the customer, or another storage provider can be securely transferred to a digital format. This enables those physical records to be destroyed, providing a return of investment in ongoing storage costs and benefits in the reduction of time transporting and searching for vital information.
Prior to implementing any scanning programme, a Crown scanning expert will meet with key stakeholders to ascertain the needs and wants of the business. Following this, Crown may recommend that only a percentage of those records should be scanned based on several reasons, such as activity, remaining retention, or legalities.
This is where we may recommend other options, such as completing a live or ad hoc scanning programme, or if extra discoveries are required to help make that decision, our Business Process Review may be the best option.
Live or ad hoc scanning
Commonly, there is no need to digitise every single legacy record ever created. For larger organisations this can be a very costly exercise, and without the correct discovery exercise, often this decision can lead to little return of investment, both financially or with no improvements to business processes or customer/employee experience.
This is why Crown’s unique approach in completing a thorough understanding of our customers business, the way they operate, and how they manage their corporate data, is vital in helping our customers make the right choice.
Some areas, as an example, where converting documents to a digital format is the right thing to do include:
-
1. Live and accessed regularly
-
2. Information that requires access from employees across multiple geographies
-
3. Files that have a long or lifetime document retention period
-
4. Extremely sensitive records that require additional audited access tracking via an Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
-
5. All new data created, where the aim is that data is born digital
-
6. In acquisition and merger circumstances
-
7. Specific business cases which may vary based on industry common practices and laws
Crown provide a separate service in the digitisation of certain records, or any live records created as part of our live or ad hoc scanning services. Our national presence across the UK means that any new data that’s created can be collected and scanned on an agreed schedule, whether that be daily, weekly or monthly. Our bespoke service ensures that access to live records are made accessible within a quick turnaround, giving you time to focus on delivering your own business services.
