25Mar 2019
Is microfiche obsolete? Can microfilm be converted to digital? Technology changes all the time and as a business owner, it may become difficult to keep up with the best way to store your intellectual assets. Think of the switch from VHS to DVD: it wasn’t an instant jump, but in three, four, five years after DVD became the prominent technology, if you didn’t have your movies or films converted, you were out of luck.
Now imagine that happens to your business.
The result? Your technical drawings or other intellectual assets may become a victim of the times. Your business or firm may also lose clients because of a slower adoption rate. Not to mention, as technology progresses, many supplementary programs and processes may become compatible with newer tech, leaving your old tech in the dust.
If you have your intellectual assets in microfiche and/or microfilm, this may be a constant worry. When technology changes, it has the potential to weed out many businesses and business ideas that are unwilling to adapt. Don’t let that become your business. By contacting a document management company like DOCUdavit, you’ll be able to convert your files, scan them, and access them whenever and wherever is more convenient for your business. Instead of worrying about whether or not microfiche is obsolete, you can be using your documents however you like.
Do you need to update the way you store and access your intellectual assets? Here are the risks associated with not going with the flow.
Risk 1: Losing Access
As mentioned above, technology changes at its own rate and waits for no one. From year to year, we’re seeing massive technological advancements. For example: just five years ago, there were no phones with finger-touch activation, and now you’d be hard-pressed to find a phone that couldn’t also turn on with a simple fingerprint. Who’s to say this sort of thing can’t happen with your industry?
It’s easy to see the impact a good document management system or scanning services have on the modern engineering, government, law, or medical office. Instead of going through pages and pages of large format scanning or microfilm content, access all your important files and intellectual assets in one digital space, indexed and categorized to your liking.
Risk 2: Lack of Compatibility with New Technology
Providing specialized scanning services means keeping up-to-date with technologies that may influence professional industries. We know one of the largest risks involved with keeping intellectual assets in obsolete technology like microfilm is that business operations and processes may no longer be compatible with certain software. Think of working in analog while your competitors, clients, and colleagues are working in digital. There’s no way you can compete or collaborate if you aren’t speaking the same language as those around you.
If you’re still working with tech that isn’t compatible with anyone or anything outside of your office, then it’s time to upgrade for the sake of your business’ longevity. Not only do you run the risk of not having compatible processes for your clients, you also run the risk of losing out on potential business.
Risk 3: Disorganized Records
Do you like the way your files are organized now? Perhaps you have a detailed organization system that allows you to locate older files quickly and archive newer files in a useful order. This may be a good solution for document management now, but as technology continues to progress, you may have some files in a certain format and other files in a newer format. An archival system like this can cause major confusion amongst your team.
The best solution to avoid disorganized records is to port and convert everything over to a specialized scanning system. With newer technology, files can always be categorized and easy-to-find, not just by you, but by everyone who needs to access them in your organization. If you run a client-facing business, think about how easy it will be to have clients go in and access their files without the added hassle of having to contact you to retrieve them. So the answer to whether or not microfiche is obsolete is a subjective one, but wouldn’t you prefer the convenience of an all-in-one document management system?
What do you think about moving your files to new technology, whether it’s from microfiche or another medium? Keeping your files in obsolete tech severely limits the range of motion you have when it comes to dealing with clients. You may run into issues where the technology is phased out faster than expected, which would in turn leave you in a tough spot. Transition your files over to a top-tier document management system that specializes in microforms, white-glove, large format, and well-log scanning today.