Ahhh spring. The mornings are lighter. The daffodils are out. The temperature has crept just a fraction above “brass monkeys” – for the most part anyway. And with the advent of spring comes that great British tradition – the annual office spring clean.

Now you may or may not be the sort of person who finds this sort of thing fun (what do you mean no one finds it fun??) but the truth is that offices can very quickly get cluttered. And we all know that a cluttered office is not a great environment for a happy and productive team.

That’s why our document storage and document scanning services are so popular. People may not like tidying but they do like things being tidy.

Anyway, we’re not here to argue the case for spring cleans. The point is that if getting organised is on your to do list then we’re here to inject a little levity into the process – and help get everyone else involved so you’re not left to slog through it on your own.

Hide stuff people want

This one is super simple. Just hide stuff people want in the messiest places in the office. You might hide Easter eggs. You might hide booze. You might hide an important report that’s due to be delivered to a very big client first thing tomorrow morning.

The point is that as people dig through long forgotten drawers and filing cabinets, they’ll be able to ditch the trash along the way. Nothing like a little incentive to get the team moving, right? 

Deploy gamification tactics

Yes, that is a word, promise. Gamification is the process of making boring stuff slightly less boring by calling it a game. Parents have been using this technique for millenia (“Open your mouth for the spinach choo-choo train!”) but the business world has only cottoned onto it relatively recently.

Gamification often involves creating an actual computer game with work stuff crowbarred into it but there’s no reason why it can’t work on a low tech scale. Create a list of tasks – taking down out-of-date flyers from Barbara’s last three cake sales, fishing the stapler out from behind the cupboard where Bob chucked it that time he was trying to juggle at the Christmas party – and assign each with a value. Whoever gets the most points by the end of the day wins a prize.

Threaten to burn everything

This might feel a little extreme but if you’re really at the end of yourself, you might want to try shock tactics. We wouldn’t recommend going as far as actually standing in front of the archive room with a lit match, but giving people a deadline and letting them know what you intend to do should they fail to meet it could be the motivating factor that’s needed.

The same goes for the fridge. Don’t worry about sifting through to see what’s still in date and what has grown a layer of mould that could supply a small pharmaceuticals firm for the next few months. Simply make a rule that every Monday morning / Friday evening you’ll be emptying the contents into the bin and you’ll soon find people are taking their gross tupperware containers home with them.

Get them to pay for professionals

Now here’s a thought. What if your team didn’t have to do it? What if you could get the professionals in? You can just hear them breathing a sigh of relief, right? Well if they want professionals, they can pay for professionals. Out of their own pockets, out of their departmental budgets, out of the funds from Barbara’s endless cake sales – whatever it takes.

Bring in the Scan Film or Store team to box up your archived documents and pop them in our purpose built storage unit in Bridgwater where it won’t all be getting under your feet. Or have us scan it all so you can store it digitally in the cloud where it won’t be taking up any physical room at all. Then get a cleaner in to give the place a good going over (we don’t do this bit, I’m afraid).

So, which one do you think will work best on your lot? If you think getting some document storage and scanning support could be helpful, give us a ring and we’ll talk you through it. We can also help with secure document and data destruction if you should unearth anything that needs to be wiped from existence.

You don’t have to take our word for it – have a read of our case studies from companies we have helped already.  

So you may remember the rather dramatic blog post we wrote in November last year about our colleague Sophie. A few months before, at the age of just 28, she had collapsed at home in front of her 2-year-old daughter. For no reason that anyone can explain, she’d had a cardiac arrest.

Thankfully Sophie’s husband was there and was not only able to call an ambulance but to perform CPR until they arrived with a defibrillator and could shock her heart before taking her to the Bristol Heart Hospital.

Sophie’s experience shocked (honestly, no pun intended) all of us and we decided that we wanted to do something to make a small difference locally, as part of our 10th birthday celebrations. 

Sophie set up a JustGiving page with the aim of raising the £1500 needed to buy a public access defibrillator (AED) for Woodlands Court Business Park, where the Scan Film or Store HQ is located.

You guys are the best

The community stepped up with even more enthusiasm than we could have hoped for. Friends, family and other businesses on the estate and beyond pledged their support. The Bridgwater Mercury printed the story to spread the word. At SFS we chose not to send Christmas cards, instead donating the money we’d have spent to Sophie’s cause.

Before long we had hit our target – but the figure kept on growing. In the end the total raised stood at nearly £2,500. Amazing!

A new top quality defibrillator suitable for adults and children is now installed in a secure wall case at Woodlands Court thanks to Integrity Electrical in Bristol, who kindly installed it at no charge. London Hearts came along to give us all specialist training on how and when to use it, and several of the other businesses on the estate joined in.

Funding research and care

Smashing our fundraising target also means we have cash left over to donate to the Bristol Heart Institute at the BRI and to SADS, a charity that raises awareness and does research into sudden arrhythmic death syndrome, also known as sudden adult death syndrome. 

We know that this post doesn’t contain your usual dose of document storage and scanning related tips, puns and general silliness, but we hope you’ll excuse the diversion. After all, cardiac arrest could affect any of us – and we might not all be as lucky as Sophie was.

Sophie’s JustGiving page is now closed so if you’d like to donate then please do so directly to one of the charities we’ve mentioned. And if you want to find out more about SADS please visit the SADS website.

As we approach the end of the decade in data protection, one question is looming in everyone’s minds: what will Santa get us for Christmas?

The rules of data protection have changed. With corporate espionage, semi-legal journalism and ransomware lining up to take a swing at sensitive data, the quiet of the night before Christmas has become a little more unsettling. A mouse may not be stirring, but other things might be. And it might not just be Santa coming down the corporate chimney this Christmas.

A message from Father Christmas

The good news is that the North Pole has been in touch. We’ve been keeping some of this year’s presents safe for Christmas HQ. And you’ll be glad to know, all the gifts are accounted for.

The jolly man himself, asked us to forward this urgent correspondence.

“I know, I know, I know. It’s natural to assume that you won’t be on the naughty list, ho ho, ho – sorry, rotten cough – on the naughty list this Christmas. After all you have been working very hard this year. And don’t think I don’t take that into account.

Trouble is, it’s not up to me who ends up with a lump of coal anymore. I’ve got all this – ho, ho – data stuff, that works that all out these days. That’s why you should listen to Scan Film or Store’s advice. I’ll be seeing you – and you won’t be seeing me – in the small hours of the 25^th ho, ho, ho – look stop transcribing my cough Rudolph, no one wants to read that…”

Turns out according to Datto’s latest ransomware report, 85% of Managing Service Providers are experiencing ransomware attacks on SMBs (small and medium sized businesses). And while these kind shepherds are doing an admirable job fighting off the wolves, it’s not quite enough.

The Scan Film or Store Christmas blockade

In celebration of all things festive, we’re offering an almighty defence against winter’s less-welcome intruders. We’ll take the wolves out of winter while you tend to that glass of mulled wine.

First in the line of defence is a firewall so hot that you could throw the One Ring into its flames. It would have made Frodo’s job a lot simpler if he had known about it.

Second in our blockade is the latest TrendMicro antivirus controls, primed to annihilate any blackened remains that stumble through the wall of fire.

We’ve armed our servers with uninterrupted power supply protection and mirrored drives. Nothing’s going down while this planet’s still spinning.

To top it all off, every night we’re going to be backing up our data and storing it in fireproof safes in a secure location. So even if everything gets lost, you lose nothing.

Finally, we’re accredited by the government backed Cyber Essentials scheme. So basically, if you back us, you can be sure we’ve got your back.

Still having doubts? We’ve got a fully documented Business Continuity Plan, so if disaster should strike, we can still continue working and protecting your records.

No-one’s getting coal for Christmas on our watch.

See it for yourself

Come and take a tour of our Armageddon-proof facilities. We’re just two minutes from the M5 at junction 23.

You’re welcome to ask our team anything – though they may have to kill you if they tell you everything. It’s a hazard of signing the Official Secrets Act. Our premises and security procedures are independently audited by our customers, ensuring the highest standards. We’d love to talk you through them.

And if there’s any message you’d like us to pass on to the man in red and white. We’d be happy to oblige.

If getting your data security sorted is on your Christmas Wishlist – or indeed your New Year’s resolution list – get in touch to see how we can help with everything from secure document storage to data destruction services.

Do you remember turning 10? The nearly uncontainable excitement of reaching double digits? A whole decade on the planet! Now that’s proper grown up.

Well, that’s exactly how we feel this month. Yes, dear reader, Scan Film or Store is 10 years old. And we are as excited as a kid who’s been eating sweets since breakfast and has just seen a clown car pull up outside the house.

It just seems quite unbelievable that we’ve been doing document scanning and storage, secure data destruction, microfilm conversion and the rest of it for such a long time!

A special present…

While we will no doubt be blowing out the candles and popping open the bubbles (none of the team is actually a 10-year-old, you understand – no underage drinking here, thank you) we thought our big birthday deserved something extra special.

And because our local community in Bridgwater is so important to us, we started thinking about how we could give back and say thank you for all the support that we’ve been given over the last decade.

That’s when our IT manager, Sophie, had a bright idea.

…with a serious backstory

Sophie has been part of the team at Scan Film or Store for seven years. Her mum, her aunt and her husband work here too. (See, we told you we were a team with strong family values!)

So you can imagine how much of a shock it was last year to hear that Sophie suffered a sudden cardiac arrest.

She was at home when it happened, caring for her 2-year-old daughter. Luckily her husband was also home and was able to give her CPR for 15 minutes until the ambulance arrived. When they did, they shocked her heart using a defibrillator before taking her to the hospital where her family were told she had a 50% chance of surviving.

She spent three days in intensive care, a further two weeks in hospital recovering and had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) fitted in case it ever happens again.

Help us save lives

Sophie has made a full recovery. But not everyone is so lucky.

Cardiac arrest can happen to anyone, at any age and at any time. That includes healthy people with no known heart problems or risk factors. The chances of surviving if you’re not already in a hospital are only 8%. But if you get CPR and early access to a defibrillator, those chances go right up.

That’s why the entire SFS team has now trained as first aiders and why, as part of our 10th birthday celebrations, we’re joining Sophie’s fundraising efforts to buy and install a public access AED (automated external defibrillator) at SFS HQ here in Bridgwater.

We want to make sure that we’re ready to step forward if anyone nearby needs our help, and we’ve been visiting the other businesses on the Woodlands Court Business Park to raise awareness of sudden arrhythmic death syndrome.

If you’d like to wish us a happy birthday, we couldn’t ask for a better present than your donations on Sophie’s Just Giving page. Thank you for supporting us in our first 10 years of trading and we hope your generosity will help us to save other lives with the new AED.

If you’re tired of working at ground level, your options are as follows: train to be a pilot, attach millions of balloons to your office building – Up style – or convert to digital. Granted this last option might not give you the same dazzling view, but digitisation can still make your workload feel lighter than stratus-shaped water vapour. We may not be meteorologists, but we can tell you that these digital clouds are worth getting your head into. Here’s why:

Anywhere, anytime baby

Often on the move? Working in multiple locations? Stranded in an airport while your airline goes on strike again? Cloud technology means you don’t need to wait for that plane to take off before you can rise above it all. So long as you have a connection to the world wide web (and if not find your nearest coffee shop of choice), you’re only a click away from all the documents and data you need. Getting to grips with the business of the day has never been easier.

Collaboration in the cloud nation

If you have a team, several teams or even a couple of companies working on the same project, digitisation will take you beyond the pearly gates. Cloud storage means everyone can work at the same time on the same document from different locations. This creates the conditions for faster document creation and easier alteration = allowing your work to speed ahead without calling in the couriers. Even if you’re only sitting across a desk from a single collaborator, cloud storage will save you from printing and passing papers with every edit. You’ll have instant access to the entire database of documents you need.

If the world ends, it’s not a problem

When MC Hammer sung “Can’t Touch This” in 1990 he probably wasn’t referencing his secure data files. But now corporates can get up on their desks and dance along, knowing that their hard work is safely out of harm’s way. Cloud storage places your files in the digital version of Fort Knox, out of reach of thieves and ground level disasters. It used to only be cockroaches that could survive nuclear fallout. But cloud storage means you can safely start World War III and still leave behind a good audit trail.

Springboard into the next big thing

If Back to the Future’s predictions of 2015 were anything to go by, we would be eating re-hydrated pizza and enjoying a 1500ft view while trying to make it through the evening sky-traffic. When it comes to technological forecasts, humanity seems to watch the skies without much success. There’s no telling what might be around the corner in the digital world, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get ready for it.

You may have good reason for holding onto your analogue and paper documents, but you’ve also got nothing to lose and a lot to gain by digitising. Apart from anything else, your data will be nimble – capable of converting to any format you desire – paper, CD, microfilm, microfiche, harddrive. It’s like keeping your documents as a liquid that can be quickly cast into any shape. So when the next wave of digital innovation sweeps over us, you’ll be more than ready to ride it.

The sky is waiting. Whether it’s time to wave farewell to your beloved physical files, or you need to hold onto those keepsakes, it’s certainly time to climb into the Cloud. Check out our range of data conversion services or get in touch to work out which solution will best suit your needs. We may not be able to fix the flying mechanics on your 1985 DeLorean, but we can still launch you into the clouds.

Document shredding and data destruction done correctly can make all the difference for company security. It can also completely change the plot of many Hollywood films. Here’s a rundown of how some of them might have played out, had the characters known we existed.

Star Wars: A New Hope

The Emperor could have fulfilled his ambition to rule the universe forever, if it hadn’t been for leaked documents. The Death Star, formidable as it was, had its critical weakness exposed because someone didn’t destroy the blueprints. If they had embraced document shredding, Luke would not have destroyed the original and might never have had the chance to confront Darth Vader. Palpatine, you should have gone to SFS.

Saving Private Ryan

An order to retrieve a soldier from the front lines because his mum wants him home? You could risk the lives of your men to fetch him, or you could hand the order to SFS and let us vanish it from existence. Ryan doesn’t even want to be retrieved. So why go all that way, Tom Hanks? Why go?

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Because no good Star Wars trilogy can start without a leaked document, The Force Awakens’ entire plot is built around a ‘Map to Skywalker’ that presumably was drawn by the man himself, even though he did not want to be found. Perhaps he needed to archive the information somewhere in case he couldn’t remember where he was. Of course, a different level of security is needed when Kylo Ren can extract the map from your memory using the Force. So far at SFS, we’ve not had to deal with such a situation. 

WALL-E

All the memories of earth were stored aboard the spaceship that kept humans suspended in space. If the (spoiler alert!) rogue autopilot had destroyed the data, no doubt humanity would have never returned. This would have been quite a sad ending, so it’s just as well they archived everything in digital format, ready to be uncovered by the most adorable robot ever seen.

The Hobbit

What do you do with a secret map leading to a secret entrance on a mountain housing a dragon who’s waiting for an excuse to destroy a city? You could go and wake up the dragon, get momentarily rich and then perish in fire. Or you could shred the map to make sure nobody ever does such a foolhardy thing. Still, we learn from our mistakes.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Let’s see Dumbledore, you’ve got a stone that would give Voldemort a chance to rise to power again? You could hide it behind a matrix of trolls, three-headed dogs, living chess pieces and a magic mirror. Or you could just put the stone in our state-of-the-art shredder. Our shredder would probably complain a little – it’s meant for document shredding after all – but it’s all in the name of stopping He Who Must Not Be Named.

So if you’re trying to stop a dark wizard or you’ve recently finished work on a Death Star, give us a bell. Or if there’s other less dramatic documents you need securely shredded, or data you need destroyed, don’t hesitate to get in touch.