Have you ever waded through stacks of files only to discover what you’re looking for is in another filing cabinet? It’s times like these you wish you had a paperless office. You’re not too sure about the hype though.
Surely, you must be giving up something when you make the switch, right? Maybe, but probably not. Here are five reasons why you should migrate to a paperless office:
Your Costs Go Down
Paper costs money. It costs money to make, ship, store, print, mail, and it even costs money to throw it away. When you go paperless, you eliminate all of those costs. Yes, it does cost money to store documents digitally, but these costs are often far lower than the ongoing cost of buying paper, ink or toner, garbage disposal, and the extra space you need to store reams.
As a practical example, MajesticInvites.com is an 8-person company that designs online invitations. The company’s president, Alina Uzilov, claims that they save $100,000 per year on printing, mailing, paper, and storage space.
Document Security Is Enhanced
With digital documents, you can implement document-level security with strong passwords. With a filing cabinet, you’ve got a simple lock and key. Suppose you work in an industry where sensitive client data is the norm.
You trust your employees, but you can’t risk that information being leaked by accident or espionage. With digital files, strong file encryption and password protection can ensure that your clients’ information is safe.
Even if the data is stolen, the encryption available today is strong enough to prevent most people from accessing it. If you outsource the data management to a company like Micro Com Systems Ltd, the whole affair is pretty much hands-off for you.
Your Files Are Now Available Everywhere
It’s becoming more common for businesses to travel. If you’re the type of company that goes to trade shows, or does business in classy resorts, there have probably been more than a few times you wished you had certain documents from your office.
With a digital document management service, or a hard drive connected to your business network, you can take your documents anywhere you go. Networked drives are pretty simple to hook up, and work just like third-party cloud storage services.
In fact, you can use cloud storage to push your documents to all of your mobile devices – services like Google Docs, iCloud, and Amazon all offer amazing storage solutions that turn the whole world into your business office.
Less Waste
It should go without saying that less paper means less waste, but you might not realise just how much less waste there is with digital documentation. Let’s say you regularly receive fax communications. You can intercept these faxes as they come into your automated phone system and convert them to digital documents. Then, those documents can be altered, saved, emailed, printed, or stored – whatever you wish.
More Space
When you don’t have filing cabinets chewing up space in your office, you have more room for things like office chairs, desk, and productive people. If you’re a small operation, it could mean a smaller office and less money for rent – all good things for your bottom line.
About The Guest Author: Tom Grant is a business productivity consultant. He loves sharing his techniques and ideas online. He recommends Micro Com Systems if you are looking to outsource your company’s data management.
Paperless Office Photo via Shutterstock
