It’s a fact. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most administrative services managers work full time. About 1 in 4 worked more than 40 hours per week.* No one likes to have their work/life balance out of whack. Working late is an indication that productivity isn’t at its highest, or else you or your admins would leave work sooner. Now is a good time to ask, are paper processes slowing your business down? Are you having a hard time finding files easily? If so, an office document management system (DMS) can help end your paper nightmare.
DMS is an integrated software system that uses hardware, like computers, laptops and scanners, to transform documents into a digital format. Ideally, a good DMS system can help you skip the paper process entirely. You can do your usual work and—with one click—print straight to a digital file that gets stored automatically. No printing, no filing, no looking for that file a week later. This saves time, money and natural resources. The average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper every year—about two cases.** Collectively, that’s 4 million tons of copy paper used in one year in the U.S.** And all that paper eventually has to end up somewhere. Often it’s in the landfill. Paper and cardboard comprise more than a quarter of annual municipal waste in the U.S.**
An average case of standard copy paper costs about $40, which means every business is spending about $80 per employee per year. And that’s just the beginning. The cost of the paper is about 10% of the lifecycle cost of that paper.*** The main costs of paper documentation fall into copying, delivery, handling, storage, and retrieval of that paper, with copying costs at 33% and distribution costs at 56%.***
Other studies show that for every dollar spent on printing documents, companies invest another $6 in handling and distribution of the paper—that’s a cost of 600%. This takes into account the cost of paying employees for the time they spend handling paper. Corporate paper flow accounts for 70 percent of the working day in most offices. Workflows are necessary to business operations, but three-quarters of your time shuffling papers is not ideal—or cost effective. From an organizational standpoint, DMS is designed to streamline workflows. Which means you’ll have more time to spend on actual work, not pushing paper.
Some of the emerging technologies in advanced DMS, like eFileCabinet, are transformational in terms of workflow. You can set up fields that the DMS looks for in every document, storing that info as a tag that can be used to retrieve data going forward. With one click, you can actually search by keyword and gather all files with that tag.
DMS has other important benefits that save you time down the road, in case of an audit. eFileCabinet DMS helps maintain compliance using built-in security features and encrypted client-sharing portals for sensitive information in transit or at rest. In the day in the life of an office worker, this means you can click and get what you need. The DMS does the hard work for you, drilling down to the document level and reporting on the history of that particular document so you can hand it over to an auditor. That fast—and with that accuracy.
eFileCabinet DMS is a convenience you don’t want to live without. Whether you are the owner of the business, a manager or a clerk, DMS makes office life easier. This will help you retain good employees and give them more time to grow in their own areas of expertise. Employment of administrative services managers is projected to grow 8 percent from 2014 to 2024.* This means you will be in the market for new hires down the road.* DMS can help you attract the best talent. Company culture is more important than ever when it comes to recruiting and retaining talent.
A Document Management System, like eFileCabinet, is a sure way to save yourself the true costs of paper. It saves paper and a whole lot more. eFileCabinet is freedom, convenience, peace of mind, and profitability.
SOURCES
* https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/administrative-services-managers.htm
** http://mashable.com/2014/04/22/earth-day-paper-infographic/#eeim5oV5lgq4
*** According to a government study conducted by California’s Alameda County. The Alameda County study was reported in Mandy Haggith’s book Paper Trails: From Trees to Trash—The True Cost of Paper (Virgin Books, 2009).