Study: Small businesses risk losing key documents

A study commissioned by Epson Canada found that many small businesses are not storing documents vital to them and customers electronically. While most companies have hard copy versions of critical documents in file cabinets, the idea of systematically saving documents electronically (and with proper backup) has still not caught on.

According to the study as described in a CNW News Group release, “90 percent of those who do not store any documents in soft copy say they have not adopted an electronic system to store their important business documents because they believe it is not necessary to do so (50 percent) or they never thought about it (25 percent) or they think it's too expensive (15 percent). The remaining 10 percent admitted they didn't understand the importance of making soft copies of important business documents like contracts or invoices and storing them electronically.”

In addition, only 10 percent of those surveyed said that they store hard copies in a fireproof file cabinet onsite, and even fewer, 2 percent, saved hard copies offsite. All this is in spite of the fact that even small enterprises are more and more dependent on a growing number of critical documents.

This is in spite of the relative ease and low cost of storing files electronically and backing them up offsite. While most midsize companies with a real IT plan have made recoverable electronic document storage a priority, apparently the smallest companies have no recovery plan for a catastrophic incident like a fire or robbery.