We occasionally have customers express some concern about moving to an online safety management system for receiving, approving and storing safety records.  The thought being that faxing, emailing, or scanning and uploading completed forms to the system would somehow expose them to breaches in confidentiality.  The purpose of this blog post it to tell you that the exact opposite is true.  Online systems are MORE secure than distributing and storing paper records.

Consider the old-school alternatives.  If paper records are submitted to head office in a mailbag, anyone sending or receiving mail can potentially see confidential data.  Some companies have their employees fax records to a central fax machine.  Again, anyone walking by the fax machine can potentially see the confidential information.  And whenever paper copies exist, the approval routing process means these papers end up in various inboxes, outboxes, and sometimes simply lying around on desks.  Then lastly, the paper documents must be filed in cabinets and later in long-term storage, where janitorial, maintenance and security staff may have access.

Online recordkeeping is without question, a more secure option than paper records.  Ideally users complete the forms on a computer and submit them via email or upload, avoiding paper copies altogether.  However, in the situation that records must be completed by hand, the SafetySync fax system is still more secure.  Users fax the records (with an appropriate barcode) to a toll-free number, and the record is automatically routed in the system for administrator approval.  The records can only be accessed by users with the appropriate permissions, and a record of login and approval ensures no unauthorized people have access to your safety data.