10 Amazing Benefits of Paper-Free Office
Although the total elimination of paper may not be feasible for every business, even a small reduction may yield cost savings and increased efficiency. It doesn’t matter if your company is in the startup phase or has developed well-established policies and procedures, there are always advantages to reducing paper usage.
Here are ten reasons why going paperless may be beneficial for your small business.
1. Easy Access to Data
With the click of a button, you can easily access important documentation from anywhere. Tools such as Google Drive, Microsoft Office 365, and many more ensure seamless collaboration across platforms and users.
Based on your specific business goals and needs, information can be made accessible to numerous employees without hassle or time wasted. Properly indexed digital documents and useful file naming conventions will make your PDFs easy to find, download, and share.
2. Financially More Cost-Effective
Apart from saving money on mailing costs, you’re also able to run your business more cost-effectively without having to purchase ink cartridges and office supplies. Ultimately, the use of copiers and fax machines may also reduce overhead costs.
3. More Time Spent on Important Tasks
While your employees are losing productivity by processing physical documents and you’re retrieving information sifting through cabinet drawers, it’s possible you could have achieved far more in less time.
For example, you could have found the data you need, processed the information, and even communicated with a client or delivered a product or service.
4. Client communication is faster and less expensive
By maintaining a customer email list, you can instantly communicate sales and special offers without incurring postage and printing expenses. With the advanced technology of smart devices, most people have immediate access to emails. While it increases efficiency, electronic communication also decreases storage costs as the number of paper copies littering your office will begin to dwindle.
5. Document organization
The ability to quickly locate and disseminate information may enhance your company’s efficiency and professional image. Spending time hunting through piles of paper slows down response time in an age when most answers are only a few keystrokes away. By scanning electronic copies of receipts and invoices, documents can be sorted, filed, and organized for quick retrieval when it matters most.
6. Adhere to Audit Guidelines
As a business, you most likely have to store several years of data for audit purposes. When switching over to electronic systems for document and content management, you’re able to easily and conveniently store as much data as you need while maintaining compliance with audit regulations and guidelines.
7. Strengthened Document Security & Confidentiality
When choosing a paper to power your business processes, you have to invest in locked filing cabinets and paper shredding policies to maintain document security and confidentiality. Even then, you’re left with potential data breaches and the ongoing need to train employees in your records management policies.
8. Automatic Data Retention & Digital Backups
Data can be saved automatically on a cloud-based system, flash drives, or external hard drives. This enables digital data to exist in various locations as opposed to a single paper source, reducing the risk of damage, loss, or misplacement.
9. Data Security
Customers will always be concerned about privacy and data protection, which requires companies to respond by implementing proper data security procedures beyond locked filing cabinets and paper shredders. Many of today’s cloud-based accounting systems offer bank-level data security to protect financial and customer information, which is more than most small companies with limited technology staff can afford to build in-house.
10. Increased Customer Service
The quicker and more cost-effective you’re able to conduct business, the happier your customers. You’ll be able to receive and process orders faster, deliver on time and save money in the long run — all while contributing to a successful customer experience.
Understanding The Benefits of a Paperless Office
It’s easy to fall into a comfort zone and conduct business as usual, especially if it’s been working out for years. Although it’s a convenient way of running your business, it also means that your operations may be stagnant, perhaps falling behind your competition.
Don’t overlook the benefits of a paperless office simply because you’re set in your way as a business.
Go green, increase productivity, optimize workflow, reduce office supply costs, and convert paper documents into electronic formats.
