Going for a Paperless Office: How Can You Do It?

Without a doubt, going paperless is one of the most effective ways to eliminate clutter in your office while helping you save money in the process. By maintaining a paperless office, you can:

• Reduce operating costs. Going paperless means you don’t need a large storage space to house your files. By deciding to go paperless, you can also eliminate the costs of printing and transporting and recycling your paper documents and printed collaterals. According to recent studies, the total cost of these items can be more than 30 times the purchase price of paper!
• Increase your productivity. Maintaining a digital document management system eliminates the need of spending countless hours filing and looking for paper files.
• Improve customer service. A paperless office gives you the ability to resolve customer issues in a faster and more efficient manner. Your customers don’t have to wait for long hours as you retrieve and check the documents. You can simply pull out the document as you speak and address their concerns right there and then.
• Achieve better security. Unlike paper files, digital files are not subject to physical theft and destruction.
• Be more environment-friendly. Reducing the amount of paper in your life can also help you do your share in protecting the environment. In addition, being green can also enhance your company image and do wonders for your bottom line.

Going paperless the right way

How can you enjoy all of these benefits? Here are some tips that can help you get started:

• Do away with notebooks. Use your iPad for taking notes instead.
• Use the right apps. Save text, photos and webpages, make all your notes available on all the devices that you use, share your notes and collaborate with your friends by using the EverNote app. If you want to keep digital copies of your receipts or keep on top of all your appointments, consider using apps such as Lemon or OneReceipt and Fantastical, Jorte or Sunrise, respectively.
• Get into the habit of scanning your documents. Clean up the clutter by scanning your paper files. For best results, invest in a high-speed scanner that can scan up to 15 to 20 pages per minute.
• Consider using cloud-based backup services. Store copies of your files in Google Docs or Dropbox so that you can access them anywhere you go.
• Sign documents online. Sign contracts and legal documents by using digital signing solutions such as DocuSign, SignNow or RightSignature.

These are just some of the ways by which you can go paperless in the office. Feel free to think outside the box and you can start saving money while eliminating paper clutter in your office.