7 Business File Management Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

Businesses don’t function well today without great data. Without knowing all the facts, you’re only going to make decisions that are best guesses. You can’t afford this to happen when everyone else has data to make better decisions.

The good news is that it’s easier than ever to access data, store it, and use it to generate insightful reports. However, there is still a lot that can go wrong.

Unfortunately, there are many business file management mistakes that companies commonly make. Keep reading to learn seven common errors to avoid when creating a file management strategy.

1. No Backup Strategy

File loss is one of the most common issues facing businesses that use data to run. They build a system with many files and databases but have no way to back up the work they do on those files.

The problem is that you can’t predict when a disaster will happen at your company. It can be in the form of cyberattacks, hardware failures, and employee mistakes. If that happens, you’ll end up losing your data without a way to get it back quickly.

You can avoid this problem by creating a backup strategy for your company. Decide which files are necessary to your company’s operation and back them up off-site or in the cloud. Once you do, you can quickly restore lost data and return your company to working order in no time.

2. Missing Access Control

Creating a system for file access isn’t always easy. If you have a large organization, you have to decide who gets access to what and ensure those rules get enforced. Unfortunately, some companies make the mistake of skipping the hard work and giving everyone in their organization access to every file.

Employees are one of the biggest security concerns for your company. You don’t know what motivates your employees or if they’re taking your data and giving it to a competitor. You can’t afford for sensitive data to get leaked to other companies.

That’s why you need a system in place to limit access to files. You can set up access controls in your file management system to accomplish this. Your only risk is the limited data each employee can access when you do.

3. Zero Redundancy

You need as much uptime as possible if you want your employees to remain productive. While you won’t have problems most of the time, production can halt if you ever experience a storage failure.

You can eliminate this downtime by using redundant systems for your files. You can use a file storage solution like RAID to ensure your files stay online whenever a hard drive fails. You can use any storage you want, like a solid-state drive or regular hard drive to make this happen.

4. Missing Online Access

The chances are good that you have some employees that would rather work remotely. Many people spend too much time commuting to and from work. This commute makes people miserable and less able to enjoy their time off work.

Remote work is becoming more common and will likely be considered common in the future. The question is, what can you do to ensure your remote workers have access to everything they need to work?

You’ll need a remote file storage solution like SDS or other document collaboration software to provide access. These apps will ensure your remote workers can access company data from anywhere and always do their jobs.

5. Using Unsafe Internet Connections

Unfortunately, it isn’t enough to provide file access to your employees on the internet. There are many common cyber threats out there, and they primarily target regular employees to gain access to company data. With cybercrime also at an all-time high, this is a chance you can’t take.

It’s easy enough to make sure the people in the office are safe. Use anti-malware on every computer and ensure your computer network is behind a firewall. For remote employees, it’s another matter.

Luckily, you have access to VPN software to encrypt your employee’s internet connections. Require a secure connection before allowing your remote employees to access any data.

6. Not Having Organization

It’s easy for companies to let documents pile up in a single folder without organizing anything. Much of the time, you only need to access one of those documents occasionally. However, you won’t be able to find anything quickly without a way to sort your data.

Managing files is one of the most critical things you can do with your file management system. Have your data management team sit down and create a sorting structure for everything.

For regular files, make sure you have folders for each document type so people can quickly navigate to the correct section. You’ll need to create indexes and smart table structures for databases to help people pull records and find what they need quickly without waiting for the data to load.

7. Skipping Laws and Regulations

With so many data breaches happening today, consumers are starting to notice and voice their concerns. They provide a lot of data to the companies they do business with. They expect them to take care of their sensitive information.

That led governments to take notice and take action. There are now many regulations that govern how you deal with sensitive information. If you don’t follow the rules, you can get in trouble.

Make sure you look at the rules that apply to your industry to see how you should manage everything. It doesn’t take too much more work to follow the rules, and you’ll end up with a more secure environment for your files.

Don’t Fall for Business File Management Mistakes

You can’t afford to cut corners when your business relies on data to succeed. Take every action possible when creating a management strategy to stop the business file management mistakes above from happening. When you do a little preparation work, you drastically cut the chance of file management problems from occurring.

Do you want to learn more about making the most of technology in your company? Check out the latest articles on the blog for more great tech advice.