Offices across the country are overflowing with hard copies of important yet no longer used documents, from financial statements to private customer data. With space now a luxury for many, finding an offsite archive storage solution is a priority. But what does this involve?
What is archive storage?
Archive storage is the process of moving documents that are no longer used to a secure separate location for long-term safekeeping. Businesses are required by law to retain accounting records for several years, with those who fail to provide these documents facing heavy fines or even jail sentences.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) implemented in May 2018 also gave individuals a greater say over how their personal data was used by organisations. This has consequently forced businesses to store old documents in a more secure location to facilitate document retrieval and disposal should consumers wish to erase their personal data.
How does it work?
Shredall SDS Group have invested in state-of-the-art archive storage facilities to help our clients comply with all governmental requirements. Our Nottingham-based warehouse, for example, has underground vaults to store our clients’ most important documents, with cameras and electronic-access doors located throughout the depot to provide first-class security.
Although our head office is located in Nottingham, we serve clients across the United Kingdom from our offices in Birmingham and London and our second depot in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Our sites allow us to run daily collections across the Midlands and Greater London.
We will send you flat pack archive storage boxes and personalised barcodes before collection, which can either be a one-off or part of a regular service. We will then send members of our team to your premises to collect the documents you wish to archive.
After our security-vetted staff has scanned and transported the documents to our facilities, we will record all scanned archive storage boxes into our software and send you an inventory of how many boxes, files and/or tapes we collected. The archive storage boxes will then be placed on racks in one of our secure depots and immediately made available for retrieval at the client’s request.
We also offer a ‘scan-on-demand’ service whereby we convert your paper records into a digital file and email you a link to our restricted online system where you can retrieve the file instantly and securely. Digital conversion costs are kept low and carried out on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis - you’ll also be able to retrieve your documents whenever you like at no extra cost.
Shredall SDS Group currently has over 5 million documents stored across its depots, including 600,000 wills, deeds and probates. We also have 3 temperature and humidity controlled vaults, with a 4th to be installed later this year. A whole depot will also soon be ‘re-racked’, creating 64,000 more spaces for boxes.
We are certified to ISO 27001 standards, an industry standard for establishing, implementing, operating, monitoring, reviewing and improving an information security management system. We also recently revamped our Secure Document Storage (SDS) contracts to ensure full compliance with GDPR.
What are the benefits?
Offsite archive storage holds many advantages over storing documents internally, such as:
- More office space
- Protection from theft, fire and flooding
- Greater GDPR compliance
- Scan-on-demand file retrieval service means our customers can retrieve scanned records quicker than a physical delivery
- Scan-on-demand file retrieval is also cost-effective as there are no call out charges associated with the delivery
- Once scanned, the electronic record can be retrieved multiple times without further cost
How much does it cost?
Our archive storage service is a cost-effective solution to freeing up additional office space while securely retaining sensitive data. Our prices depend on the size of the client and their needs. Enquire with us today to receive a bespoke quote for our archive document storage.
