With more businesses moving away from paper and toward electronic recordkeeping, those that can’t transport their records offsite often feel stuck, unable to move forward with digitization. Whether it’s due to security concerns, legal requirements, or logistical challenges, going paperless can seem out of reach.
This can quickly turn into a frustrating cycle. Records pile up daily, storage space disappears, and finding the information you need takes far longer than it should.
The good news is that keeping documents onsite doesn’t mean you have to keep relying on paper. Onsite scanning services provide a secure, efficient way to convert records into digital files without ever removing them from your facility. Businesses that once thought digitization was impossible can finally get the benefits of electronic recordkeeping, without breaking compliance rules or compromising security.
In this article, we’ll cover why some records can’t be moved, which businesses face this challenge most often, and most importantly, how onsite scanning makes digitization possible, no matter how strict your recordkeeping requirements may be.
Why Some Records Cannot Be Moved
There are many reasons why businesses might not be able to send their documents offsite for scanning. For some, strict legal requirements determine where records must be stored and who can handle them. Others have security concerns that make the idea of transporting sensitive documents elsewhere feel risky. And for businesses with massive archives, moving everything to a scanning facility just isn’t practical.
No matter the reason, it’s a legitimate challenge. But it doesn’t have to mean that digitization is off the table. Below, we’ll go over some of the most common reasons that businesses need to keep their records onsite for scanning.
Legal and Regulatory Reasons
Certain industries have strict compliance rules that prevent records from being removed from their premises. Healthcare providers, for example, must follow HIPAA regulations, which limit how patient records can be accessed and handled. Government agencies manage classified or confidential documents that cannot leave their possession. Financial institutions must comply with data protection laws that make moving records difficult.
Ironically, while digitization makes it easier to meet these strict compliance requirements, those same regulations are often what prevent businesses from taking that step.
Security Concerns
Even when compliance rules don’t explicitly prevent offsite scanning, businesses handling highly sensitive information often prefer to keep full control over their records. Transporting paper documents introduces risks, plain and simple; there’s always the possibility of unauthorized access, misplacement, or even a security breach during the move. For many, keeping records onsite feels like the safer choice, even if sticking with paper-based recordkeeping ultimately leaves their information more vulnerable in the long run.
Logistical Challenges
Legal and security concerns aren’t the only reasons businesses may need to keep records onsite. Sometimes, moving documents offsite just isn’t practical. Businesses with massive archives may find that transporting records would be too expensive, time-consuming, or disruptive. Others may have fragile historical documents that require careful handling, making offsite transport a risk. And in some cases, businesses rely on immediate access to their records and can’t afford to send them away for scanning, even temporarily, even though digitizing them would ultimately make access faster and more efficient.
What Kinds of Businesses Are Unable to Move Their Records?
Every business deals with recordkeeping challenges at some point, but some industries face strict limitations on where and how their documents can be handled.
Whether due to legal requirements, confidentiality concerns, or logistical barriers, many businesses assume they have no choice but to keep everything on paper. Onsite scanning provides a solution, making digital transformation possible even in highly regulated or high-security environments.
Healthcare
Hospitals, clinics, and medical offices deal with a constant influx of patient records, medical charts, and sensitive health information. HIPAA regulations impose strict rules on how these records are accessed and shared, which makes choosing a HIPAA compliant scanning service a top priority. While some healthcare providers have transitioned to electronic health records (EHRs) already, many still have large volumes of paper files that they’d prefer to keep onsite for scanning.
Government Agencies
Many government offices manage classified, confidential, or restricted records that must stay within government-controlled facilities. This includes records about the public, policy documents, and other sensitive materials. Moving these records offsite isn’t always an option, but relying on paper makes the government slower and less efficient. Onsite scanning is the perfect solution, allowing agencies to digitize records while maintaining full control over their records.
Legal Firms
Law firms manage case files, contracts, and client records that contain privileged information. These documents often need to stay onsite for security and confidentiality reasons, particularly in active cases where attorneys require immediate access to them. Transporting them to a scanning facility creates risks of loss, unauthorized access, or compliance violations. Onsite scanning helps law firms and legal offices digitize records while maintaining full control over their data.
Financial Institutions
Banks, credit unions, and financial service providers manage sensitive documents, including loan agreements, financial statements, and customer records. Industry regulations often limit how and where these records can be stored, making offsite scanning impractical. Keeping everything on paper, however, slows down operations and increases storage costs. Onsite scanning offers a way to convert paper records into digital files without violating compliance requirements.
Corporate Offices with Large Archives
Beyond the highly regulated industries listed above, many large businesses simply have too many records to move. While digitization would make managing these records much more manageable, the sheer scale of these archives makes offsite scanning unrealistic. Decades of paper recordkeeping results in a massive volume of records, where it makes much more sense to bring the scanning equipment to them vs the other way around. Scanning these records onsite helps businesses tackle large-scale bulk scanning projects without having to endure the massive undertaking of transporting these records back and forth.
Onsite Scanning: A Secure and Convenient Solution
Just because records can’t leave the premises doesn’t mean they have to stay on paper. Onsite scanning offers a secure, efficient way to digitize documents without putting sensitive information at risk. Instead of transporting records to an offsite facility, our team comes to you with everything needed, high-speed scanners, secure workflows, and trained technicians—so the entire scanning process happens at your location.
It all starts with a consultation to determine the scope of your project. You decide which records need to be digitized, set access restrictions, and establish a workflow that meets your security requirements. Once the details are finalized, our team arrives with the necessary equipment, working in a controlled environment to ensure document security throughout the process.
Documents are scanned onsite, converted into high-quality digital files, and organized based on indexing criteria like client names, case numbers, or date ranges. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) can also be applied, making scanned documents fully searchable. Once digitized, you can choose from secure storage options such as encrypted cloud storage or an internal document management system of your choice.
Keeping records onsite eliminates the risks that come with transporting sensitive information. There’s no chance of documents getting lost or mishandled, and you maintain full control over your files from start to finish. Our team follows strict security protocols to ensure compliance with industry regulations while maintaining confidentiality and professionalism.
With the right approach and 21 years of scanning experience, you don’t have to let paper hold you back. SecureScan’s onsite scanning service provides a seamless way to modernize your recordkeeping system without compromising security, compliance, or accessibility. Whether you’re facing legal restrictions, confidentiality concerns, or logistical barriers, we’re here to help. Contact us today to learn more or get a free quote from one of our scanning technicians!
