Despite the rise of the Internet and e-mail and the computers that make them possible, physical paper has not been made obsolete. More often, today’s businesses and offices make use of both paper and digital documents, taking advantage of their respective strengths to compliment each other. A modern American office may have a steady relationship with a paper supplier, or several, and IT professionals will also be on hand to set up computers and keep the network running smoothly. Not only will an office have copiers and printers and stacks of paper, but also a data center and its own private Cloud storage account.

In the case of paper in particular, paper has advantages and some drawbacks to consider. A person won’t get eye strain looking at paper the same way they do when viewing computer screens, and paper can be easily taken anywhere and its contents shown to anyone. Paper, being physical and having a scent, appeals to the human brain and is easier to keep track of. Consumers often more easily remember the contents of paper documents than digital ones. But paper may also present some issues at the office, so excess paper can be put in an industrial shredder, and secure paper shredding with level 6 shredders may easily reduce clutter and protect information. When is it time to use commercial paper shredders such as an industrial shredder?

The Drawbacks of Paper

This is not to say that paper is obsolete or more trouble than it’s worth. Far from it. But a modern office manager should also keep track of just how much paper is in the office, and know when the time has come to hire an industrial shredder and scanner crew to handle the buildup of paper. For one thing, an excess of paper documents means that many papers or files are easily misfiled or lost entirely, and it costs money and time alike to find or reproduce them for use. This is due to printing costs and the productivity lost from not having those documents on hand. And even in the best of cases, it takes time to get up, retrieve a paper, use it, and then put it back. This can add up fast.

What is more, paper in the office may create a lot of clutter, and the papers and their files, boxes and filing cabinets, and more will keep taking up more and more space that could be used for something else instead. Worse yet, all of that paper is a fire hazard, and in times past, cigarettes in the office could set papers on fire. Smoking is widely banned in offices today, but frayed electrical cord are known to touch papers with their hot inner wires and start a blaze. Finally, loose papers may fall victim to dishonest employees who steal them or photograph their contents to use for shady or selfish purposes. No manager wants their business information getting stolen or misused like that. For all these issues and more, a crew with industrial shredders and scanners will be hired to help out.

Hiring Shredder and Scanner Crews

A responsible office manager may choose to regularly hire scanner and shredder crews to manage the growth of papers in the office, and this outsourced labor may do an efficient job with a hard day’s work. Once these professionals arrive, they will first gather all necessary paper documents and digitally scan their contents, and those digital files will be uploaded into the office’s Cloud data storage and their data servers. As documents are safely converted into digital files, they are shredded en masse. This prevents the theft of their information, and bags of shredded documents can be set out for recycling.

The benefits are many. A lot of space is cleared up after a shred/scan job, and the fire hazard is removed from the office. What’s more, the digital documents are not nearly as easily lost as the paper ones, removing the cost and hassle of retrieving or re-creating those lost documents. And most notably, these digital documents are easy to share with remote employees. Many office worker are working on board jets or at home, and paper mail is slow. Digital files can be sent to them, and from them, much faster.