Corridors,
kitchens, lofts and any other possible square foot are now
utilised for storage. Apart from the obvious fire, health
and safety considerations is this the image you want your
customers to see. Is this the image of a well-run organisation
looking to a bright and professional future – or does
it say that we have a problem but are not sure how to address
it.
Companies
are extremely conscious of all overheads and expenses, premises
will always be a major consideration when the accountants
get their pens out. In the age of downsizing and third party
contracting could this problem be more commercially addressed?
The cost per square foot of city centre office space is
roughly three times more expensive than out of town industrial
units – what does that tell us.
It
highlights two options. Firstly you can take a lease on
an appropriate sized unit which you can use for keeping
all the dormant files. This leaves you with the benefit
of knowing exactly where everything is at any point in time.
The downside for this option is TIME, and
as everybody knows TIME = MONEY.
When
you operate your own off-site facility you must add into
the equation the initial cost of getting all the items to
the destination, transport costs can be much higher than
you initially thought because paper is a very heavy commodity.
How many members of your staff will be needed to prepare
and assist in the operation? What will happen once everything
arrives in your unit, will it be arranged in some sort of
order or just stacked haphazardly to save time? If there
is no basic system how can anything be successfully retrieved
when required in the future. Again how much time will be
involved when you have to send a member of staff to find
a file or document and there is no easy recognition system.
It could take hours to travel to the unit, then locate the
items and eventually return to base. Would you consider
this an efficient way of using valuable working time.
The
second option available is to use a professional archiving
company, but what does this add to the equation. The benefits
are easy to describe. Once you have negotiated the costs,
long-term budgets can be put into place to despatch matter
on a regular basis. If you choose the right company they
will have a tracking system in their premises which can
locate any item instantly. This can be delivered back to
you as required, again at a pre-determined cost. The premises
where the archives are stored should be sound, environmentally
controlled and highly secure. If you visit the company prior
to signing any contract I am sure you will be able to make
your own judgement as to how suitable they are for your
particular business.
The
case against this option is cost – or should I say
perceived cost. Yes this type of a service has an actual
monetary cost to be paid but how do you then balance this
against what you could possibly gain. The most obvious advantage
is a neat and tidy working environment, which some will
say could actually improve productivity. Now that you have
freed up the old storeroom, what are you going to do with
it – could it be used to become commercially advantageous
through introducing a revenue generating process? This could
be either a new member of staff or even another machine
to increase your capacity for business. It may solve a problem
you have regarding future expansion, to grow within existing
premises is much more cost effective than having to move
to new larger ones and all the difficulties associated with
that.
Having
introduced the demon word technology at the beginning of
this article, I will now take you into that “Brave
New World”.
This
problem of retaining documents is not going away, if anything
it will increase pressures on already tight budgets simply
because the concept of the “paperless office”
can never be a reality for many sections of the business
community. As our life expectancy grows longer, if nothing
else our medical records will have to be kept for a few
extra years.
The
“year 2000 bug” has concentrated many minds
on the subject of computers and their uses and I suspect
it has been a major catalyst for businesses upgrading systems.
With this in mind we come on to the use of having data scanned
on to a CD, this gives almost instantaneous retrieval and
the capacity to reproduce documents if necessary.
One
CD has the capacity to store the equivalent to six drawers
of a standard filing cabinet. This opens new worlds for
all of us. Yes it is possible to work from home, with all
our files on a few CDs - the spare room could easily become
a full working office. This solution can also be networked
for multi-user or multi-site facilities. All those times
you needed a file and found someone else working with it
can be nothing more than a distant (but frustrating) memory.
Add to all this not having to worry about the new office
junior misfiling important customer information and you
begin to see the opportunities unfold in front of you.
For
those of you out there (and I know you exist) just think
how wonderful it would be if you could take your whole office
with you on holiday!!
The
rest of us will now have an introduction to one of those
problems that may not have surfaced yet, but it is there,
and we will have to address it in the not too distant future.
BEAM
ME UP SCOTTIE!!
About
the Author
Mike Forryan has some 30 years experience in business processes
and has worked for UK, European and US multinationals in
various rolls including business development and troubleshooter.
He now runs his own Supply Chain Resources business which
includes interim management, consultancy, recruitment and
business health checks. |
