Archives for the 'Data Protection' Category
Document Scanning Triggers: an SED moment
Have you ever been sitting at your PC when an anguished howl from somewhere in the building floats through air followed by a light sobbing which you later discover was some poor soul whose computer had crashed before he had been able to back up the file?
That’s what I call an SED moment – a Somebody Else’s Disaster moment. It’s the time when you silently thank your lucky stars that it wasn’t you and vow to immediately (and always) make a backup of your files … though this would of course have been two minutes too late if you had just suffered his misfortune. I guess an equivalent from the news this week would be government officials once again giving a collective sigh of relief that they too hadn’t contrived to misplace folders of Top Secret documents on a commuter train!
But what about in your business? Well, imagine the problems you would face if you lost some or all of your paper files through fire or flood, possibly documents which you had often considered getting scanned and indexed but never quite got round to it. Without a backup or electronic copy in sight, then years worth of irreplaceable documents would quite literally have gone up in smoke forever.
In terms of disaster recovery, document scanning is always going to be a winner in these circumstances. With everything recorded and backed up, the business impact of something happening to paper files, or even the electronic ones, would be minimal. The information could be quickly restored and your business, together with the customer files and information it relies on, would be unaffected.
So next time you hear “Does anyone know how to retrieve a file?” wafting across the office, before you answer them, pick up the phone and arrange a chat about a document scanning service to back up your files. Then, if anything does happen and someone else looks over at you in pity, experiencing their own private SED moment, you’ll just be able to smile knowingly and get back to work.
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Virtualisation - so what exactly is it?
When it comes to document scanning, virtualisation refers to the idea of storing documents in a virtual environment, creating a secure storage area akin to a vault or a safe where we can keep our information and documents safe … just like in a physical one, only this time virtually. Essentially, it comes down to creating a highly secured area which contains your company’s information and yet makes it instantly accessible to you all day every day, whatever your location.
To achieve this, our own solution for this uses eView+ which is exactly this type of Virtual Vault. It’s also an ideal solution for companies who want all the benefits that document scanning offers, but are unsure if they want to hold the information themselves or indeed whether they have sufficient space on their own servers to do so.
Effectively outsourcing this storage and secure access has proven to be the perfect solution for many organisations and is becoming increasingly popular - with an outsourced or managed service, you can be certain that everything is in place and done correctly for you. Although the size of company looking for this varies enormously, the solution works equally well if you only need a small number of documents stored or are looking to index hundreds of thousands of records. With well over half a billion documents already stored, size is most certainly not an issue.
Added to this, should the worse happen and records you hold at your own offices, in whatever format, are damaged or lost, then you are ideally covered from a disaster recovery perspective and can be back up and running almost immediately – saving you time, inconvenience and expense.
So next time you hear virtualisation, just think of a secure Virtual Vault, safely looking after your most important documents.
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Benefits of Document Scanning
Document scanning is now an accepted key business requirement for any forward looking organisation and has become so for a variety of different reasons. However, while organisations are very aware of the benefits they are specifically looking for, they are often less clear of the full range of benefits that document scanning can offer.
Normally an organisation’s focus is on one or two areas which are the triggers for a document scanning programme, perhaps focused on accessibility requirements, disaster planning issues or the need for legal compliance in particular areas. However, there are other benefits which accrue at the same time and can make the cost justification even more attractive.
In our view, some of the areas where document scanning can have a very positive impact are outlined below.
Access to the Information
With documents scanned and indexed correctly, you have immediate access to the information - a real plus when customers are now used to find the information they require at the touch of a button. The additional benefit is that a number of employees can be working with the same documents at any given time, which can save time and help to increase productivity.
Customer Service
As individuals or as companies, we now expect a certain standard of customer service from the organisations that we deal with. Having the files available as and when required allows companies to offer this level of customer service - no more searching for the right documents and calling the customer back! The improved response time means your customers will be happier and you customer service personnel will be able to deal with a greater number of customers.
Additional / Extra Space
There is of course the actual physical space which files and filing cabinets take up in the office or elsewhere. Reducing the amount of office space and storage space used for your paper files means that you can use the space that you have more effectively.
Cost Savings
Document scanning offers cost savings through both tangible and intangible benefits: the tangible savings come from reducing ongoing storage costs and savings on paper, folders, file boxes etc.; the intangible savings come from elements such as lost time looking for files, improved productivity and improved customer service levels.
Security & Control
Security and confidentiality of information is a high priority for companies, whatever industry they work in. With the information held in digital format, multiple levels of password protection and encryption can be put in place to ensure only the people who should have access to particular documents can view them. At the same time, audit trails can be made available giving details of who has accessed or updated documents.
Compliance
There are a number of legal requirements which also come into play, particularly in terms of the Data Protection Act where secure storage and speed of information delivery is key. Depending on the type of information, other drivers will include HM Customs and the Inland Revenue as well as FSA and industry regulations.
Disaster Recovery
The unexpected can always happen but making sure that your documents are backed up and held digitally can minimise the potential risk that your organisation faces. Secure online backup in the case of fire, flood etc. with multiple copies including offsite storage makes certain that all eventualities are covered so that, should the worse happen, you can be back up and running within minutes with minimal disruption to your business.
Remote Access
With an increasing trend for employees to work remotely, scanned documents mean that they will still be able to access the files and the information that they require from wherever they are based. This can help facilitate better information sharing between offices as well as increase the productivity of working from home. It also increases general speed of information delivery across an organisation.
Environmental
And let’s not forget the benefit of reducing the ever increasing use of paper in offices – having a digital record is not only beneficial for all of the benefits outlined above but is also environmental into the bargain.
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INI makes an IMPACT
The Impact Nominal Index (INI) was the first product to be delivered by the IMPACT programme which was designed to provide the Police Force with a national system to support police intelligence. It seems that it is achieving this goal as recent research has shown that information uncovered through the INI is improving the quality of police decision making and helping both police and the public.
At Preview, we are delighted to see that the positive impact of this programme is already being felt across the country. We were closely involved with 7 UK Forces during the course of this project when we securely catalogued, digitised and indexed their material with them.
So how does INI help the Police? What the Impact Nominal Index does is access information which has been downloaded from local police systems via the Criminal Records Bureau. It then allows authorised users in one force to identify and obtain information held by other forces on individuals of interest to them. This is then accessed by officers using a web-based search.
The benefits of this system from a Police perspective are best summed up by someone who actually uses the system such as Elaine Cook, a Police Constable based in Bedfordshire. She comments:
“Doing investigations into Child Protection cases was limited to our own force systems and it only came by chance that we discovered information was held by another force. Now, with one check, we know immediately whether another force holds information.”
This has brought about some clear success stories which have avoided some potentially dangerous situations. One of these reported on the Home Office’s own website is:
“As a result of a query received in a child abuse unit, a police check was completed on a registered sex offender who had just moved in with a woman and her two young daughters. The INI check revealed that not only was he now under investigation by another force for sexually abusing two young girls, the force that ‘owned’ him on the sex offenders register did not know he had moved out of their area.”
It’s certainly good to see that the results of the IMPACT programme are indeed making a difference.
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Avoiding the Data Protection Crisis
Whether KPMG’s recent announcement “Six Month countdown to data protection crisis begins” was designed to shock or designed to encourage companies to take action is hard to tell. It did, however, raise awareness of an issue which many organisations were blissfully unaware of and caused a great deal of reaction in the specialised media.
The potential problems highlighted related to the ending of the Transitional Relief exemption period within the Data Protection Act (DPA) which will result in some files collected prior to October 1998 now being subject to the full force of the Act.
So why is this important? It seems that in many companies, it may be a case that they have let these files slip off the radar and so are not aware that they are going to be in breach of the Act.
The recommendation is that organisations take a close look at their own individual situations. Specifically, according to Steve Kenny, Privacy Services Leader with KPMG:
- Establish what structured paper records exist, where and how they are stored, if they contain personally identifiable data;
- If a significant number of files have relied upon transitional relief , then expanding the scope of records management activities should enable you to comply.
If you are already in the process of ensuring that all of your records are scanned or have already done so then of course you should already be covered. If not, then this might be the ideal time to look at this and the company policy on document scanning / management in general and so ensure that everything is in place and up to date.
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