Here Are 7 Reasons for Going Paperless
When you stop and really think about it, you will realize that paperwork is everywhere. While this holds true for all spheres of life, it is particularly noticeable and relevant in the business setting.
To illustrate this point, research shows that an office worker in the United States will, on average, use 10,000 sheets of paper every year. In larger settings, this translates into a literal mountain of paperwork and it comes with a host of drawbacks and restrictions. You will find more details below, but the heart of the matter is that paper documents are a drain. Both on your resources and efficiency.
However, there is a way to remedy the situation. Going paperless will allow you to truly enter the digital age and reap its many benefits. But this leaves you with the problem of your existing paper archives. Fortunately, there is a way to efficiently address this situation as well.
Thanks to advanced software, there is no need to recreate all your documents when you can simply convert them. Optical character recognition technology and a program like OmniPage can help you do just that and, in the process, smash the limitations that paper documents place upon you.
Having said that, here are seven reasons you should steer clear of paper documents and embrace their electronic alternative with the help of Kofax’s OmniPage products.
The Reasons
- Expenses
You already know that office workers go through a lot of paper each year. And while it is not free, the cost of paper itself is not particularly great. However, the expenses do not end there.
Printer ink, for example, is very expensive. Per ounce, it can even cost more than high-end perfume. Sending and receiving mail also doesn’t come cheap, particularly if you take into account the extra time that goes into it.
Then, there are also the costs of storage and disposal. Over its lifetime, a physical document can cost you as much as 30 times of what you paid for the paper once you add everything up. - Accessibility
No matter how well-organized you are, reproducing and distributing paper documents takes a significant amount of time. On the other hand, receiving an email or pulling a document from a server takes mere moments. In addition, this makes it much easier to access information when you are away from the office. - Collaboration
Not only are digital documents easier to access for an individual, cloud solutions and collaboration tools also enable multiple people to simultaneously work on the same document. This applies regardless of their physical location. - Automation
Digital documents allow you to automate certain workflows. For example, you can set electronic forms to automatically collect information and send it to the appropriate databases. - Search Speed
It doesn’t matter if you are searching for the document itself or a specific paragraph within it. With paper, you have no choice but to do it manually. Electronic documents make searching much easier, tremendously cutting down on the time needed. - Recovery
If the worst comes to pass and your workplace suffers a disaster, paper documents are very vulnerable and frequently among the first things to go. This is especially true in case of fires but also applies to floods, earthquakes, etc. And once a paper document is destroyed, it’s gone for good.
On the other hand, even if your hardware gets damaged, you have a chance to recover your digital documents. But more importantly, with cloud software and automatic backups, your electronic archives can stay safe no matter what. - Environmental Concerns
It’s no secret that human society generates a lot of waste. And when it comes to offices, around 90% of it is paper. Coupled with the raw materials the paper industry uses up each year for production, this puts a noticeable strain on the environment.
Of course, electronic documents do not share these problems. As a result, digitizing you archives is not only good for your firm’s bottom line, it’s beneficial for the planet.
Final Words
While this list covers seven major issues, it is far from exhaustive. And this is perhaps the biggest reason you should strive to move away from paper documents.
Of course, this process cannot happen overnight. But, it does not need to be as daunting as it may initially appear. OCR technology provides the quickest and easiest way for you and your company to go paperless. And Kofax offers comprehensive and cost-effective solutions with its OmniPage packages.
Therefore, if you want to cut costs, improve efficiency, and help the environment in one fell swoop, digital documents and OmniPage are the way to go.