The Power of Big Data in the Paperless Office

Think of how much physical space is eliminated when an office finally moves to go paperless. The paper itself is just the beginning – the mere space taken up by filing cabinets, printers, ink, and copy machines is enormous and impossible to consolidate.

This is why stimulating electronic workflow with paperless technology is an incredible feat of progress in a company. It gives businesses the bandwidth and capacity to contain all the information in a compact infrastructure that can be accessed remotely. According to Ricoh Europe, paperless tech can be used to filter this digital data to reveal patterns or emerging trends and has become extremely popular across most business sectors today.

What is big data?

To fully understand what big data can mean for companies that use document management software, an appropriate definition of the technology should be decided upon. Forbes contributor Lisa Arthur pinned down a precise qualification for the ever-growing analytical tool.

“Big data is a collection of data from traditional and digital sources inside and outside your company that represents a source for ongoing discovery and analysis,” she stated.

That is, using big data is a way to take all the information stored digitally and use analytical software to notice trends that could inform future business decisions far faster than it would take for a research team to pore over each data point. This is yet another factor that can enhance paperless document workflow – not only is information stored digitally and is more accessible, it can also be analyzed without taking up what could potentially be weeks of an employee’s time.

Making your paperless infrastructure big data ready

Much like businesses that have been on the fence about adopting document management software in the first place, the decision to use big data for a certain project often doesn’t happen right away. However, because the technology is so flexible and can be applied to many different uses, it’s helpful for a company to have a system that it can use in this capacity instead of needing to tailor the software later on.

How does a project manager go about doing this? An important part of the process is scanning information into a useful, well-organized software that often corresponds to old systems. If a company’s paper files were sorted in a logical way in their filing cabinets, it can save a lot of time to keep this infrastructure intact when transferring all data to a digital database.

In addition, a project manager must work with an organization to ensure that all extraneous paperwork is weeded out from the larger system. This will be helpful in the short term and can save big data analytical software from needing to sift through unnecessary information when looking for certain data points.

Establishing an effective paperless document management infrastructure can be the first step in revolutionizing how your business is conducted. Whether it’s big data or another impressive technological advancement, technology is taking over, and companies need to be ready.