More and more companies incorporate sustainability principles in their policies. This vital step relates not only to environmental concerns, but also to financial issues connected with the constant printing of documents. A paperless environment streamlines operations and saves time for both employers and employees.
In this article, you will learn how to have a paperless office and the top benefits you will experience.
Why Going Paperless Is a Significant Step for Every Company
There are several reasons why going paperless at work can become the best solution for most companies.
Embrace the Statistics
Almost 18% of the companies have already become paperless. Was that decision spontaneous? No. They just did simple calculations. An average company spends significant amounts on paper supplies and their manual processing. To find out the sum you spend on the same job, you should bring such things together:
- The amount of paper you usually consume to print and store all documents;
- The amount of ink for printers and Xerox machines;
- The time you and your staff devote to manual paper processing;
- Some extra expenses are connected with delivery, printer or Xerox fixing and maintenance, etc.
So, a paperless office is budget-friendly as you can save much time and money on printing, copying, and storing all these papers. When the documents expire, office workers need to recycle them, and the company also needs to pay for that.
Getting Eco-Friendly
Did you know that 20–25 reams requires one pine tree to be cut down? Now, imagine how many trees we cut when using several reams monthly and yearly. What if we sum up the expenses of all the existing companies? Besides, office workers need a lot of space to sort documents out and store them.
Moreover, employees have to breathe in the dust that all these papers accumulate. According to NIH, 51% of people with chronic respiratory diseases and allergies used to work in offices. So, a paperless office solution can become a rescue for office workers, too. It will decrease the dust accumulation and save time on paper sorting.
Improving the Workflow
Have you seen movies about crimes where detectives spent weeks trying to find some information in the archived papers? Perhaps they could find the required evidence faster if the required data could be reached via Ctrl+F searches or AI-powered tools.
Today, paperless organizations store everything in the cloud, using document management software with OCR and AI. As a result, they create documents on their PCs, name, tag, and add them to the required folder in their virtual space. Due to that, everyone has access to the needed document that is easy to find via keyword search or simply by opening the relevant folder.
Data Leak and Loss Threat
Sometimes, office documents can be misfiled or misused by unauthorized individuals. This increases the risk of unauthorized access and misuse of sensitive information.
Another danger is connected with environmental factors. Papers can be torn, worn out, lost, and damaged by natural disasters (floods, earthquakes, etc.) and fires. Without e-copies, they can be lost forever, leading to serious problems.
How to Go Paperless Less Painfully
None of the companies can go paperless in a day. This process requires proper planning and organizational commitment. These are the main steps of the smooth paperless process.
Decide What Must Be Stored Exclusively Online
Being 100% paperless is almost impossible for offline companies. They do need to save some printed copies of their clients and staff’s documents as a backup in case of emergency situations like:
- Blackouts
- Hacker attacks
- Technical problems
However, other documents can be safely stored online.
Find the Software
As most of the documents are stored in PDF formats, you need to find a reliable tool for their creation and effective manipulation. For example, PDF Guru can help you:
- organize PDF pages,
- create them from scratch,
- sign documents online,
- edit documents,
- convert them to and from PDF format,
- transform scanned documents into editable formats,
- password-protect all files to limit access to the data,
- fill out various forms and use templates.
This software doesn’t require installation, making it scalable and universal for the whole company. Each employee uses a password to get access to the document and be able to download and change it without being attached to one PC.
Besides, you will need a cloud for document storage as you deal not only with PDF documents but also with Word, Excel, PPT, and more. It can be, for example, OneNote or Microsoft OneDrive, as they allow their users to systematize everything virtually, making all documents easy to find and replace if needed.
Other tools can help to automate workflow and enhance the productivity of everyone. They must be comprehensible and allow their integration with other online tools.
Protect Your Virtual Information
Finally, you should not forget about the safety of the online space you use. As all the vital data will be stored online, you should use only licensed software, antivirus programs, and encrypted documents. Most programs must have 2FA and use encryption to protect data. Speaking about the documents, you can protect them with passwords. For example, PDF documents can be protected with passwords and be limited to editing and copying if the user provides the required settings.
E-signatures and logos also help to verify documents, making them trustworthy. Do not forget to back up all essential information. In this case, you secure yourself if something happens to your account or the chosen software.
Takeaways
Going paperless means becoming more sustainable, secure, and productive. Besides, companies can save thousands of dollars annually by eliminating paper use, printers, and storage.
So, if you want to find the needed data in no time and provide simultaneous access to one document for many office workers, consider joining the paperless office mainstream.
