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Why The Paperless Office Is The Future For Business

Written by Mario Zules on April 26, 2019

Perhaps you already know that mobile apps, smart homes, and smart cars are the epitome of modern convenience. Why would your office experience be any different? A paperless office increases the “smart factor,” and goes a long way in improving your business processes.

Imagine working in an office without a single piece of paper. Imagine no paper documents to sign and pass around the office. No paper documents to sift through and keep updating. No paper documents to store in your limited office space. No need for file cabinets! It sounds too good to be true, right?

While it might seem like a distant possibility, this the future of business. Many businesses are already moving towards the paperless office through using document management software such as OpenKM to streamline business process, cut costs as well as save on precious time.

Let’s dig in and explore in details why the paperless office might be the right strategy for your business:

1. Cost-effective

With companies looking for ways to cut costs while still making considerable profits, the paperless office seems like a viable solution. Paper documentation is an increasingly expensive overhead. Its shortcomings such as theft, misplacement, and loss are also detrimental to a business.

Without paper, no cash will be spent on buying paper, printer toner, printing or hiring filing staff. No money will be spent on renting document storage space or buying file cabinets. Also, no money will be spent on occasional servicing of office equipment such as printers.
OpenKM comes in handy in eliminating paper through office automation. It enables you to keep your documents in digital formats; thus your office expenditure is reduced considerably.

2. Enhanced security

Secondly, the manual documentation system is susceptible to lots of security breaches. Even with security measures such as locks and shredders, sensitive documents are not safe. Intruders can easily access file cabinets and steal your documents. In case of fire or any natural calamity like a hurricane or flood, sensitive documents can be lost. Sometimes due to human error files get misplaced, never to be found again, and this can be a big blow to business.

The good thing with an electronic record management system is that all documents are stored in encrypted servers that can track when files are accessed, by whom, at what time, and what changes were made. Access to digital documents can also be limited to authorized personnel.

Thanks to cloud computing. You can store sensitive documents in cloud-based platforms for easier access and watertight security. This also allows for multiple backup points. What’s more, OpenKM cloud services can be accessed from various devices; such as PCs, tablets, and smartphones.

3. Enable a Mobile Work Force

Thirdly, smart solutions have proved to be very important in the twenty-first century. With a smartphone, your smart home control is a click of a button away. Similarly, with the necessary mobile apps, all your office work can be a fingertip away.

Gone are the days when you needed to visit a stationary office to work. A home office is the new cool. The paperless office enables you to access your data from any point in the world. Consequently, your business process can never be disrupted, and your employees will be happy to work remotely. A happy employee is a productive employee.

4. Improve Business Process

With the right digital document management system like OpenKM employees can review, delegate, authorize and transfer information at a click of a button. This can speed up purchase requests, expense reports, loan approvals, contracts and much more.

For example, the real estate business is quite slow because of the many regulations that surround it. Time is everything. Real estate agents will need to learn how to employ office automation to their advantage. Through automation, documents can be signed digitally and sent to the relevant authorities in real time cutting down on both time and costs.

Moreover, employees can collaborate on projects by working on shared documents simultaneously. This promotes creativity while allowing for prompt feedback. It also frees up most of your employees time enabling them to add value in other areas of your business.

5. Customer Satisfaction

Customers are the backbones of your business. Their satisfaction is never an option. Many clients nowadays prefer self-service over calling and being placed on hold. Digital transformation is indispensable.

With documents, one click away employees don't have to keep clients and customers on hold as they manually search for relevant information. With quick customer and client response, their satisfaction is guaranteed.

In addition, with the right content management software and customer relationship management application, you can easily identify the needs and wants of your customers through email, chat and social media. This makes it easier to customize your business to your customers and clients satisfaction.

6. Faster Payments

If your business extends credit to clients, it’s likely that you will need to invoice them from to time. First, using electronic invoices will enable you to save money that would otherwise be spent on office paper, envelope, and postage.

Secondly, using an email invoice can expedite the payment process. Customers receive your invoice as soon as you click the send, and this can accelerate how fast they make payments. Also, since most document management software can create and track invoices, you can easily make follow-ups on unpaid invoices, when appropriate.

7. Environmentally Friendly

Embracing digital documentation does not only improve productivity in your business but also helps keep the environment safe. On average Americans use 650 pounds of paper per year. The U.S. business community uses around 21 million tons of paper annually. Such numbers raise concerns on the environmental impact.

As you can see, going paperless is such an important venture not only to the business community but also the entire human race. In fact, there is a world paper-free-day that advocates for industries to go paperless. Furthermore, there are paperless trade treaties already in play promoting paperless transactions for the sake of the environment. With such legislation coming into existence, there is no doubt that a paperless office is the future of business.

Final word

All said and done. Going paperless has many benefits for you, your employees, customers, your business and its environs at large. Aside from enabling you to transact business from anywhere. It eliminates the hassles associated with manual document management process which can be slow, cumbersome, and expensive.

With document management systems like OpenKM, the paperless office is no longer a future possibility but a reality that is waiting to be embraced. As an experienced solutions partner, we can help you make a smooth transition from paper to a paperless office with a competitive edge. Feel free to contact us here today.