Why should your company go paperless?
Your business, regardless of sector, generates a lot of documents, requires regular access to information, and is prone to audits. As your company expands, so will your data, and if you are still using paper, it’s time to reconsider. If you want to boost your productivity and profit, it is time to start planning your digital archiving strategy.
Paper archives are outdated and tough to process
Paper is the worst enemy of productivity in your business. Why? There are many reasons, that seem logical in theory but are hard to get rid of in reality, especially when you are so focused on your everyday work that you can no longer see the big picture. But to help you see clearer and assess the situation, shall you ask yourself these questions: how much time and money are you spending on storage space, filing cabinets, and time spent looking for documents or information?
- On average one co-worker will spend five hours in a week to retrieve records, whether they are stored in filing cabinets or off-site storage facilities.
You may also evaluate the risk, and so the security lack of paper and manual-based processes: Indeed, documents can be easily lost, mishandled, or damaged. Talking about mishandling, have you seen how inefficient it is to collaborate with others on a paper document, or even an electronic one with multiple offline versions? You can easily judge it by yourself, even more when different departments or stakeholders are working together.
You should also read:
6 reasons why to invest in a DMS solution
Information centralization is key
Usually, you are going to keep either your documents in filing cabinets somewhere in the office, as an archive room for example. Or if you are already using a bit of technology they can also be in your mailbox, in any local folder on your computer, or in one of your numerous USB keys… who knows!
This brings us to the worse drawback of not using a document management system (DMS): you have many critical documents everywhere, not organized, which makes it a real pain to retrieve any information. So of course, you could find a way to scan your documents with an MFP and store them with a naming convention, but that does not make everything: intelligent storing thanks to DMS technologies makes the difference.
3 stages to follow to succeed in your electronic archiving:
- Take your paper files to scan them with your MFP
- Index and file them in a structured folder architecture
- Leverage a powerful search engine to retrieve and access information in a matter of seconds from any device, and at any time
Top 3 benefits of performing digital archiving
There are uncountable advantages of stepping to digital transformation by first implementing an electronic archiving strategy. Check out our infographic and discover the three main benefits of using such technologies!
Also to be discovered:
Create digital workspaces for information exchange