The idea of a paperless office has been around for decades now. Despite having technologies available to reduce paper usage and the benefits achieved when going paperless, it seems like the progress is still not happening fast enough. Digital documents, such as PDFs, are easily available on all devices. However, the use of paper continues to be widespread.
In the interest of every company is to optimize its activities to save time, financial resources, and gains on the quality of services provided. Many companies have taken paperless to the next level and proved that this way of doing business is preferable in many ways.
Converting to a paperless office is not as complicated as it may seem. Here is why moving to a paperless office is an extremely efficient way to optimize a business and significantly improve its processes.
Digitization is at the core of the paperless office
The reasons for the digitalization of a company's systems and processes can be significantly different, but what they all have in common is the fact that it is necessary to think about the business of tomorrow. The rapid development of information technology facilitates the daily business of companies enabling them great savings. Investing in business digitalization is investing in the survival and competitiveness of the market.
A company is competitive when the flow of information between the participants is fast and efficient. Digitization of business contributes to efficiency, creates opportunities for business innovation, changes the daily routine of business, and simplifies the use of many systems within the company.
6 Reasons for Company To Go Paperless
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Security
Choosing to keep the documentation in paper form, requires investing in locked lockers and archives. It is necessary to apply rules to destroy documents in order to ensure their confidentiality. Even then, there is no full guarantee that the documents will remain secure and confidential.
Paper-based processes pose serious security risks. Without a digital backup, a business remains vulnerable to data breaches, loss, theft, or damage due to natural causes.The risk of losing information can have a negative impact on the continuity of the company’s business.
Business management software ensures confidentiality by using hi-tech security protocols. It is a way to successfully avoid risks that could jeopardize business processes.
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Improving business processes
With the help of business management software, employees can view, authorize, and transfer information with one click. It speeds up the processes of procurement, approval of contracts, loans, cost reports, etc.
Likewise, employees can collaborate on projects by working on the same documents at the same time. The work is done sooner, and feedback can be obtained immediately. Compared to digital processes, paper-based processes are time-consuming and have a negative impact on the company's productivity: they prevent knowledge workers from doing more productive tasks.
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Facilitated access to documents
Once all the documentation has been digitized, it is possible to choose which users are allowed to view and use it and which are not. Multiple users can access the same document in real-time. All users are able to see the same, latest version of the document. Every editing of the document is registered in the activity log, so it is clear at all times who did what. Another great advantage of digital business is data backup.
In addition, digital documents are accessible from anywhere: it is not necessary anymore to be physically in the office. At the same time, the business process can never be disrupted. In today's time of smart solutions and the growing popularity of home offices, the ability to access documents is extremely important.
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Cost-effectiveness
Businesses that want to cut costs while continuing to be profitable and efficient are turning to paperless offices. Paper documentation is costly and increasingly unnecessary as paperless technologies become prevailing and easy to use.
By eliminating paper, it is not necessary to maintain printers, buy toners (and paper), hire workers to store archives. There is no need to buy or rent archive space. The space freed up by removing physical folders from shelves can be used to expand the office or will simply contribute to a more comfortable and less congested work environment.
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Customer satisfaction
With documents digitized, customers do not have to wait to get the data they need. With one click, employees can easily and quickly find everything they are looking for. There is no need to waste time searching the archives.
It is possible to maintain digital communication with customers and send them the necessary information via email. Use an email invoice to expedite the payment process. In addition to being a fast and efficient way to communicate, emails can be saved like any other document, making history easier to search.
Speaking of digital communication, you can also use electronic billing software to deliver both invoices and receipts to the customers. This action will also eliminate the expenses of shredding from your business.
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Environmental protection
Significant amounts of business paper are consumed in the world every day. A high level of consumption is not only a huge cost for companies, but it is also worrying from an environmental point of view.
According to Statista: "The global consumption of paper and board amounted to an estimated 399 million metric tons in 2020. It is expected that demand will increase steadily over the next decade, reaching approximately 461 million metric tons in 2030."
Awareness of human impact on the environment is growing day by day, and every step towards greater sustainability is praised and appreciated. By switching to a digital office, you will not only make a positive change in favor of the environment, but you will also achieve significant savings.
How to easily maintain the new paperless workflow?
After the successful implementation of digital business processes, your work is mostly done. Once you convert to a paperless office and reduce the company’s document overload, the maintaining of paperless business is straightforward.
For the purpose of easily manipulating different file types, editing, and converting digitalized documents, consider using web-based software solutions.
PDF2Go, an online PDF converter, provides more than 20 Ultimate tools for: conversion of documents to PDF, editing of PDF by rotating pages, merging PDF files, adding or removing password protection from a PDF file, and so much more.
Using OCR, optical character recognition software, transform scanned PDF documents into text-searchable ones. These PDFs can then be easily integrated into regular business processes. For the purposes of archiving and long-term preservation of digital documents, conversion into a PDF/A format is highly recommended.
With PDF2Go, there is no PDF-related task that you will not be able to solve! Improve your productivity, whether you are working from the office, from home or when you are on the go.
