Disposing of large amounts of documents can be a major logistical issue for companies. It is a task that needs to be done regularly and reliably. Shredding is also often very time consuming and costly. Properly destroying documents is not something you can cut corners on as it poses a major security and compliance risk. Many businesses call in professionals to deal with their waste, but is this really necessary? Professional services use industrial-grade equipment in order to safely destroy documents in bulk, often coming to directly to you. This means off site shredding services offer many benefits that in-house shredding does not.
Cost
First and foremost, will it save you money? To calculate this, you need to take into account the cost of purchasing, running and maintaining in-house equipment and how this compares to the cost of outsourcing. Adding the time of manually shredding yourself, the cost of not outsourcing starts to rack up high.
Time
How does the time of shredding yourself differ to the time it takes professionals to shred? The answer is quite a lot. In-house shredders have smaller output capabilities than professional shredders, meaning you will spend a far greater amount of time shredding than your professional counterparts. This time saving will translate to cost savings to you. Furthermore, shredding can be fiddly and demoralising – in other words, a boring task that your employees will begrudge. This may be of a detriment to their concentration and work satisfaction, and ultimately eat up your work force’s efficiency and retention.
Efficiency
Large office shredders are inefficient in regards to time, space, energy and cost. Furthermore, you’ll need to spend a lot to get a shredder that shreds as thorough as an industrial shredder. Professional shredders pulverise documents entirely, without damaging the machine. Office shredders will break down and need expensive maintenance as they cannot take anywhere near as big quantities unless you have a lot of money and space to spare for your own industrial shredder.
Security
Protecting data should be of paramount importance to every business, especially since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This goes hand in hand with security for your business, as you cannot risk data being unaccounted for or being stolen. You could be prosecuted or find yourself at the mercy of a malicious insider. Data is at risk in your organisation and when being transported out, so it needs to be stored safely. Furthermore, it needs to be kept secure when being transferred to the next stage of destruction. Professional services often store documents in steel stores before transferring them to industrial shredders, minimising occurrences where data is vulnerable. Furthermore, industrial shredders used by professionals entirely macerate documents, whereas office shredders leave strips and segments that still have legible information visible. Professionals also give a certificate of destruction following the process, meaning you can have solid proof that you are dealing with your data correctly and peace of mind.
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