Documents, the bane of our existence.

Huge amounts of documents are created everyday. I could give you a number here, but would it really mean anything to you? Would you really trust it? And where did it come from? I have a feeling that very few companies spend resources on keeping track of how many documents are made each day. The real point is that there are tons each day. For most companies this poses a big problem. Most documents are important, but there some that are a little more special. These are the ones that make things difficult to us. These are the documents from the deep; oh I mean documents that are "risky". The ones that contain information that should not be let out at any cost. You know, the ones that you have to say "If I told you, I would have to kill you".

Yep, those ones. They pose such great risk that you sign a contract in blood to put it on your computer. Ok, maybe not that bad, but they are very tightly controlled. The problem here is about document storage. Computers are great things, and help immensely, but it is very easy to get a document from one place to another. This makes tracking documents virtually impossible. Ok, to be technical, it is virtually possible because there are computer programs that can track it. So I guess the correct term would be very hard for a human to track. Anyway, the point is that it is not an easy nor a fun task.

That is where the software comes in. Some great programs have been developed to be able to take care of these problems. That is right; you no longer have to work with the annoying guy looking over your shoulder all the time to make sure you don’t send an email with a "risky" attachment. And you will no longer have to sign those contracts in blood, thus keeping your fingers in better shape, and no one will ask anymore if you are a diabetic. What great benefits technology brings to us. What these programs do is allow certain people to see all the documents that have been created, where they are stored, what version they are, and allows you to upload the document to the server very easily. All this allows simplifies document storage.

I mean, what is there not to like about this? You save time and your sanity. Which brings us to our next point. Helping you keep your sanity by fun things to do. Such as document destruction. "What", you might ask, "is document destruction?" Nothing gives me more pleasure than painting a nice big target on a "favorite" document and taking it to a shooting range and blowing it to bits. What more could you ask for. Such a gratifying experience. What? That isn’t what document destruction is? But it is so much fun… Ok, I guess it is really about deleting the documents once your company has no more need of them. Not quite as exciting, but it is still gratifying to hit the nice big black ‘X’ button on the computer. Ahhhh, doesn’t that feel better? And guess what, the same software that helps with document storage also helps with document destruction.

When you want a document to be destroyed, all you have to do is send an e-mail to everyone who has a copy (and you will know exactly who has it because the software will tell you) and tell them to delete it. Not only do they get the e-mail, but you get to see if they actually delete the document or not. A little spy work never hurt anyone.

So, now you know all about the wonderful new software that can save your galaxy, I mean sanity. Be sure to check it out. Uh-oh, I gotta run. I see a few document heading this way with a can of spray paint, the outline of a target, and a shotgun…

Note: No documents were actually harmed in the making of this article.

Gavin Ransom is a Client Account Specialist for 10x Marketing. "Risky" documents need to be handled very carefully. Are yours? Protect your company (and your sanity) with software for document destruction and document storage from NextPage.