7 Reasons Why Your Company Should Go Paperless
While no there are no shortcuts to success in business, there are ways to lower your overhead and boost your efficiency at such a level, it’s like you’ve discovered ‘life hacks’ for the business world.
One of those efficiencies is going paperless. We all have a vague idea of how going paperless can save some money and be good for the environment. But most business leaders have no idea how much a digitally-connected company can boost the efficiency and productivity of their entire operation.
7 Reasons to Have a Paperless Business
Let’s see the top 7 reasons for having a paperless office and how this strategy can save you time and money.
Save Money and Physical Space
Going paperless would save a shocking amount of physical office space because you don’t have to store endless filing supplies, mail, documents, printers, ink, faxes, and so on. Ideally, you’ll have everything on an easily accessible centralized database instead of on documents that are spread across different physical locations.
Getting rid of physical mail saves a surprising amount of space and time delegating it. Instead, you can have every necessary document, bills, statements, and invoices all delivered online instead of via snail mail. Having all the above reduces general clutter in an office space and gives any workplace a beautifully spacious and efficient feel.
Streamline Your Organization
Having a paperless organization frees up the need for employees to spend time dealing with hard copies and endless documents. But we must keep in mind a worthy question: how can you go paperless without losing organizational efficiency?
Electronic documentation streamlines every aspect of an organization. We’ve seen clients use many techniques such as web-based form technology to collect and exchange information, or solutions that allow them to create custom documents with different outputs.
Our clients often utilize digital signatures to capture their signatures and swiftly use them for all forms and outputs. Many firms that we work with have moved to using online scheduling solutions to streamline business processes and workflows in an efficient manner. With paperless business systems, you can access cloud-based filing systems and applications that are available 24/7 and from any location, in real-time.
Boost Efficiency
We’re used to getting information at rapid speed. Between e-documents, cloud technology, and workflow automation tools, workers can produce and route documents instantly. One study by Adobe noted that staff can spend up to 36% of their time dealing with documents and administrative tasks. That’s a third of employee time taken up with paperwork and red tape!
With paperless business systems, employees have everything easily accessible at their fingertips. Digital collaboration tools make it easier to plan, work as a team, and transfer knowledge faster. This is also true with accounting, as companies can now send and receive invoices, payments, and handle all accounting needs easily from the cloud.
Save Time
Process automation is all about efficiently managing and routing information through a business process or workflow. At Trinity, we create business software solutions that are truly customized for your business. As a Quick Base Solution Provider and Quick Base Gold Partner we develop web-based or mobile-based processes to help companies manage everything from the simple to the most complex processes.
Saving time is yet another way that going paperless can help automate your business processes and speed up your operation. With process management software, you can route, distribute, store, and automate virtually any type of business process or data. Digital automation helps employees easily collaborate amongst themselves or with customers. It’s as simple as sharing documents digitally instead of dealing with that fax machine from the 1980s!
Make Compliance Easier
There’s always a plethora of bureaucratic compliance measures that should be accounted for in the business world. Companies must document their data confidentiality and with integrity. Not only this, but electronic document management solutions provide an easy way for companies to track, audit, and provide security for all compliance-related documentation.
It’s almost needless to say how much easier this system is when conducted digitally compared to managing a paper-based compliance system. We’re talking extra time, space, and money.
Benefit the Environment
Going paperless undoubtedly has an impact on environmental waste and the carbon footprint of a business. Not only does going digital help mitigate deforestation and CO2 emissions, but it’s also a worthy corporate social responsibility and PR move.
It’s estimated that mixed paper products account for up to 70% of total office waste across the world. While it might not seem like a huge difference, every office space and person adds up and counts for something. These are trees that don’t need to be cut down in a world that is already facing rapid deforestation. Being viewed as a savvy, environmentally conscious company is a necessary step to meet modern standards of what makes an ethical company.
Increase Productivity
When your company chooses to go paperless, it’s a brilliant opportunity to improve your workflow and optimize productivity. You want every department to be working efficiently and effectively and evaluating how to improve their workflow.
Optimization is about taking existing processes, evaluating them and subsequently adjusting the approach. This leads to improved workflow productivity. Using digital solutions enables your organization to adapt and evolve your business processes quickly and efficiently.
As an example, migrating to a new workforce automation system is infinitely easier once your business operation is cloud-based and digital. Testing new processes or systems on a digital platform makes it faster and easier for your business to evolve.
If you need assistance building digital software that makes it easy to go paperless, Trinity can help. We have a number of products that help with online scheduling, digital signatures, cloud storage, and more. Going paperless is easy when you have the support you need. Contact us today to learn more.