Small Business: Why Go Digital? What’s Wrong with the Paper?

You might ask the following questions: what are the benefits of getting my business digital? What’s wrong with paper and why should I use technology instead? This article will convince you that a digital document management solution makes your everyday work much easier and time efficient as you no longer need to deal with tons of paper documents.

The more society grows, the more complicated and slow the document exchange process becomes. Immediate access to information stored on paper is getting more and more difficult. But new technology is offering a variety of tools which can be used to transform paper documents into digital format which is more reliable, safe and organized. Having a paperless office doesn’t sound weird anymore: fewer and fewer business owners are likely to use paper and printers in their workflow. More and more modern businesses prefer to work “in the cloud” or use other document collaboration options offered by information technologies.

Let’s look into a few reasons why companies go digital and what benefits they get in return.

First, going paperless is an environmentally friendly decision. Nowadays most companies position themselves as environmentally friendly. But obviously that can’t be achieved without paperless office technologies. Paper is a huge source of landfill waste, not to mention disposal of ink cartridges and the energy used by office supplies (scanners, printers, etc.). Let’s look at the numbers.

According to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, about 35% of municipal solid waste by weight is paper and paper products (for example, in 2010, the U.S. generated more than 5 million tons of office paper waste). Ecology.com estimates that now nearly 4 billion trees, or 35% of the total trees felled around the world, are used in paper industries on every continent. Doesn’t it sound impressive?

Secondly, think about security issues. Reliable computer system provides a good security system which protect your files from unauthorized persons seeing them. Document management tools allow you to set individual and role-based security at the folder and file levels, so you can give different employees different level of access to folders and files based on their roles within the company. Admit that a strong security system protects your data much better than a lock on a door. One of the greatest benefits of web-based document management solutions is that you don’t have to store your data on your own hard drive – you keep and manage all your files “in the cloud” which means you can access and share them where ever you are, from any web-enabled device.

A digital solution helps you to be more productive in terms of time. Your employees no longer need to spend their time searching for a particular document among tons of paper, printing and scanning the document, reprinting pages because of errors, delivering the copy to the intended recipient, organizing papers, etc. And you no longer need to pay them for it.

A paperless office will save your money. Document management systems help you reduce the costs associated with lost files or documents which have been accidently destroyed or misplaced. Mashable shows that according to the recent study led by Eco-Officiency, medical offices patient records can be anywhere from 50 to 600 pages. In average, $120 in labor is lost for every mislaid document.

And on top of all that, you save money on office supplies and paper. Eco-officiency.com says that an average office worker goes through 10,000 paper sheets a year – that’s $80 a year per worker. On average, companies spend about $800 per year per employee for printing and copying, according to DocuSense research.

Being paperless means easy and fast access to your documents. The powerful features of a digital file system make it easier to organize and search documents. Also, you can store more data without the clutter or mess which otherwise accumulates. You can manage your files easily: move them, copy, remove wherever you are. There is almost no limit for the quantity of information you can store digitally. And by the way, be sure to take into consideration that 1 TB external drive saves 50,000 tress (according to Berkeley School of Information research).

Managing your documents online helps you improve customer service. Improved productivity within your company improves they way you communicate with customers. Remote and instant access to information means that your customers receive the answers they need much faster with no delays.

In addition, using an online document management solution is a way of effective collaboration between employees within your company. There are no delays in a workflow. The collaboration possibilities are huge: instant files sharing, quick access, sending files in a second, convenient and flexible retrieval, and working with any file formats. For example Cloud-based apps can be used any time on almost any device (run on any operating system) with a fast Internet connection. This is a huge benefit that leads to better online document collaboration, especially for companies with remote employees. In the last few years, the remote workforce has grown significantly. More than 34 million Americans work at home, according to a study led by Forrester. By 2016, this number is expected to be 63 million so virtual workers will comprise 43% of the workforce, nearly doubling today’s count. It’s a convincing reason why online document management solutions are becoming more and more popular.

On top of all that, managing documents online provides you with a high level of accuracy. There are no more damaged paper, illegible scrawls, forgotten fields and misinterpreted handwriting.

Summary: The Key Reasons to Go Paperless

1. Make a difference: be environmentally friendly.
2. Protect your data with a strong security system, not with a door lock.
3. Save time. Be more productive.
4. Save money. Decrease cost.
5. Get easy access to your data at any time from any device.
6. Improve customer service.
7. Improve collaboration.
8. Don’t lose or misinterpret data.

If you’re tired of the ever-growing stacks of paper in your office and if you’re ready for bigger growth and success of your small business, why are you still using outdated document management solutions? It’s time to go digital! Enjoy fast and painless access to your documents, become more productive and save money!

Do these facts and arguments convince you to go paperless? Or maybe you have a story on how going digital has helped your small business? Tell us what you think! Feel free to leave your comments below.