Disadvantages of Offsite Records Storage

The storage of business documents has been a major part of the infrastructure of a business for centuries. Today, however, many companies choose to use offsite records storage instead of storing them onsite. Here's why that can be a bad idea.

Extra Costs Involved with Offsite Storage

Keeping the documents offsite always means paying a monthly storage fee for their document management. Depending on how many files there are, this may be a steep fee that cuts into the company's operating budget. However, there may be even steeper costs associated with this storage. Compliance issues are difficult to handle when you don't have the documents on hand. This can result in fines and even lawsuits later if the files are not made compliant and/or are misplaced and get into the wrong hands.

Accessing Files is Difficult

The files that are kept are presumably kept because they may be needed some day. However, if they are offsite, how will your employees get them when they need them? This is extremely inconvenient when data from them is needed. When employees have to take time to visit the site of the files to get one, that's an enormous amount of time they have used. This seriously cuts into the productivity of the business as a whole. If files are regularly needed, this can be a serious time and productivity issue.

Lost Files Happen

Files that are on physical paper and stored elsewhere are in danger of being misfiled. The storage facility may not understand the nature of the files, filing them under a different system that makes them hard to find. Or, they can simply be haphazard in their filing and make mistakes that result in certain files being impossible to find. This can be a major issue when someone needs something from a document and is unable to find it and fill that need.

If you're ready to have all of your documents stored onsite without taking up any room, contact us to find out how we can make it happen.