No more lost documents

Sounds a bit like “the paperless office” – something to aim for but not to be surprised if it never happens. Of course documents get lost, it’s their nature. The more important they are, the more likely they are to disappear. They are at the mercy of the elements –insurance documents in the fire or washed away in the flood, wills in the thin air that often engulfs them.

Earlier in the year, we produced some  White Papers as a result of discussions we had with various professionals – accountants, IFA’s, lawyers – and which focused on the benefits to the professional practice in reduced document delivery cost, streamlined business process and higher security using a Safe4 like solution. In reviewing those now, around our formal launch, we wonder whether we did not focus enough on the benefits to their clients in having documents automatically put into a secure online file and being available in electronic form with no risk of loss, for whatever reason.

Is “no more lost documents” the real value of placing documents in online secure storage?  Or is the cost and business process saving to the professional intermediary more important than the additional value to the client?

Talking of lost documents, the most famous has to be the cheque lost in the mail. With recent announcements of Royal Mail price increases, entrusting any important document to the mail and paying more for a higher chance of losing it, seems less like an optimal document delivery strategy for the future.