Gosh, where did the time go? It feels like we were just enjoying Wimbledon the other week. And yet here we are, about to dive into a whole new year. Which can only mean one thing: it’s New Year’s resolution time. If you’re a business owner, we’ve had a few ideas about what you could tackle in 2018 that will actually benefit you and your business. Let us know if you think of anything else.

New Year’s Resolution #01: Set a vision for the year

First things first: there is no point setting yourself a bunch of arbitrary goals if you don’t know where you’re going. And don’t just say ‘forward’ or something silly like that. You know as well as we do that setting a strong vision at the beginning of the year will motivate not just you but your entire team. So give it some thought. And don’t forget to tell the rest of them or they’ll get very lost indeed.

New Year’s Resolution #02: Declutter

You know you’ve been putting it off. That storage room is a hazard to anyone who dares venture beyond the first stack of archive boxes. It’s time to decide what can be destroyed, what can be scanned, and what can be stored off site. Don’t wait until spring. You’re a business leader – be ahead of your time! Get it done now. You’ll feel smug when March rolls around.

New Year’s Resolution #03: Turn off all IT notifications

You know what it’s like when you’re just getting your head around the latest P&L forecast, and suddenly: ping! You’ve got an email. It’s from Susan in HR, and judging by the shouty capital letters in the subject line she doesn’t sound pleased. Notifications are the enemy of productivity. Turn them off. That means social media too. If Susan needs you that urgently, she can come and talk to you in person.

New Year’s Resolution #04: Start taking a lunch break

We don’t mean to sound like your mum, but are you getting enough rest? And decent food? You won’t be particularly productive if you’re running on empty you know. And no, coffee doesn’t count. Get a sandwich into you! And go eat it outside. We don’t care if it’s cold, that’s what coats are for – you need a screen break.

New Year’s Resolution #05: Introduce flexible working

This is super trendy at the moment, so if you’re looking for good boss bonus points then this is the way to go. It’s actually a win-win staffing strategy too. Your team will be less stressed and more productive if they can work hours that suit them better, and you’ll attract more (and potentially better) candidates when hiring. Plus it’s an excuse to knock off early on a Friday, which is always nice.

New Year’s Resolution #06: Go paperless

Another worthy cause, and a tick on the environmental responsibility checklist. Again though, this is not just about looking good. Going paperless – by switching to a digital filing system, for example (less-than-subtle plug: we can help with this) – will actually save you time and money. So everyone is happy. Except maybe your stationery supplier.

New Year’s Resolution #07: Learn to delegate

Finishing with a corker, aren’t we? No matter how big your team, there are probably jobs you do that someone else could do just as well, right? Perhaps even better? Sitting at your desk until 8pm every evening doesn’t make you successful, you know. It makes you tired. And grumpy. Just ask your PA.

If you’ve got a goal for 2018 that we can help with, drop us line. Or come and see us. We might even let you have some of our left over Quality Street. See you soon!

We work with some brilliant clients and we like to think they’re all pretty happy with the work we do for them. But every now and then we get a testimonial through that really warms our hearts. And this time of year seems to generate an influx of them for some reason.

Whatever the case, we thought you might like to find out why some of our favourite clients enjoy working with us and how we’ve managed to solve their particular challenges. We think you’ll rather enjoy these…

Document storage – Chris Cringle (aka Santa Claus, aka Father Christmas), founding director, North Pole Enterprises

“I was absolutely drowning in paperwork when someone suggested I give the team at Scan Film or Store a ring. The North Pole might be pretty roomy, but if you think about how long I’ve been in this game, you can imagine that even the most extensive headquarters might get a little crowded. The elves were getting fed up of rooting around in the archives to find historic Naughty & Nice lists, and I was worried that before long we’d lose one of them to a toppling box of candy cane receipts.

“The Scan Film or Store team came out to take a look around, and promptly provided me with a very reasonable quote for document storage. They helped us getting everything packed, and even brought their own sturdy boxes. Now they’re tucked away safely in the company’s Bridgwater warehouse, cleverly barcoded so if I should happen to need a copy of my sleigh MOT certificate, they can quickly find it and get it sent over. I can’t recommend them highly enough. They’re definitely going to be getting an extra special gift in their Christmas stockings this year.”

Document scanning – Ebenezer Scrooge, credit broker, Past Present & Future Ltd

“I’ve always found the idea of paying out for off site storage space an utter waste of money. I’ve got a perfectly good office, after all, and if Cratchit can’t find anything then it’s his fault for being a useless clerk. Though I shouldn’t be too hard on him, as it was he who brought Scan Film or Store to my attention.

“This rather remarkable group of people took one look at my archive – most of which I don’t actually need in its original form, as it turns out – and told me I could reduce it all via document scanning to digital files which would take up no room at all. Even though there was an initial outlay, I am forced to admit that it’s been well worth it. Not only is it much easier to keep a close eye on who owes me what now that I can access their files at the touch of a button, I’m also cashing in on that extra space by renting it out to local business folk. And Cratchit complains a lot less.”

Data conversion – The Snowman, holiday rep, Scandi Travel Inc

“I’ve done an awful lot of travelling in my life, mainly around northern Europe – Norway, Iceland, that sort of place. Anywhere with snow, I guess. It’s the cold I really like. You can’t beat that frosty air, the nip at your nose. The only thing I enjoy as much as a holiday is photography. From stunning snowscapes to family gatherings, I’ll snap pretty much anything.

“Of course, I’ve been doing this for long enough now that a lot of my collection isn’t easily accessible. It’s hard to find a proper slide projector these days. That’s why I was so pleased when my friend Chris referred me to Scan Film or Store. In no time at all they were able to transfer all my old analogue travel slides and even Christmas home movies into digital format thanks to their data conversion services. The other snowmen and snowwomen are going to be thrilled when I fire up the laptop at this year’s Christmas gathering!”

Gosh, it makes us quite emotional reading back over those lovely testimonials. Because we really do love to help our clients achieve their goals, no matter what they are. If there’s anything we can do to help you achieve yours, do let us know. In the meantime, happy Christmas!

You’ll hopefully know by now that document scanning is basically the reason we get up in the morning. But we’re happy to admit that you don’t always need a local team of experts on hand to service your every document scanning need.

Sometimes, for example, you might simply want to scan something with your phone. Like a receipt. Or a signature. Or a secret blueprint of an underground lair. In which case, you probably need an app. Actually scratch that – you do need an app. One of these, in fact.

Scanning app #1: CamScanner

We love a PDF. The portable document format, as we’ve said before, is the most accessible file format around. If you have a document you want to share or store electronically, just stick it in a scanner, convert it to a PDF and you’re good to go. But what if you don’t have a handy full size scanner to… well, to hand? No problem. CamScanner is a nifty mobile scanner that uses your built in smart phone camera to scan everything from receipts to white board discussions, with built in OCR (that’s optimised character recognition, for those who aren’t regular readers) in the paid for version. Mark up your scanned document, email it, fax it, print it out or collaborate by inviting colleagues and friends to view and comment. No wonder CamScanner was voted the best app of 2014 and gets a reported 50,000 sign ups a day.

Use it for: scanning receipts so you don’t end up with a wallet bulging with scrappy bits of faded paper that even your book keeper can’t read.

Scanning app #2: Adobe Fill & Sign

Signing a form isn’t all that challenging. Assuming you can hold a pen and give it a good squiggle in a relatively consistent manner, you probably won’t have any trouble. But what if you’ve been sent a form electronically and need to sign and return it quick smart, without relying on finding a printer and a super fast carrier pigeon? That’s when you need the Adobe Fill & Sign tool, which works with any form, from a paper permission slip to a digital health intake. You can even use it on a photo of a form taken with your smart phone. The app gives you options to save, share and send completed forms too, and stores them securely in the Adobe Document Cloud so they’re always at your fingertips. What’s more, the autofill function means you can save data securely for next time, allowing you to just drag and drop information on future forms.

Use it for: Getting the permission slip for your daughter’s school trip sorted before the 3pm cut off, thereby avoiding a half term full of bitter teenage tears.

Scanning app #3: Scannable by Evernote

This is one for the iPhone and iPad users (sorry, Android folk), and especially those of you who couldn’t live without Evernote to organise your extremely busy lives. Scannable by Evernote has all the functionality you’d want in a scanner, and a whole lot more. Not only can it instantly scan business cards, sketches, and even multipage documents, the app will automatically store the resulting electronic documents in your Evernote account. It will crop any images to remove the background, and enhance the text to make it more readable too. And best of all, it’s totally free, with no paid for upgrade version.

Use it for: Scanning business cards so the contact information is automatically lifted and added to your contact card.

If you have small batches of documents to scan for a particular purpose, these apps really will make life just that little bit easier. And, of course, when it comes to the big jobs, you’ve always got us.

To discuss your document scanning requirements, just get in touch and one of the team will be happy to talk you through your options.

One thing we’re particularly proud of here at Scan Film or Store is the relationships we build with our clients. Many of them stay with us for years, and we get to know them pretty well. Which is nice.

David Wilson Homes is one such client. They first came to us in 2012, to help them reassess the way they stored their archives. They’d been housing them in an off-site unit that was some distance from their offices, which means accessibility was an issue.

After asking lots of not-especially-interesting questions about their specific requirements, we were able to recommend our scanning service, giving them digital records they could not only access whenever they wanted, but saving them money on physical storage.

From sample scanning to staff training

The first thing we did was take a sample away and cost up their options. Then we had a meeting to discuss things like indexing, and the pros and cons of more vs less detailed indexing. We always to replicate our client’s existing filing system, you see, so they can find their electronic copies very easily indeed. Admittedly, it probably wasn’t the most exhilarating meeting they’d ever sat through, but they were very happy to have the choices laid out clearly and simply so they could make a sensible decision.

Once the decisions had been made, we got started with the scanning. There were around 90,000 documents in that first batch, but thankfully our trusty machines don’t tire or get paper cuts, so it all worked out very nicely indeed.

And then all that was left to do was to train up the David Wilson Homes staff so they’d feel really confident using their new online filing system – which was designed to match their physical archives to save too much confusion. And we’re pleased to report that the team were so pleased with the new system that they’ve been sending us batches of invoices and other files ever since.

Lovely words about our scanning skills

Of course, it’s easy enough to say why we think our clients are happy with our service – but far better to ask them to say it for us. Here’s what Maria Tyley, Divisional Accountant at David Wilson Homes, thought about the whole experience (and yes, we’re still blushing):

“It’s so much easier since we got our new system set up. Whereas before we’d go, ‘Oh I need that invoice!’ and then we’d have to go and get it from the storage, now within minutes I can load the hard drive up and we’ve got the information.

“The Scan Film or Store team are experts on what they do and the quality of what I get back is very good. If we need to print copies off for audit, they’re clear enough for that. Their speed and their return of information is excellent too. We’ve just sent them another 25,000 invoices to do within the last week and I know that within a few weeks it will all be done. And they’re very competitive in the market.

“I have to say they are amazing people. Mark keeps in contact with me but not in a pushy way – he genuinely cares. And if I need anything, I can email him and within hours he’s back to me with the information I need. The whole team is very good at keeping their clients happy. They’re just nice people to have working alongside you, and they really know their business.”

Well, you can imagine how happy it made us to hear that. After all, it’s our clients that make our business. Without them we’d just be sitting around staring longingly at our high tech scanning equipment and drinking far too much tea.

We’d love to help you like we’ve helped Maria and the rest of the team at David Wilson Homes. So if you have any storage or scanning needs – or data destruction, microfiche conversion or CD duplication, for that matter – drop us a line to see how we can help.

Paper. It’s pretty simple, as technology goes. Sure, you can get it in different sizes and colours and textures, with lines or without, sturdy or flimsy enough to see through. But essentially, it’s bits of flat stuff that you can write or draw on. Not especially complex.

And yet it’s so important. Even in these digital days, as we try and reduce the number of trees we need to cut down, we still use 12.5 million tonnes of paper and cardboard every year. Without it, we wouldn’t have magazines and till receipts and books and toilet paper (perish the thought!).

So how much do you actually know about this stuff that you probably use every day? We’re willing to put good money on the fact that you’ll learn at least one thing from this blog post. Which, at the very least, will stand you in good stead next time you’re at a pub quiz.

Historical paper facts

1) Paper is thought to have been invented around 100AD by the Chinese, although it was supposedly kept secret for a number of years. The Chinese are also credited with the first paper currency and the first toilet paper.

2) The English word paper is derived from papyrus, a material which predates paper and was originally used in Egypt thousands of years BC.

3) The first newspaper was printed in Venice in 1556. The monthly publication was available to buy for one Venetian coin called a gazetta, hence the word gazette can now be used to refer to a newspaper.

Record breaking paper facts*

*As authenticated by Guinness World Records!

4) The furthest a paper aeroplane has flown is 69.14m. The plane was made using just one sheet of A4 paper, and was designed by John M Collins and launched by Jo Ayoob in North Highland, California in 2012.

5) The largest building made entirely from paper was 6.4m tall, with a base that measured 15.2m by 17.9m. It was constructed in the form of a traditional Thai house and manufactured using nothing but corrugated paper by Kwag Hua Industries, who unveiled it in Bangkok in October 2003.

6) The biggest roll of toilet paper ever made was 2.97m in diameter and stood 2.59m high. It was made in August 2011 by Charmin in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, and was later sent to a Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum.

Current paper facts

7) It is possible to do a degree in Paper Science. If you’re interested in analysing the factors that influence pore size distribution or modelling shrinkage during manufacture, this is definitely the course for you. Probably don’t try and explain your choice down the pub though.

8) The average person in the UK gets through 38kg of newspapers a year. Most of which is probably due to excessive consumption of fish and chips (we may have made this last bit up).

9) The amount of paper used in the UK each year takes the equivalent of a woodland the size of Wales to make. Which is a great reason for working towards a paperless office.

Office paper facts

10) The average office worker uses around 10,000 sheets of photocopy paper every year, according to Xerox. That’s the equivalent of four boxes, which works out to about £50. Multiply that across your entire company and you can see where the cost saving potential lies!

11) A standard three drawer filing cabinet, which takes up around 4 square foot of office space, can hold around 9,000 sheets of paper. According to a report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the costs associated with buying the cabinet and maintaining the space add up to about £1,500 a year.

12) There is way more to measuring quantities of paper than you’d imagine. For example, 25 sheets of paper = one quire. 20 quires = one ream. Two reams = one bundle. And five bundles = one bale. Try asking your stationery supplier how much a quire of A4 costs next time they ring – that should stump them!

So, there we go. Consider yourself well and truly informed about paper.

If you’d like any help tackling your own paper related issues, whether you could use some extra storage, want to explore the idea of going digital, or need to securely destroy sensitive documents, do get in touch.

Well, this is a very good day. After months of work logging our firewall defences and detailing how we manage passwords, we’ve finally been awarded certification under the Cyber Essentials Scheme. Which, in case you were wondering, is really rather an honour and not something that every Tom, Dick and Harry can claim to have done.

The Cyber Essentials Scheme is, in their own words, a programme that “aims to help organisations implement basic levels of protection against cyber attack, demonstrating to their customers that they take cyber security seriously.” Which we do, of course.

To achieve certification, we had to complete a thorough (really, really thorough) self-assessment, evaluating ourself against five security controls, and then submit all that information to be verified by a qualified external assessor.

Granted, it was not the most thrilling of jobs. There was a lot of paperwork to organise, and systems to catalogue, and other things that you probably aren’t all that interested in hearing about. But it was an incredibly useful process, and even helped us make improvements to our already very good security processes.

Now we can officially say that we’ve taken absolutely every precaution possible to make our company as digitally impenetrable as a conspiracy theorist’s basement tech hub.

How our Cyber Essentials Scheme certification affects you

So what does all of this actually have to do with you? Well, nothing if you aren’t a client. What do you care about whether we get hacked?

If you are a client, however, or you might be one in the future, then knowing that we’re certified under the Cyber Essentials Schemes should be rather a weight off your shoulders. Because what it means is that if we process or store any of your data digitally – which we would if, for example, we were scanning all of your paper records to create a digital archive – it won’t be hacked, leaked or otherwise allowed to get into the wrong hands.

So basically, we’re mega safe to do business with. Which is what you want, really.

Anyway, we won’t bang on about it too much (unless you bump into one of us and mention it, in which case we reserve the right to bore you just a bit more). But suffice to say that if you have any document storage, scanning or destruction needs, and your data is particularly sensitive, you should definitely give us a call.

Remember that old James Bond film, The Spy Who Loves Me? In it, Roger Moore’s Bond is tasked with recovering stolen plans for a highly advanced submarine tracking system – plans that are contained within a roll of microfilm.

Incredibly, it’s been 40 years since that film came out (yes, we feel old too). But despite the technological advances of the last four decades, microfilm is as relevant today is ever. Likewise microfiche – which brings to mind images of Jessica Fletcher hunting through the Cabot Cove records in search of a clue – is still being used in organisations up and down the country.

(In case you’re wondering, the main difference between the two is that microfiche is formatted as a flat card of negatives rather than a roll. In both cases, a backlit reader is used to view the images – although these days you can also view microfiche and microfilm digitally using special software.)

Why microfilm and microfiche still matters

The main benefit of microfiche and microfilm is that they can turn very large documents into very small images. Which makes them particularly useful for companies with lots of large format documents such as architects, engineers and hospitals. They’re also a great way of accessing rare or fragile documents that shouldn’t be handled without proper care.

And that’s just the start. Converting your documents to microfiche or microfilm has loads of business benefits, allowing you to:

• Create secure backups of important documents (guaranteed for 500 years!)
• Free up storage space and move towards a paperless office
• Share documents easily, quickly and cost effectively
• Access critical data without having to hunt through endless archive boxes
• Reduce retrieval costs if your physical documents are stored off site

All of which can save you lots of hassle and potentially money too. Which, let’s face it, is what we’re all aiming for, right?

Specialists in microfilm and microfiche conversion

At Scan Film or Store, we’ve been working with microfilm and microfiche for longer than we care to admit.

That’s why we can offer such a wide range of services around microfiche, microfilm and related media, including:

• Digitising microfilm and microfiche (oh, and aperture cards too, if you’ve got some of those)
• Converting photographic images into a range of popular electronic formats such as .pdf, .pdf/a, .jpg and .tif
• Producing printed hard copies of microfilm, microfiche and aperture cards (we can even supply Diazo microfiche copies of microfilm, if you can get your head around that one)
• Integrating digitised film with your existing or new document management systems
• Destroying, cataloguing, indexing, archiving and/or storing the originals, depending on your needs

Not only do we have the technical skills required to do all this, we’re also fully secure – our staff are all DBS checked with full security clearance to BS7858 standards. So you don’t need to worry about your data falling into the hands of a reclusive megalomaniac like Karl Stromberg.

If you have any microfiche or microfilm jobs you need taken care of, give us a ring and one of the team will be happy to help.

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It’s surprising how long making a decision can take. Even something simple like what to order at the local Chinese or whether you ought to wear the red or the blue tie for that client meeting tomorrow.

So it’s not surprising really that business owners can get themselves all knotted up over something like which document storage company to go with. After all, if we do say so ourselves, it’s a pretty important role. There’s valuable data at stake; you don’t want to be handing it over to any bloke with a warehouse.

That’s why we’ve given you a few things to think about when choosing a document storage company, to help you avoid the cowboys and make a decision you’ll be happy with.

Your document storage company should be able to help you create a brief

Beyond knowing that you want someone to please, please make all the paperwork go away, do you actually know exactly what it is that you need? If the answer is no, you’re not alone. Why should you understand the ins and outs of document storage? You’re an expert at what you do. That’s why a good document storage company should be able to ask you the right questions to help you work out a thorough brief. Like how often you’ll need to access your document, whether they’ll need storing long or short term, or whether you actually need paper records at all. It could be that you’d be better off with a scanning and secure data destruction package, to create easily-accessible, mega space saving digital records instead.

They should have top notch security

This may sound a bit obvious, but the document storage company you choose should be able to guarantee the safety of your valuable documents. And not just by storing them in a facility that’s alarmed, protected and monitored. They also need to be thinking about the environmental conditions (we’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again – paper doesn’t like the damp, mould does), not to mention rodents (who have a surprising penchant for paper archives). Oh, and they need a good barcoding system, like we have, so your files don’t simply disappear amongst the many thousands of others they’re storing.

They should be certified to industry standards

It’s not enough for your document storage company to say they’re good at what they do. They really ought to be able to prove it. Here are some of the reassurances we can offer:

• ISO 9001:2008 certification, which we’ve held since 2011 and which we’ll shortly be upgrading to the new ISO 9001:2015 standard – we’re one of the first in the industry to achieve it!
• DPA registration, which means we are compliant with the Data Protection Act 1998 (our registration number is Z6020186, if you want to check).
• BS7858 compliance, which means we’re all security vetted and have had our DBS checks too.
• BS10008 compliance, which means we can ensure the integrity of any files from point of collection to point of return, much like CSIs transporting evidence.
• A fully documented business continuity plan, which means we can keep working and protecting your documents in the case of a catastrophic event.
• A comprehensive Health & Safety policy, including regularly updated risk assessments, COSHH assessments, PAT tests and electrical testing across all our premises.

There’s also the Official Secrets Act <link to You’ll never make us talk post>, which we may or may not have signed (we can’t tell you, or we’d have to kill you).

They should offer you a bespoke service

No two companies are the same. Well ok, there are similarities. But still – whether you’re a school or a hospital or a firm of architects or an Aerospace Engineering business, your document storage needs are going to be just that little bit different to the next school or hospital or firm of architects or Aerospace Engineering business. A standard ‘one size fits all’ approach isn’t going to be as efficient as a bespoke solution, neither is it going to help you make the most of your budget. That’s why we meet with all our clients and even do a sample job when there’s scanning involved, so you can work out exactly what you need and pay only for that.

So for goodness sake, don’t stick a pin in the Yellow Pages or go for the cheapest option on the market. There’s nothing financially prudent about sticking vital business data in the care of anyone you don’t utterly trust.

Want to give us the once over and see whether we meet your standards? Give us a ring and one of the team will be happy to help.

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Data security is something every organisation of any size needs to think about. Whether you’ve got a few client files locked in a store cupboard or a multi-premises operation linked via sophisticated technology, everyone is at risk.

And the scariest thing is that because the majority of us aren’t data security experts, we very often don’t even understand the problem, let alone the solution. These five rather startling facts are a great indicator of how big the problem is.

1) Your photocopier is spying on you

Your photocopier keeps records of everything you’ve ever printed or copied (yes, even those unfortunate anatomical pictures from the office Christmas party). If the hard drive isn’t properly wiped or destroyed once you’ve finished with it, you could find your sensitive data falling into the wrong hands.

2) There are way more viruses than you think

During just one three month period last year, 18 million new malware samples were captured by cyber security experts Panda Labs. Which works out at around 80,000 every working day. And that’s just the ones they found.

3) Your staff may not be a as tech savvy as they think (and fibbers!)

One recent study by a German university sent mock phishing emails to a group of people who had previously professed to be aware of these kinds of scams. 45% of them clicked on the link in the fake email. And only 20% admitted that they’d done it. Let’s face it, the others were probably a bit embarrassed.

4) Data breaches are crazy expensive

Ponemon and IBM do a study each year, looking at the cost of data breaches across several countries including the UK. Last year’s report showed that the costs associated with a data breach have gone up by 29%, from an average of £2.37 to £2.53 million. Which is probably not the kind of money you have lying around in case of emergency.

5) Data loss can kill you

Ok, we may be slightly exaggerating that one, but it could kill your business (and if you’ve got a dodgy ticker then actually, there is a bit of a risk there too). In fact, more than 60% of companies never recover from a major loss of data. Not only is there the actual monetary cost to consider, but major data loss can also severely damage your reputation, so that future work is threatened.

Anyway, before we have you reaching for the gin bottle, there is some good news. Because forewarned is forearmed, and if you anticipate the possible data issues you might face then you can at least take steps to try and prevent them.

For example, make sure your paper records are stored securely, that your digital records are suitably protected, that your staff are well trained and trustworthy, and that any waste is securely destroyed.

Scan Film or Store can help with quite a few of these issues, so if you’re worried about your data security then give us a ring today.