How to Find the Best Suited Paper Shredder for Your Office

There are several factors that will determine the shredder you choose.

The shredders security level you choose will determine how securely your information is destroyed, and,
The shredders performance you choose will also determine the amount of your information that is protected.

Here your will discover how to choose the most suitable shredder to meet the needs and expectations of your office.

It’s important to first understand your needs and expectations in the context of your office environment and how you intend to approach shredding.

As the manufacturer of INFOSTOP professional office paper shredders, Document Dynamix Australia(DDX) places the highest importance positioning users of office shredders to most effectively protect their confidential information and data carriers. DDX focuses greatly on the needs and expectations of users of these business machines and also how users interact with these devices. We hope this detailed guide helps you to choose the best paper shredder for your needs.

Will your volume of documents to be shredded be similar weekly or is there a time each month, quarter or year for instance when additional shredding will take place on a larger scale.
Looking at your weekly shredding volume, (say 5 reams for example), will your office be shredding similar amounts daily (about one ream) or will shredding happen less often, perhaps weekly with higher volumes (about 5 reams) each time.
Security Level: Shred types – strip cut, cross cut, micro cut or super micro cut.
Document sizes and ratio of paper dimensions to shred such as A4, A3 & wide format paper sizes will help determine the best suited paper shredder entry feed width for your needs.
Paper fasteners such as staples, pins and paper clips, do you want the shredder to accept these?
Paper thickness, shredding sheet capacity. What is the most common thickness you need to shred at once? This is sometimes determined by the thickest stapled sets of paper you commonly handle.
Paper feeding – Hand Feed or Auto Feed or both? How fast would you like a Auto Feed hopper of paper to be shredded? What is your preferred Auto Feed hopper capacity? Would you like to be able to hand feed at the same time as auto feeding is taking place.
Speed of shredding? Ideally how fast would you like to have your documents shredded? For instance, would you like to shred 100 sheets in less than one minute? For Auto Feed shredders, how fast would you want the Auto Feed shredder to shred a full feed hopper of paper?
Waste capacity and preferred receptacle, bin or bag? It is also important to consider your OH&S obligations, for instance the bag of shredded paper is not too heavy to empty or too large or awkward to move. It is best to check acceptable work-safe weight limits and sizes with your governing safe work authority such as Workcover.
How long do you intend shredding for? Normally the less time spent shredding the better. If you have large amounts to shred periodically where hours of shredding may be required, it may be wise to choose a shredder that has a continuous duty cycle / continuous run motor otherwise you may need to wait for cool down periods. It’s a good idea to ask what is the duty cycle of the paper shredder is the shredders motor time/duty cycle rated or continuous duty cycle rated for uninterrupted shredding.
Size & Location of the shredder in your office? Think about the perfect location and available space for your shredder. The more convenient the location of the shredder to users, the more it will be utilised.
Noise level while shredding. Distractive noise is a real turn off for most offices and actually limits at what times of the work day business machines are used. During our time poor day at the office, information that should get shredded could be missed if not able to be conveniently and quietly shredded on the spot. Most noisy office equipment is usually located in inconvenient locations far away from users such as at the back of the office which is not a convenient environment.
Other media & hybrid data carriers. In addition to shredding paper, is there a need to destroy other data carriers your office may want to securely destroy? Other data carriers may also include Smart cards/ID cards/Member cards/Credit cards, Proximity cards/Security cards, CD/DVD/Blu-ray/Mini discs, SD cards, USB/Flash drives, Hard Drives, Flash memory and PCB/IC boards.
Ideally, how often would you accept emptying your shredder and what kind of receptacle do you prefer (shredder bin or shredder bag). Do your cleaners come daily or weekly?
Features? There are a raft of other features available with many paper shredder brands with some very practical and others more of a gimmick! Features that can be useful however are Automatic Oiling Systems, Auto Document Feed shredders and Metal Detectors especially for Class A & B (P5 & P6) high security paper shredders with cutting heads that are more sensitive to the ingestion items other than paper such as metal or hard & high density plastics, polycarbonate and the like.
Acquisition – Rental, Cash, Lease? EziShred Office Shredding Solutions by Document Dynamix Australia positions your office to change your shredder at any time you like as your needs may change, penalty free (EziShred is not a financial instrument).

With 30 years industry experience in the home and office paper shredder sector, Document Dynamix Australia considers the above points the most important considerations in order to make a well informed decision before purchasing a new paper shredder for your office. The main goal here is for the most positive outcome that makes shredding happen efficiently in your office.

Of course your budget will determine how well suited the shredder you source will be.
In deciding what you should invest in a suitable office shredder, ask yourself this, what value do you place on your information especially the information that makes your office a success?

A shredder is like an insurance policy to protect your most valuable asset, your information, knowledge and ideas which plays a significant part and forming of future prosperity of your business!

In the battle for relevance in business, innovation plays a huge role in positioning your business as a market leader. Keeping ideas and innovation secured in mind is far easier than protecting the same ideas and innovations in physical form such as on data carriers.

Go Under Insured with the wrong sized or security level shredder, and not everything will be protected as well as you would like. Go Under Sized, with your shredder and not everything will get shredded as you would like it to.

Remember, an information loss is not measurable compared to a material loss.

For any assistance Choosing the Best Paper Shredder for your office, please feel free to contact us on 1800 874 733 or by using the contact form to the right.