Benefits of Going Paperless Back

The term ‘paperless office’ is certainly one which most of us will have heard. The rationale behind this rather descriptive term being; ‘a wish to cut down on one’s carbon footprint whilst increasing efficiency and reducing cost’. At least at first for many a seasoned office worker the concept of a ‘paperless office’ may seem rather strange, and implementing the paperless office may be yet even stranger.

However after a while life in a ‘paperless office’ surely does seem worth the effort, as most people who have ‘gone through’ this conversion will likely agree.

Below are some of the benefits of a paperless office:

#1 Faster retrieval of documents

Indexation of electric documents and keyword ‘tagging’ means those ‘hard-to-find’ documents are much easier to locate than paper based counterparts. Upon creation of an original electric document or when a paper document is scanned into the system, software is able to index documents by keyword. When you search for these keyword the system will return the document in seconds. Traditionally document retrieval of paper based documents could take hours… if not days in some instances. You’ll be glad to hear that electronic storage of documentation makes long ‘treasure hunts’ of this nature a thing of the past!

#2 Saves the environment

The fact that trees are saved in the paperless office is rather obvious! However when paper is taken out of the equation less rubbish is generated in the office environment. This in turn decreases the amount of fuel needed to transport the waste paper to a recycling plant. Email also cuts down on delivery which would otherwise require vehicles to collect and deliver.

Even though paper can be recycled, it still requires fuel to recycle the paper in the first place. The ‘paperless office’ makes all of this obsolete and unnecessary.

#3 More space in the office

The need for those unsightly grey filing cabinets becomes a thing of the past when the paperless office is implemented. Instead you can replace those filing cabinets with office plant life. Or perhaps you can now move to a smaller office which doesn’t cost as much in rent payments. Or alternatively you could even sub-let your new found office room to a sub-tenant.

At the very least your newly acquired office room will provide a less cluttered environment for your employees to go about their working day.

#4 Staff can access the same document at the same time

Kiss goodbye to long waiting times whilst other staff members work on a file. With a paperless file multiple employees can access the same documents at the same time. Surely this fact alone will improve your business’s workflow and overall efficiency. This will also likely improve the collaborative process as staff can work on the same file simultaneously. Furthermore since document ‘waiting time’ is cut to nil, this should also mean your staff are more likely to be able to stick to their deadlines.

And because documents are usually accessible remotely, staff are able to access documents anywhere at any time.

#5 Saves you money

Paper and ink cost money! If most of the documents are stored on computers you will cut down on the cost of paper and ink. Obviously printing will be an unavoidable cost to some extent, but with the paperless office printing costs will be cut substantially.

If you are required to archive documents for six years or more (e.g. solicitors and accountants) a paperless office will mean you kill off the need to archive your documents off-site and the associated cost of doing so.