The Reality of Paper Processes in a Digital Age

In today’s fast-paced, technology-driven world, nearly every business still depends on paper processes to support critical functions like operations, approvals, and compliance. Despite advancements in paperless workflows, physical documents remain a cornerstone of business operations in many industries. The reasons are both practical and rooted in external dependencies:

  • External Sources of Paper: Even companies that have invested heavily in digital systems continue to receive physical documents from customers, vendors, and regulators. These might include signed contracts, invoices, regulatory filings, shipping manifests, or compliance-related documentation. Businesses cannot always dictate the formats in which external parties provide these records, making paper unavoidable.
  • Industry-Specific Needs: Some industries—such as healthcare, legal, finance, and government—still rely heavily on paper due to compliance mandates, the need for wet signatures, or a tradition of physical documentation. For example:
    • Legal firms often deal with original signed contracts or case files that require notarized or stamped approvals.
    • Healthcare providers must manage paper medical records or forms signed by patients.
    • Regulatory agencies frequently require hard-copy submissions for audits or compliance reviews.

Why Not Scan Immediately?

While digitizing documents immediately upon receipt can offer clear advantages—such as instant accessibility and integration into digital workflows—some businesses find that immediate scanning disrupts operational efficiency in high-paced environments. This is where “floor filing” becomes an effective interim solution.

The Role of Floor Filing in Dynamic Workflows

  • Quick Access During Busy Periods: Certain documents are “live” during in-flight processes, meaning they are actively referenced, updated, or modified. Storing these records in accessible locations, such as desks or floor-level filing systems, allows employees to retrieve them quickly without navigating complex digital systems or filing cabinets.
    • Example: A logistics company might keep shipping orders on hand until goods are dispatched, as these documents often require annotations, signatures, or updates during the shipping process.
  • Supporting Analog Workflows: In industries where handwritten changes, stamps, or wet signatures are integral, floor filing ensures these modifications can occur organically without disrupting operations. For instance:
    • Finance departments may keep invoices on hand for approvals and coding before digitizing them for archival.
    • Legal teams might use paper documents to collaborate on notes or amendments during live cases.
  • Minimizing Workflow Interruptions: Immediate scanning requires additional steps, such as preparing documents for digitization and ensuring they’re indexed properly in the system. For businesses handling high document volumes or working in time-sensitive environments, this can slow down operations.

Dynamic Workflows Require Flexible Solutions

Businesses that rely on paper-heavy workflows need systems that adapt to their pace. Floor filing provides a practical compromise, ensuring documents remain accessible and actionable while processes are in motion. Once these documents complete their active role, they can then transition to long-term digital storage. This phased approach balances the need for immediate access with the long-term benefits of digitization.

By combining the flexibility of floor filing with scheduled scanning at the right stage of the document lifecycle, businesses can maintain efficiency without sacrificing the future-proof advantages of digital transformation.


Why Post-Process Scanning Makes Logical Sense

Many working documents require wet signatures, handwritten annotations, stamps, or physical modifications. These steps are often integral to completing business processes, making these documents more practical to digitize after the process is finalized. Scanning at this stage ensures:

  • Process Integrity: Only finalized versions of documents are archived, eliminating the need for re-scanning or managing multiple versions.
  • Operational Flexibility: Analog workflows remain uninterrupted, avoiding delays or disruptions during critical processing phases.

The Benefits of Scanning Before Filing

Rather than placing documents into filing cabinets after use, forward-thinking businesses schedule periodic scanning services to digitize paper records. For example, TierFive’s scheduled pickup services—offered monthly, quarterly, or annually—are designed to streamline this transition. Here’s why scanning before filing is the smarter choice:

  1. Preserve Floor Space: Paper storage takes up valuable real estate that could be repurposed for revenue-generating activities. By digitizing documents before filing, businesses can free up space and reduce clutter.
    • Fact: Filing cabinets require an average of 15 square feet per unit, including access space. This translates into a significant cost in high-rent areas.
  2. Enhance Post-Process Access: Digital records enable faster retrieval, allowing employees to locate information in seconds rather than wasting time digging through cabinets.
    • Fact: Employees spend an average of 18 minutes per document searching for paper records. In contrast, digital records are accessible instantly with the right search tools.
  3. Secure Long-Term Storage: Digitized documents are safe from physical risks like fire, water damage, or theft. They are also easier to track and manage for compliance purposes.
    • Fact: Businesses lose 7.5% of their documents annually, often due to misfiling or loss. Digital archives mitigate this risk entirely.
  4. Maintain Workflow Continuity: By scanning documents after processes are complete, businesses can maintain the speed and efficiency of their current workflows while ensuring critical records are securely archived.

How It Works

With TierFive’s periodic scanning service, businesses can:

  1. Schedule Regular Pickups: Documents are collected monthly, quarterly, or annually based on your needs.
  2. Complete Business Processes as Usual: Teams handle their paper workflows without interruption, ensuring seamless operations.
  3. Convert to Digital Archives: After pickup, TierFive digitizes and organizes your records, uploading them to a secure Document Management System (DMS) for easy access.

The Competitive Advantage

Choosing to scan documents post-process—before filing—delivers measurable benefits:

  • Save Time: Reduce retrieval times from minutes or hours to mere seconds with searchable digital archives.
  • Reduce Costs: Avoid the high expense of maintaining physical storage, which averages $1,500 annually per filing cabinet.
  • Boost Productivity: Employees spend 50% less time searching for records when working with digital systems.

Take the Next Step

Stop letting filing cabinets slow your business down. Digitizing paper records after your workflows are complete ensures efficiency, space savings, and improved accessibility—all without disrupting your current processes. With TierFive’s scheduled scanning services, you can achieve a seamless transition to digital without missing a beat.

Take a look at our awesome ROI calculator to help you visualize exactly how much camping on paper records costs your organization. Then, Contact us to learn more have any questions addressed so we can  schedule your first pickup and start transforming your paper-heavy processes into streamlined digital solutions!

TierFive Can Help

In an effort to go ‘paperless’ or at least ‘paper-lite’, many organizations are looking to move their processes to computer-based systems, reducing the need to keep physical records and speeding up day to day operations and accommodating remote workers. That still leaves the question of what to do with the vast back file of records many organizations have in file rooms, file cabinets and in offsite storage.

If you want to digitize your organizations paper records to digital image quickly and safely into an easy-access online system TierFive can help lets get started with a quick conversation or  a simple online quote to gauge budget else feel free to give us a call to +1 (888) 547-2267 for a nice chat and a free consultation to learn about how we can help you digitize your companys documents.