The Paperless Project

As technology advances, our lives become more convenient. This pertains to many daily activities. Travelling, for instance, has become significantly more efficient, allowing for cross-country travels in a matter of hours. Within the business world, the need for paper is starting to become scarce.

The Paperless Project reports that approximately 70%-80% of organization processes still see management through paper. This denotes to a large sum of money being spent on paper to supplement these processes alone. There is also the issue of ink costs as well as distribution costs. With the introduction and manufacturing of digital (or electronic) documentation, however, we can mitigate these costs substantially. Furthermore, we would be doing the environment a grand favor.

Let’s begin by defining what digital documenting is. Digital (or electronic) documentation is the means of managing documents via the Cloud, Internet, or other electronic means. With this, you can transfer, receive, upload, download, and edit documents without the need of paper. This also eliminates much of the necessity for ink and a distributor.

The best digital documentation software allows for its users to automatically sort and organize documents sent and received. As these documents are stored digitally, the amount of space available for storage is incredibly vast, perfect for companies dealing with a substantial amount of paper such as law firms. In regards to its organization feature, company workers will no longer have to go through the arduous task of manually sorting and finding documents. Actions taken with these documents, be it sending or receiving, occur almost instantaneously. This further supplements its appeal as speed is hardly ever an issue with digital documents.

So how, then, do companies actually benefit by going paperless? Well, for starters, the need to purchase ink and paper is reduced significantly, cutting costs. Majestic Invites, an e-commerce invitation design company, saves roughly $50,000 per year by going paperless. According to Alina Uzilov, president of Majestic Invites, the company saves this amount on paper, printing, mailing, document storage, and other various expenses. Her company has eliminated paper from nearly all processes, including design mock-ups, vendor and client contracts, purchase orders, and in-voicing.

Paper service companies are not the only types of businesses to reap the rewards. The 370-employee Suncoast Medical Clinic estimates that it will save about $1 million by using electronic health records (EHR), eliminating 80 percent of its paper-based medical records budget and most of its transcription services. While most of the cost cutting stems from reducing the amount of resource purchases, this shows that digital documents can also reduce the cost spent on other services and labor pertaining to physical documents.

But aside from reducing costs, what other benefit can you hope to gain from switching to a paperless track? Let’s take a look at Staged to Sell, a design service company located in Scottsdale, Arizona. This company specializes in home staging and designing. With the plethora of clients they receive, it becomes imperative that the company is capable of responding in a timely manner.

Even without digital documentation, this was possible. However, the effort put in to maintain quality service proved to be quite straining. It was when Staged to Sell decided to integrate a digital documentation software system that circumstances finally began to shine gently. Through this new system, Staged to Sell was able to process an exponentially larger amount of client orders and transactions.

A similar scenario occurs daily at the Suncoast Medical Clinic. At Suncoast Medical Clinic, physicians review patient lab results, radiology interpretations, and progress reports in real-time over the network from their office, their home, or a hospital. Electronic Health Records let primary care physicians and specialists, of whom are treating the same patient, review and contribute to a single shared patient record. The process saves a bountiful amount of time, helps avoid errors, and reduces duplication of tests.

The benefits offered to companies of various shapes and sizes is highly apparent with the switch to paperless. This accomplished via the reduction in costs as well as the increasing of efficiency. With the use of digital documentation, not only will the environment benefit, but so will you and your company. Make the switch now.