Is it time to move office?

Wrapped chairs - office move - scan film or storeWhere do you stand on office moves? Does the thought fill you with excitement and give you an excuse to daydream about the fun new breakout space you’re going to create and the inspirational slogans you could paint artily on the exposed brick walls?

Or does it fill you with pure dread and make you consider firing people so you can stay in the cosy little office you’ve come to think of as home?

Whatever the case, making the decision to up sticks and relocate is one you’ll need to consider carefully. Here are some signs that suggest you might want to consider looking for a new home for your team – and also a few ideas that could help you put that decision off for a while if you need to.

You have to turn sideways to get between desks

And even that isn’t working quite so well since Christmas (we blame the mince pies). If you find you’d rather phone or email your colleague across the room than run the obstacle course that is the office, then perhaps you need a bit more space to spread out.

The alternative: Or how about you just re-arrange the desks? If you’ve been growing organically over the years and just adding new desks as the team expands, you probably don’t have an especially efficient layout. While you’re shifting stuff around, consider getting standing desks. Less chairs = more space. Simples!

You haven’t been into the archive room for months

Not because you haven’t needed to find stuff, it’s just you’re afraid you might cause an avalanche and be discovered only when some other brave soul else ventures in to find the source of that nasty smell. The solution: move to a bigger office with a bigger archive room.

The alternative: You could just have a clear out. Figure out which documents need to be kept as originals and get them stored off site. Scan anything that you don’t need originals of and have those originals securely destroyed. Then use the old archive room to create that break out space! NB: Don’t make your staff do this. You need them to keep doing what they do to earn money. We can help – just call us for a free assessment of your needs.

Everyone always looks mopey on a Monday

Sure we joke about Monday blues but it doesn’t have to be a thing! Creating a positive working environment can give staff morale a huge boost. So if your office is lacking in natural light, if it’s drafty or not very easy to get to or any one of a hundred things that could make it unpleasant to work in, moving could be a very good, well, move.

The alternative: Redecorate! You’re welcome, oh daydreamer. Now’s your chance to get the spray paint and stencils out and slogan up those walls to your heart’s content. Seriously, whatever is making your current office less than enjoyable to be in, fix it. Less expensive and time consuming than a move, right?

There are just too many people to fit

You’re a close team but no one wants to be that close, right? Like close enough to hear your neighbour chewing their cheese and ham sandwich at lunch. That’s the stuff nightmares are made off. If everyone is crammed into a small space, tempers are likely to start fraying and quickly. Moving to a bigger office gives everyone their own little patch where they can work happily and efficiently without wanting to punch anyone for that annoying little sound they make when they’re concentrating.

The alternative: Get rid of a few people. Not by firing them, obviously; that would be a little drastic (and illegal). But could some of your team work from home? If a couple of people got to work from their home office each day, you’d find things less of a squash at your HQ. They’d also be most likely be much happier without the commute, the parking, the need to wear office appropriate clothing etc.

Whether you’re planning to move offices or need help making your current one more space efficient, give our team a call to see how we can help out on the document storage, document scanning or secure data destruction side of things.

Why we’re the perfect match for the engineering, manufacturing, defence and aerospace industries

Heart jigsaw puzzle - perfect matchWe don’t like to play favourites but we do seem to have attracted a lot of clients from the engineering, manufacturing, defence and aerospace industries over the years. And though we also don’t like to sound immodest, we’re not all that surprised. You see, we’re well set up to deal with their particular needs – we’ve got the security, the capacity and the right equipment.

As it’s Valentine’s Day later this week, we thought we’d write up a little dating profile, if you like, to show you we’re the perfect match for someone in the engineering, manufacturing, defence or aerospace industry.

Government approved security

We’re the kind of team who, if we’re going to do something, like to do it properly. So when we say our document storage facilities are secure, we really do mean it. In fact, we’re government approved to hold and process classified documents and data, our premises and procedures have been audited by government security advisers and all digital files are held in a special secure network to protect them from unauthorised access.

We’ve got BS 10008:2014 certification too, which is to do with “evidential weight and legal admissibility of electronic information” – kind of like the standards police have to keep when they transport evidence in criminal investigations. And our staff  have not only been vetted to BS 7858 standards but have actually signed the Official Secrets Act. Let’s face it, we’re practically spies.

Set up for working with you in-house

Of course if that still isn’t secure enough for you, then we can always come to you. Yes that’s right, we can actually up tools and move in with you for a bit, scanning and digitising your documents on your premises so that no data or paperwork ever crosses your boundaries. And remember, our staff are checked and double checked, so you need not worry about letting them past the perimeter fence.

Not your ordinary scanners

We know that if you’re in the engineering, manufacturing, defence or aerospace you haven’t just got a few sheets of A4 that you want to put through the scanner. You’ve got endless technical drawings, blueprints, not to mention procurement documents, personnel records and so on.

We’re set up for high capacity runs and we can scan up to A0 in width and pretty much any length. We’ve even scanned a tonne of 40ft aircraft drawings (although we can’t tell you who for because you don’t have clearance!).

Lots of added extras

So you know that we scan stuff and we store stuff. But that’s not all! We can also extract information from legacy documents and feed it into document management and ERP/MRP systems. We can convert analogue data into digital data and documents into microfilm or microfiche that’s guaranteed for 500 years, creating information backup systems that meet contractual obligations.

And we can securely destroy everything from paper and photographs to digital records and microfilm (which, if you didn’t know, is a really very difficult and dangerous process – microfilm has an extremely high burning point and releases dangerous chemicals so you don’t want to be looking after that yourself).

What our engineers, manufacturers, defence and aerospace clients say

Don’t just take our word for it. Here’s what the procurement manager of a large West Country aerospace firm had to say about using our services:

“As one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in Europe we rely on fast, accurate access to our archive records – particularly build records and data sheets. We have used Scan Film or Store Ltd since it was established and they have always provided us with a first class service, Their prompt attention to our changing needs – from microfilm to digital scanning and document storage – has been impressive. I would recommend Scan Film or Store Ltd to any organisation that has complex or varied needs for cost-effective document management.” Ian Mitchell MCIPS, Procurement Manager

So what do you think? Ready to swipe right? (That’s a Tinder reference, by the way. Which is a dating app. Where you… never mind, it’s not that interesting). Anyway, if you think we’d be a good match for you, get in touch with the team today and we can arrange a first date!