For companies that want to survive the internet age, going green now is a must. Eco-friendly options present so many benefits that even construction companies are going green. Among the simplest but most effective solutions, you can do is go paperless.
Moving away from manual paper trails helps with the environment and gives your business a distinct advantage. Here are 5 reasons why companies should go paperless and why they should get started today.
1. Going Paperless Makes Work Efficient
Going paperless is among the most sustainable solutions you can do towards improving workplace productivity. Going paperless at work means you’re converting paperwork into electronic documents. These documents allow for more seamless sharing and a better, more efficient transit of paperwork.
Through digital documents, you can create a more centralized database that not everyone can access without proper authorization. This makes your business documents easy to access when you need them. Rather than have reams of paper stacked in your office, you can quickly get what you need from a file.
Digital documents will cut back on the paper waste you have while keeping everything neat and organized. When you need to send your records, you can have them emailed or printed as you want. No more messy desks. No more rooms and office spaces dedicated to archiving all your company documents.
2. It Helps With Team Collaboration
Digitalization is an essential step towards better teamwork and collaboration across your team. As you go paperless, not only do you empower sustainability as a leader, you also afford your entire team access to the information they need.
Before computerization, most teams discussed documents with multiple copies of the same document. This was wasteful, as most documents are either stored away or thrown when unneeded. There’s also the issue of moving files around, making small notes and reminders that you can quickly lose.
By going paperless, all documents are digital and even saved in a secure cloud location. With modern word processors, teams can view, edit, download, annotate, and even comment as they need to. As a result, collaboration is faster without wasting paper on minor edits and adjustments required.
3. You Reduce Junk Mail
Every office receives tons of mail a year. It’s not simply junk mail that you receive but also documents from other companies, receipts, proformas, and even invoices. These can pile up as fast as possible, especially if you’re a company that deals with many customers and requisitions.
Sorting through mail takes hours of your time, from reception to shredding unnecessary documents. Wouldn’t you rather not deal with these? Going paperless can solve many of these issues for you.
For starters, you can start opting out of paper mails. Most organizations now provide paperless bills, advertising, bank statements, and even invoices. These are mostly sent via email or downloadable from billing links.
By reducing the mail you get every day, you can take a few extra hours for yourself. These can go towards better, more productive work. At the same time, you don’t have to worry about others intercepting your mail.
4. You Save Time and Money
Speaking of cost savings, one of the biggest ways for your organization to save money is to go paperless. Companies spend hundreds of dollars from buying stationery supplies, with companies paying upwards of $800 for 10,000 sheets of paper.
These can cost organizations thousands of dollars down the line, especially if you have a big company. You also add the cost of office printers, industrial printers, fax machines, copiers, and their inks, which goes into the tens of thousands.
Going paperless eliminates all paper and printing-related costs. Depending on the organization, you can save as much as 95% of your printing costs. However, the numbers can be frightening if you’re not careful, especially considering that you need additional human resources to do all the printing jobs you need to do.
5. You Improve Workplace Security
Over the past few years, cyberattacks have been common across organizations. Many would think that paperwork can save you from a data breach, but on the contrary, paper is less secure than digital documents. If you’re a company that values security and confidentiality, going paperless is the correct route.
Paper is hard to store and easy to access. If you put all your crucial documents stacked in your office, you’re in trouble. Why? How many people go in and out of your office? How many unauthorized personnel can get glances from valuable contacts and client information?
Paper is easy to lose, simple to copy, and offers no access trail. With digital documents, you have several ways to store them discreetly – even off-site. You can save everything in confidential hardware, from hard drives to even private cloud storage. You can also restrict who has access to these documents.
Every digital document has its own audit trail. File properties will have details like modified dates, authors, and even geolocation data. You can even encrypt digital documents to make them useless and inaccessible, even if they gain access to it.
Final Thoughts
Going paperless is not simply a way for you to save the environment. It’s a way to improve the efficiency of your business and maximize every transaction. By going digital, you save the planet as you do your business. You get better, scale faster, and grow knowing that you have less impact on the environment.
Written by Regi Publico
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