The Tribune

Technology has so seamlessly replaced paper processes that it is difficult to remember how things used to be done. In nearly all cases, the evolution from paper-based items to their electronic counterparts is profoundly more efficient.

A paperless office environment is a workplace that uses minimal physical paper, and instead uses digital documents. A paperless employee is a worker who has eliminated or greatly reduced the use of paper in the workplace. The process of converting paper files into electronic files is known as digitisation.

The idea of an entirely paperless office has existed since personal computers became the basis of the modern workplace. Yet despite the prevalence of electronic documents and e-mail, most companies still rely on paper documents. There are many benefits to going paperless - from saving resources to boosting security. Yet from handouts at meetings to human resources documents and receipts, many business processes still revolve around paper.

This week, we focus our energy on the globally-accepted benefit of reducing our dependence on paper in the workplace:

1. Less Paper Saves Time. Time spent filing, organising and searching for paper documents is time that could be spent on more productive tasks. Digitised documents are stored in a central repository, which is basically a well-organised digital filing cabinet where all of your documents live.

Using a digital document management system, you will get to harness the same powerful search abilities that you are used to on Google. This means employees can find files at the click of a button, which is much quicker than the laborious, manual process of searching for a specific file in a buried folder. Employees are able to use this extra time on revenue-generating projects.

1. Less Paper Saves Space. Paper takes up a lot of space – as do the filing cabinets and the space required to store those filing cabinets. Books and bookshelves are bulky, too. What is worse, paper keeps piling up, often accumulating more quickly than it can be sorted and organised. This is particularly true of industries that have long mandatory retention periods for paperwork, such as the financial services industry.

Digitising files allows you to store all documents on either an on-premises server or in the cloud. Digital file folders in a repository require much less space than a physical records archive.

1. Less Paper Saves Money. Going digital improves process efficiency, saving you money. Paperless offices can process a much larger volume of paperwork in a shorter time when compared to traditional offices.

Further, digitisation reduces the amount of money spent on paper, printers, ink, postage, office space for files and employee time required to manage paperwork. The savings on employee time become especially valuable in regard to regulatory audits and repetitive, high-volume tasks such as expense reimbursements.

1. Less Paper makes it easier to transfer information. Document management software offers a simple process for saving documents. The software easily compiles digital documents using scanners, mobile capture using a camera on a phone or tablet, or importing any file type (.docx, .pdf, image files). Many commonly-used applications, such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat, integrate with document management systems and have native plug-ins that allow you to file your document into your content management system with just one click.

2. Less paper promotes protection of the environment. Manufacturing paper products produces greenhouse gases, causing deforestation and global warming. Recycling can offset some of the environmental impact, but not by much. Most paper eventually ends up in a landfill. Further, ink and toners contain volatile compounds and non-renewable substances that are damaging to the environment. It is much more sustainable to simply reduce paper use altogether by switching to a paperless office.

3. Less paper boosts security. Physical documents are hard to track. Reams of paper can get lost, misfiled or destroyed without anyone noticing. It can also be difficult to monitor the access to, and printing and copying, of sensitive files. Document management software has advanced security capabilities that can tackle these challenges. System administrators can set-up granular access rights, which assign permissions at the document level (settings based on the type of document), user level (settings based on person’s job function), or system level (overarching security for all data in the system).

The security benefits of a paperless workplace go beyond access rights. Implementing document management software also allows companies to leverage electronic signatures, redact confidential information, create audit trails and more.

• NB: Ian R Ferguson is a talent management and organisational development consultant, having completed graduate studies with regional and international universities. He has served organsations, both locally and globally, providing relevant solutions to their business growth and development issues. He may be contacted at iferguson@bahamas.com.