When you realise you don’t want to have to choose between physical and digital records, phygital information management is ready to offer you the best of both worlds.
But we speak to a lot of organisations that aren’t sure how to go phygital. So we put together this guide based on the sort of support we’ve provided to our customers.
Find out what you need to take your organisation phygital.
Understand your records
You can only figure out what should be digital and what should be physical if you know what’s in your records.
But many organisations have built a paper archive over years, even decades. So it’s understandable if you’re not sure what’s inside a box or two (or a hundred!)
So start by lifting the lids on those boxes and figuring out what information you’re storing. You might even find records you no longer need to store; securely destroying these records couple improve your regulatory compliance as well as saving space!
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Are you missing data?
You may find that older records are missing metadata. Where previously you might have simply appended a customer number to a record, now you might add more identifiers, categories, and tags.
Adding that missing data means you can easily find that information again. It also makes it easier to execute your retention policies, securely destroying records you no longer need to store.
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How are you using your information?
Knowing how your information is being accessed, used, and archived will help tell you whether a record should be digitised or kept physical.
Which files do you request regularly? Which files have lain dormant longer than your MySpace account? This information can tell you which records to digitise to see the biggest benefits and save the most time, money, and space.
You also need a clear plan as to how you’ll use your information in the future. Do certain teams need remote access to certain records? Are there any impending changes in service, the business, or even regulations that will reduce the need to access certain records?
An accurate prediction of your use will keep you ready for future business needs, as well as helping you avoid spending money on unnecessary digitisation.
Do you have the systems and processes you need?
Can your existing systems and processes accommodate both physical and digital records?
For example, many Document Management Systems (DMS) can only handle one or the other. This leaves your information spread across multiple systems, with all the inefficiencies and risks that entails.
Equally, processes surrounding archiving, lifecycle management, data access, and staff training may need to be updated to reflect your new phygital information management.
A thorough risk assessment can help identify any gaps in your current processes and policies.
Security
Adopting a phygital approach to your information management means you need to protect both physical and digital records.
Physical security protects both physical files and data centres, including:
- physical barriers such as locked doors and restricted access points data-driven, and based on facts rather than guesswork.
- access controls such as biometrics, security personnel, CCTV
- restricting inventory management and delivery requests to authorised staff Your regulatory compliance is stronger; a regulator won’t find you unable to find information.
Digital security includes measures such as:
- continuous backups and redundancies to protect against hardware failures or outages
- mobile device security to prevent unauthorised access to the hardware being used to access your information
- network encryption to protect transfer of information between datacentre and staff
Your security measures also need to include proper processes and training, securing any information security accreditations appropriate to your sector, and compliance with the relevant regulations.
Business continuity
Hope for the best, plan for the worst. So consider how your phygital information management is going to support your business continuity measures.
For example:
- Geo-redundancies (keeping your information is a second location) can protect you against disaster at a data centre
- Off-site storage can protect your valuable information against an incident at your office or working location.
- Retaining the physical copies of business-critical information can protect against loss, theft, or alteration of the digitised version.
Scanning facilities
When you’re ready to digitise, you’re going to need hardware, software, and a team. You’re going to need to train them, and you’re going to need a place for them to work.
Make sure you choose both hardware and software that integrates with your existing systems; this will smooth the process and avoid any unnecessary bottlenecks and workarounds.
And once the digitisation is done, what do you do with the hardware? What do you do with the staff? Because it’s not as easy as getting rid of it all. In fact, there are two compelling reasons to retain some ongoing digitisation facility:
- People might keep making paper.
- You don’t want to be stuck with old decisions.
What do you do with new paper?
Creating paper for a digital record isn’t just confusing: it risks regulatory noncompliance.
It risks creating two incomplete records — one digital, one physical — that makes it hard to find all the relevant information. And being unable to find information doesn’t just impact on your service; it also means you can fail regulatory requirements like Subject Access Requests.
But you may find that stakeholders, suppliers, customers, even your own staff don’t stop creating paper. Whether they keep posting you letters, taking paper notes, or they don’t have the necessary hardware (or the training), you need clear processes on how to handle this new paper and keep your information complete.
Flexible phygital
Like a lion on a yoga camp, the best phygital information management is a flexible beast.
Because you may find that a decision about what to digitise yesterday doesn’t match the needs of today.
Whether you want to expand the digital benefits to other teams or business areas, or the business needs have simply changed, you may well find yourself needing to digitise more physical records further down the road.
Solid Management Information (MI) will ensure you can monitor your usage so you can be ready to fire up the scanners again when you need them.
Speak to us todayOngoing digitisation
To protect against the regulatory risk of new paper, as well as retain the flexible phygital your organisation might need, you’ll want to maintain some sort of scanning facility.
But how big should it be? Too big and you’re left with a lot of unused resource wasting time, money, and space. Too small and you can’t keep up with demand, leading to delays, omissions, and mistakes.
Working with a third party supplier can remove that headache. It avoids the ongoing costs of maintaining your own, and only paying for what you use means investment only scales with your demand.
If that supplier also securely stores your physical records, they may also be able to offer further services such as a Scan on Demand facility that can provide same-day digitisation of your physical records.
Your path to phygital
Hopefully this guide will help you to find your path to phygital. Of course, every organisation is different. Yours might need something I haven’t included here. But if you have any questions, our experts have been creating bespoke answers for our customers for decades. Feel free to give them a call and pick their brains!
And if you think you can save time, money, and space by working with information management experts take the in phygital information management, find out how we can take you to phygital.
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