Document storage need not consume your time or square footage.
Sticking with paper documentation and records has its advantages, but fast retrieval and efficient use of space are not among them. Businesses that stick to the paper standard need solutions for the waves of paperwork that crash daily against their desks. Fortunately, that’s precisely where document storage companies can step in and clear away the clutter. These services can take on the tedious tasks of organizing, tracking, and managing files, making document storage and retrieval easier and freeing you and your coworkers up to focus on the work that really matters. For your business and many like it, these companies may just be the best way to store paper documents.
This list of seven leading companies will help you find the document storage service that’s right for you.
Read our free ultimate guide to learn how you can effectively implement the best document storage system for your business.
Why work with a document storage company?
The document storage business exists for a good reason. Legal, healthcare, construction, education — each of these fields has its own document and records needs and a mountain of paperwork to show for it. Adding document management on top of your team’s day-to-day responsibilities can significantly slow down employees hired for skills other than their ability to use a file cabinet. A whopping 93% of workers say they fail to find necessary documents because they’ve been badly named or tagged, and 46% find it sometimes or always challenging to find the right document. That’s no surprise — 73% say their organizations don’t have clear guidelines on how documents should be labeled. All that extraneous document work amounts to a 21% loss of productivity. Proper document storage for business is a genuine challenge.
But it doesn’t have to be. Working with a document storage service ensures your documents and records are effectively and consistently organized, tracked, and managed. That makes it faster and easier to retrieve those files when you need them, increasing employee efficiency. It also shifts some of the potentially onerous compliance requirements of your industry onto a company whose sole responsibility is to meet them, reducing the risk of confidentiality or privacy leaks.
These storage facilities also frequently employ security and disaster prevention measures for which your business lacks the budget, from motion detection to earthquake-proof underground vaults. And that’s all to say nothing of the space savings, freeing up your office for productive use or letting you drop your square footage and save on rent.
Leading document storage companies
If you’re ready to take advantage of the many benefits of working with a document storage service, this list of seven leading options will give you an idea of who’s trustworthy, what makes each option special, and whether or not it serves your particular industry.
Vital Records Control
Vital Records Control was founded in 1988 in Memphis, Tennessee, where its headquarters remain. It operates more than 115 record storage facilities across the United States, including in smaller markets such as Casper, Wyoming, and Toledo, Ohio. It has worked with clients in insurance, government, education, finance, healthcare, legal, manufacturing, retail, hospitality, and banking, and has experience working with small businesses. Here are some of the key features of its physical storage offerings:
- Full-service physical document and records storage and management, including document scanning and cloud storage
- Digital document capture with quality assurance
- Full lifecycle digital records management, including document destruction
- Strict security protocols and 24/7 monitoring with cameras, motion detectors, and other security measures
- Climate-controlled facilities
- Remote search and management of digitized documents
- Specialized storage solutions to suit your needs
Vital Records Control also offers digital document management services such as a digital mailroom.
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GRM Document Management
Founded in 1986 and headquartered in New Jersey, GRM Document Management has worked with clients in healthcare, financial services, education, legal, energy, architecture, engineering, construction, real estate, government, insurance, entertainment, human resources, and accounts payable. It operates facilities in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. In addition to physical storage, GRM shines thanks to its VisualVault Platform. Here are some of the business’ offerings:
- Physical and digital document and records storage
- Records retention schedules to ease compliance needs
- Digitization and advanced data capture
- Low-code and no-code workflow automation
- Advanced analytics capabilities
- End-to-end data encryption
GRM Document Management counts Xerox, JetBlue, and the Hospital Corporation of America among its many clients.
Record Nations
Although Record Nations was founded in 1977, it didn’t enter into document storage until 1980. From its headquarters in Lakewood, Colorado, it operates hundreds of storage locations across the United States, with a tool on its website designed to help you find a facility near you. The company has worked with clients in the construction, manufacturing, HR, finance, education, government, real estate, medical, and legal industries. Key features from its offerings include:
- Physical document and records storage with climate controls, flood protection, 24/7 surveillance, and more
- Physical and digital document delivery services, with digital documents stored in the cloud
- A web-based offsite document management system
- Compliance with privacy regulations
- RFID tracking of documents
- Tape and microfilm storage capabilities
Amazon, American Airlines, Boston University, and Kaiser Permanente have all been clients of Record Nations.
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Iron Mountain
Iron Mountain’s bona fides are as sturdy as its original storage facilities, which were built in 1951 to resist Soviet bombs. The company’s headquarters are in Boston, but in the seven decades since its founding it has expanded to more than 1,400 storage facilities in 50 countries. It has worked with clients in the banking, energy, entertainment, fine arts, healthcare, insurance, law, library, mortgage and loan, life sciences, and retail industries, and boasts experience with small businesses and government work to boot. Some key features:
- High-security physical document and record storage with fire safety and climate controls
- Strict, auditable chain of custody at facilities
- Secure shredding
- Fine art and valuables storage
- Iron Mountain Connect, an online platform for cataloging of documents and records that clients can use to request documents be scanned or delivered from storage
Iron Mountain has counted the Grammys, the Los Angeles Lakers, Boeing, and the JFK Presidential Library among its clients.
Access Corp.
At just over 18 years old, Access Corp is one of the youngest companies on this list. It is headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts, but operates more than 130 locations in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean. It’s worked with automotive, education, energy, financial services, government, healthcare, insurance, legal, manufacturing, retail, and hospitality clients and has the following among its offerings:
- Climate-controlled physical document storage
- Scanning and retrieval on-demand through Access FileBRIDGE records management system
- Electronic media, tape, specialty media (blueprints, film, x-rays) storage and vaulting
- Paper and media destruction with chain of custody
- Records management software to track document lifecycles
- Underground limestone vaults to survive natural or manmade disasters
- Wide array of compliance expertise, including HIPAA, FACTA, FERPA, GDPR, CCPA, SOX, and GLBA
AGS Record Management
AGS Record Management is the first entry on this list to have started its life abroad, and it remains an international document storage powerhouse. It was founded in France in 1974 and operates out of a headquarters in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Although it has 146 locations across 97 countries — you’ll find locations dotted throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Middle East — it has no foothold in the United States, so this option is purely for international businesses. Key offerings include:
- Transfer, handling, sorting, storage, and archiving of physical documents
- Data capture from documents for indexing in an online database
- Secure, confidential, and access-controlled storage system
- Access-controlled web interface for remote records management
- Records destruction (via recycling, grinding, or compacting) with certificate of destruction
- Option to install a storage facility on your premises
AGS Record Management currently serves more than 10,000 clients worldwide.
Pacific Records Management
On the other end of the size spectrum, we have Pacific Records Management. This company was founded in Stockton, California, as a leather tannery in 1856. It transitioned into storage in 1928 and has been in the business ever since. The Stockton location remains its headquarters, and it operates facilities in Sacramento, Modesto, and Fresno. Industry expertise listed on its website includes healthcare and legal, but the scale of the company allows it to meet your business on its terms — provided you’re in California. Key features include:
- Physical document storage with a web portal to manage stored documents, request retrievals, and view audit trails
- On-site and off-site document shredding with certificate of destruction
- Document scanning with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) on as-needed basis and with strict quality control
- Documents are retrieved and delivered in GPS-tracked and alarmed vehicles with next day, same day, or two-hour delivery options and a strict chain of custody
- HIPAA, FACTA, GLB, and SOX-compliant
- Security and fire systems with backup measures in case of power loss
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If you find your business overwhelmed with paperwork, consider going digital. You can enlist the help of a document management company with strong digitization skills and tools. Or you can captain that process yourself using our powerful and intuitive scanners, quickly turning a mess of documents into a neatly organized and indexed group of files requiring infinitely less space. And if the fi and SP Series don’t meet your specific needs, there are plenty of other options to browse. Click here to learn more or shop the rest of our production scanner line.
