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Why Your Business Needs to Go Paperless Right Now

As a business owner and leader, it’s your job to find exciting new ways to optimize workplace efficiency. One of the most straightforward ways of doing, which can also save you tons of money, is by going paperless.

The average person uses and wastes over 700 pounds of paper every year. Don’t bother your accountant to crunch the numbers; your business is probably spending more than it needs to on paper alone. With estimates showing that companies spend as much as $1,500 annually on filing cabinets and security, as well as an additional $125 cost to locate files and $350 to replace them, it’s about time business owners take charge.

What Is a Paperless Office?

A paperless office is a workplace that significantly reduces or even eliminates its dependency on paper as a means to store documents and communicate. This is done by scanning all of your current documents and storing them on a computer or cloud storage system, which is known as digitization.

The primary reason for promoting paperless environments is to relieve people of their dependency on paper, which in turn can cut down, so to speak, deforestation, leaving a higher number of trees to remove carbon dioxide from the air. While this claim has its faults, there are several intangible reasons why individuals and companies should fight for a more paper-free world.

Why Your Company Need to Go Paperless

Allow us to go into detail as to why paperless work environments are ideal for any business.

Enhanced Security and Secrecy

In a traditional paper-based setting, businesses will struggle to store documents efficiently while keeping them away from prying eyes. Shredding your documents is the go-to way to eliminate unneeded documents and free up filing cabinet space, but even then, there’s no guarantee that copies weren’t made when nobody was looking. Shredding services from companies like Corodata can help you with the secure destruction of your confidential information, helping you keep your workplace orderly while you transition to paperless.

In comparison, a paper-less, digitized filing system makes it easier for companies to maintain their documents’ confidentiality by password-protecting and even encrypting their files. Companies will also have an easier time giving authorization to certain personnel to access and modify documents. No need to duplicate keys—everything is done straight from a computer or mobile device.

Easier Document Storage, Access, Editing, and Sharing

With a few clicks of the mouse, managers and team members can gain access to documents in real-time for anywhere on the planet. Cloud storage systems like Google Drive, Dropbox, and pCloud all work great as places to store, share, and collaborate on projects.

Something that doesn’t get enough credit in companies is auto-backup. Your OS and cloud-based systems can come with auto-backup to prevent accidental loss of data. Of course, you can rely on the ancient method of backing data up—namely, by copying and pasting data from your computer onto a flash drive or external HDD.

Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

Some might argue that paper-based workplaces aren’t that harmful to the environment because paper is recyclable. While it’s true that paper can go into a recycle bin, only about half of what we use actually goes back into circulation. The other half is destroyed in filing cabinets, misplaced, or unrecyclable. That’s the sad reality of our dependency on paper.

But a paperless work environment, by definition, reduces or completely gets rid of the need for paper, which in turn can reduce your company’s carbon footprint. Plus, it’s a good idea to hop on the eco-awareness bandwagon while it’s still in its infancy stage.

Cost-Effectiveness

In the beginning, we offered a few figures on how what sort of costs companies can hope to save by going paperless. It’s arguably the main reason why companies, big and small, are making the transition from traditional to modern practices. But to elaborate on this point, paperless means no longer relying on sending physical letters and attachments as a means of communicating. Imagine how much you can save on office supplies and stamps!

Of course, business owners will still have to consider how much they’ll spend on subscription fees to cloud-based storage, online meeting apps, and Adobe Acrobat to create, convert, and modify PDFs. The good news is that there are inexpensive and even free versions or alternatives. For instance, Google Drive offers 15 GB of free storage space, Skype has an excellent video conferencing system, and PDFChef by Movavi can convert numerous file types to and from PDF.

Understanding What a Paperless Workplace Can Do for You

Despite all of the benefits of going paperless, it’s understandable why some business owners are reluctant to transition from a tried-and-true system. Of course, new practices will be met with resistance, especially if you’ve done something your entire life.

But all things considered, the intangible benefits of a paperless work environment outweigh those of a paper-based office by a wide margin. As business owners, we typically let our wallets do the talking. We highly suggest you listen to what your wallet has to say on this matter.

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Written by Virily Editor

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