Paperless Office Tips: Optimizing Information for the Future
At eFileCabinet, we believe that using electronic document storage software can optimize any organizations efficiency, helping them save time, space, and money. These paperless office tips are a surefire method of making sure you leverage our system effectively.
Explained here are 6 tips from eFileCabinet’s expert trainers on how to take advantage of the time saving features of paperless document management solutions that will greatly increase organizational efficiency. Document management is an industry that sorely needs optimizing.
Many people may not realize the extent to which paper document management weighs down industry. More paper is used today than ever before, and that number is only going to increase. Today’s organizations maintain over 30 times more data than they did in 1999 (Gartner).
The US annually spends $ 25 – 35 Billion in filing, storing, and retrieving paper (IDC).
The number of pages consumed in the US offices is going up at a rate of 20% per year.
Typical office workers spend 40% of their time looking for information
Professionals spend over 500 hours annually reviewing and routing files, and another 150 hours looking for incorrectly filed documents.
A Gartner study reveals the average document is copied 9 times.
It is estimated that 80% of information is still retained on paper, even though more than 80% of documents we work with are already stored digitally somewhere (CAP Venture Group).
To keep small businesses, government agencies, and other entities from being buried under a mountain of paperwork, eFileCabinet has several tips on using paperless software to its fullest. By turning to paperless solutions, organizations can avoid almost all of the time- and labor-draining practices surrounding paper filing.
Benefits of eFileCabinet products
- Over 50% fewer photocopies and file copies
- Over 30% reduced office-space and paper warehouse costs
- Reduced outbound printing for invoices, state, statements, etc.
- Less travel to meetings
- Reduced magnetic stores and data center power
- Allows working from home
- Lowered post and courier environment impact
To take advantage of these benefits to the fullest extent, follow these tips
Use all of eFileCabinet’s Features
Use eFileCabinet for categorizing and organizing, not just document storage. There are several fabulous features, made possible only through paperless management solutions, that too few people take full advantage of. With paperless office software by eFileCabinet, you can:
- Leave comments and notes on files
- Define workflow processes
- Implement document retention and role based securities to protect security and confidentiality
- Use Optical Character Recognition (OCR), a feature that can help you look at the text within a document, making every character of a file readable and searchable by the computer within seconds.
Search like a pro
Using Boolean searching can allow you to find even the most specific document instantly. A Boolean search is a type of search allowing users to combine keywords with operators such as AND, NOT, and OR to further produce more relevant results. Advanced search helps show you all the different types of searches you can do.
But the search enhancements of eFileCabinet go far beyond Boolean logic — they extend to the realm of search automation via predefined document names. This provides the means of classifying and storing information according to lexical content, rather than arbitrary file naming. When files are given arbitrary names, they become less searchable to other members of the organization who may be searching for the document, turning both paper-dependent offices and digital landfills with unstructured content into a disorderly state of chaos.
Integrating portal (sharing files)
eFileCabinet’s client portal, SecureDrawer, allows easy and instant sharing of documents. Printing, copying, storing, and retrieving documents costs time and money. Even if you use email to go paperless (to an extent) that also is not the ideal option because email is not nearly as secure or compliant as our products, and it has file size limitations.
SecureDrawer has
- 27,000+ users
- Approximately 120 guests per admin
- Over 174,000 total files in the SecureDrawer system
- Allows you to create your own branding and web integration. SecureDrawer can be embedded in your website and can have your logo on it.
Create clear file structures
With eFileCabinet templates you can create a very clear, logical, and ordered file structure that allows you to find the right document quickly and efficiently. Templates allow users to make a uniform file structure that is organized and intuitive. What’s more, the eFileCabinet SideKick automates folder uploading and serves as a bridge between software you already use and the eFileCabinet software, ensuring you don’t have to toggle back and forth between programs.
Use batch scanning
To get all your paper into an electronic format as quickly as possible, use batch scanning by eFileCabinet. Batch scanning allows you to select what options you would like to implement for scanning documents into the system, en masse, very quickly and efficiently.
One of the ways this can be achieved is through use of Zonal OCR, which will automatically route documents where they need to go within the eFileCabinet system. And, initially, when you are scanning and uploading all your documents, hiring a few temporary scanners to assist with the process until completed will ensure throughput continuity so you can go and stay paperless, even with a huge number of paper documents.
Define document workflow processes
Every organization, and even individuals, have workflows. Even if they are not replicated in a digital format, there is a clear process for having both novel and legacy tasks completed across industries. If they are not documenting, organizing, and scheduling time, efficiency is hampered. With eFileCabinet you can layout visually your workflow layout, so you can see exactly how you want that document or task to progress. You can enable automatic routing, send a document to the right people based on the amount and who will have the authority to process a document. This will move a document to the right people, in the right order.
eFileCabinet solves more common office problems than any other document management vendor, and ensures that the future of any small business or startup needn’t be bleak with the right operational processes woven into the context of its purpose. With the ability eFileCabinet gives businesses to automate redundant processes and house data securely on-site or in the cloud, it’s become far more than a cloud storage solution since its inception in 2001.