Paperless Processes Bring ROI and Increased Business Speed

The paperless office seems like a pipe dream. Despite the numerous technological advancements and readily available digital technologies, businesses still rely on hard copies for much of their day-to-day operations.

According to the latest study by the Association for Information and Image Management, only 17 percent of offices have processes that can be described as paper free. According to the study, the main culprits of this paper usage are filing important documents and those that need signatures.

But there is some good news: AIIM found that the percentage of companies actively assessing their processes for ways to eliminate paper has almost doubled since last year. In the 2014 study, just nine percent of companies were investigating paper-free solutions – this year, that number has risen to 16 percent.

Paper free provides ROI

Paper is expensive. Not only do companies have to pay for the physical paper itself, but there are associated costs like printer ink, printer maintenance, and shipping and handling fees.

According to Myco Portal, it costs a company $25,000 to fill a filing cabinet and an additional $2,000 per year to maintain it. These expenses come from the need to pay for office space to house the cabinet and support staff to search through the records when needed. Getting rid of these types of processes can pay nearly immediate dividends.

“Those that have made the move to paper-free have seen the benefits quickly,” John Mancini the president of AIIM said in a post for CTO Vision. “A resounding 84% of business executives surveyed achieved payback from their paper-free projects within 18 months, with 26% doing so in less than six months.”

Be more responsive

Going to a paper-free process allows a company to be much more responsive to a customer’s needs. To get rid of paper storage, companies must replace that process with an electronic one, storing documents in a server or a cloud-based system.

Once documents are stored in this way, a company can access them quickly and easily. Instead of employees manually searching through filing cabinets, they can find their documents through a simple electronic search at the touch of a button.

This increased efficiency benefits customers who will have their queries dealt with much faster than before because of time saved. In the digital world, people expect things to happen quickly, and a company that can react instantly to issues is one that appears to be on the cutting-edge – which also helps enhance a business’s reputation.