eFileCabinet’s President and CEO, Matt Peterson recently had an article posted on TMCnet. Matt’s article, “Is a Paperless Office Worth the Hassle?” will help businesses answer the question: Is your company ready to go paperless?
We have provided the full article below or you can read it on TMCnet by clicking here. Regardless of where you read it, we are ready to help you take your business paperless. Call us at 877-574-5505 to speak directly to one of our account executives for a personalized demonstration.
Is a Paperless Office Worth the Hassle?
Balancing the need for a paperless office with the traditional values of a business requires a forward-thinking approach. Organizations around the world rely on the best practices of other companies in their sector in order to drive innovation and growth. In recent times, the focus on line efficiency has also extended to administrative staff. CEOs around the world are beginning to focus on optimizing processes and on a larger scale, their existing systems. Choosing paperless software to optimize document management has been proven as a reliable way to improve efficiency and medium to long-term profitability. The question is: Is your company ready to go paperless?
The Case for Paperless
The use of technology to improve profitability, manage risk, and improve efficiency levels is a good practice, but it needs to be examined in light of a company’s mission statement, operational maturity, and strategic goals. There is no doubt that paperless software can result in benefits for industries that rely heavily on documentation, but is it relevant to niche firms, small- and medium-scale businesses, or to industries that do not rely on paper as much? Is it worth the hassle for a company that enjoys a healthy profit margin in its current operating environment? Is the potential improvement in efficiency worth the cultural and technological changes that the company will undergo as a result of going paperless?
First, it is vital to understand that paperless software is not just another tool that a company can ‘use’ to cut costs. Choosing to go paperless in a small way, by choosing to work on electronic copies of documents, or in a big way, by incorporating collaborative sharing platforms and workflow capabilities into a paperless environment, requires cognizance of the fact that both require the approval and acceptance of every employee in the organization.
The operational difficulties caused by the transition from a paper-based system to a paperless one can only be mitigated by setting the right expectations—i.e. ensuring that line and staff workers do not believe that the transition can be made in a single day. Even in small and medium businesses, the behavioral transition can take far longer than the technology transition. If a company is willing to expend the resources required to manage this behavioral aspect of the transition to paperless document management software, the road ahead gets easier.
The initial setup and deployment of paperless software will begin to yield results in the short-term—two or three months. If managed well, some of the key changes that will become noticeable include an improvement in measurable productivity metrics, fewer documents lost or misplaced, and less time spent locating key documents. In the long-term, a company can expect to see a 15 – 30% improvement in overall productivity with significant time saved in administrative effort.
A well-deployed paperless office can also expect significant improvements in access control and cost-effective secure document storage, improving the organization’s operational and enterprise risk profile. And finally, the most important benefit of a paperless office can be seen on an organization’s balance sheet—where it counts.
TMC (Technology Marketing Corporation) is a leading B2B marketing media company. TMC caters to markets in the communications and technology industries. With specific content TMC provides decision makers important information when selecting products and services.