The paperless office is like Bigfoot. Someone says he knows someone who saw him but you don’t ever actually see him yourself.
The mountains of paperwork actually makes one envy the trees who died to produce it. However, paperless is possible and you can transition to a paperless office and reap the benefits of structured, electronic-based data management.
This multitude of paper documents take up a lot of commercial office space. Paper requires a great deal of time and labour to and retrieve. On average, employees spend about an hour per month searching for and retrieving files. Sometimes while a customer is waiting on the other side of the phone.
An electronic document management system eliminates the need for hard copies and unappealing, backbreaking, bulky filing cabinets by putting all your paper files into a single computer-based storage system.
By going paperless, downsizing on filing without losing your documents become possible. It makes financial sense as it saves money and time, improves workflow processes, and increases productivity. A paperless office enjoys the following benefits:
- No hidden costs associated with reproducing and storing paper documents, such as printer maintenance, photocopier maintenance, paper, toner and ink cartridges.
- No need for storage units, such as bulky filing cabinets and space for storage units, giving you a neater, clutter-free office environment.
- Faster and easier distribution and sharing of documents.
- The move to paperless could pay for itself within a month by saving time in locating and retrieving documents.
- Documents can be accessed by multiple users onsite and offsite.
- It is environmentally friendly and reduces our carbon footprint, thus avoiding a tree’s one glorious moment of revenge, the paper cut.
Let’s banish the paper blues and move into a paperless 21st Century!