Why Does Your Small Business Need a Cloud-Based DMS?

Now, more than ever, small businesses need to be cost-efficient, secure, and resilient. Let’s take a look at today’s business landscape, and see how a cloud-based document management system (DMS) can help businesses out.

What challenges do small businesses face in 2021?

Many of the challenges small businesses face this year are offshoots of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and unstable economy. These challenges include:

• Fewer employees
  Some companies had to downsize their workforces last year. With business gradually reverting to normal, different companies compete for skilled and experienced workers. This makes it difficult to quickly recruit the right people, forcing many companies to serve their customers despite being understaffed.
• Threats to data privacy
  Data breaches and cyberattacks remain a constant risk, even to small businesses. By employing social engineering tactics that take advantage of their victim’s uncertainty, cybercriminals can steal crucial data, hack into systems, and spread malware. Solutions that bolster all aspects of your data’s security are a must-have this year.
• Changes in business setups
  The pandemic forced most companies to adopt remote work arrangements that allow them to operate while keeping their employees secure. Many companies are likely to keep offering their staff the option to work from home in the post-coronavirus era because it gives their employees greater flexibility about where they work.

Why invest in a cloud-based DMS?

1. Save money on storage and paper-related costs

A single office worker can use up to 10,000 sheets of paper in a year, but over 1,400 go to waste. That’s essentially like throwing money in the trash bin. Alternatively, a DMS lets you process, organize, store, and retrieve electronic documents. It can also extract data from paper documents and convert them into digital files. With a DMS, you use little to no paper, letting you save money on paper and printers, folders, and steel cabinets.

2. Boost staff productivity

A DMS can automate repetitive and labor-intensive steps in the document management process. Your staff will no longer have to manually input data, greatly reducing the risk of human error. It also lets you finish processing documents within minutes instead of hours. If you’re short on workers, a DMS will help ensure that your team focuses not on time-consuming work but on tasks that provide greater value to your company and customers.

3. Improve document security

Adopting cloud-based systems and processes is one of the best ways to protect your data from theft, damage, and loss. A cloud-based DMS stores several copies of your documents in multiple off-site servers. This ensures that should a disaster hit your locale, your files will remain undamaged. What’s more, the various copies serve as backups, which removes the risk of data loss.

Cloud servers use various cybersecurity measures, such as firewalls and multifactor authentication to prevent data thieves from accessing the files stored within. Information is also encrypted, so it cannot be read and used by unauthorized users.

4. Access crucial files anywhere

If you need to conduct audits but cannot go to the office to access your files, you can do so at home, as long as your documents are stored in the cloud. All you need is an internet connection and a web-connected device to access, create, and retrieve documents. This makes a cloud-based DMS necessary in any flexible working arrangement.

PairSoft is an important tool for small businesses looking to improve their capability to overcome today’s challenges. Learn more by scheduling a free personalized demo today.