Human Error Could Cost UK Businesses Up To €20 Million

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23 May 2018

Over three-quarters of British businesses say that a proportion of inbound mail and communications is incorrectly allocated due to physical handling, creating an environment that can potentially put personal data at risk.

With the implementation of the GDPR, businesses processing sensitive personal data are at risk of facing potential fines of up €20 million, or 4% of their annual global turnover.

Information Management company EDM Group surveyed organisations. The company's digital mailroom turns analogue, inbound post into data that can be analysed and captured securely. This can assist in complying with data protection laws such as the GDPR, mitigating the risk of human error by automating previously manual processes.

Mishandled mail

The findings revealed that 39% of organisations have experienced a negative impact on their performance or reputation as a result of mishandled mail and only 16% of companies said they always meet their mail service level. While human error in the mailroom increases risk of breaching GDPR, 81% of businesses have not adopted a digital mailroom.

Case study

EDM Group improved organisational efficiency for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), who receive over 70 million mail items and send out 200 million outsourced items a year. By streamlining HMRC’s inbound data handling, both customer service and care of valuable and sensitive documents were significantly improved.

Digital mailroom ensures the high risk associated with human error and vulnerable documents are eliminated with comprehensive audit trails, automatic document retention strategies, and enforced adherence to compliance rules. This allows businesses to capture, store, process and handle critical information the most efficient way.

Digital solution helps drive Nationwide Building Society’s aim to become 90% paperless

Nationwide Building Society’s long history and successful growth through a number of mergers and acquisitions resulted in the accumulation of millions of documents and microfiche images that were difficult to access and manage.  The aim was to become paper-free in order to meet regulatory compliance requirements, free up expensive real estate in multiple locations and change working practices. The company were also planning to become completely digital at some point in the future and aiming to be 90% paperless by 2020.

Solution

The backbone of the solution was EDM’s hosted information management system, EDM Online, the central repository and access channel enabling the amalgamation of diverse media and storage areas across Nationwide Building Society.  EDM Online enabled Nationwide users to access analogue and electronic records directly from their desktop.

A dedicated, secure building was established to house all of the paper and microfilm archives, enabling EDM to provide a managed document archive and retrieval service to the whole building society. This involved moving an initial 69,000 boxes of documents and 75 cabinets of microfiche to the new archive. The documents are scanned as a scan on demand service at EDM’s facility in Wolverhampton and uploaded to EDM Online, available to view at the desktop within four hours of being requested.

Laundry

Most recently, Nationwide Building Society has worked closely with EDM on its Branch Document Retention project, 36,000 boxes were collected and 90 million images scanned to ensure that all branches are fully compliant with data privacy and anti-money laundering regulation.

Picture: A digital mail solution has been applied at HMRC.

Article written by Brian Shillibeer | Published 23 May 2018

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