The issue of climate change is frequently in the news. People are being encouraged to save resources by either changing the way they do things or by recycling. Organizations are also being encouraged to improve the way they work in order to save resources.
All organizations have traditionally kept a lot of paper records due to legal and regulatory requirements. A wide range of records need to be held by companies, ranging from employment records to transactional records. All this paper has to be kept, some for a prescribed number of years. However, there is growing evidence that organizations are moving to a paperless office. The advantages are – huge savings due to a reduction in storage requirements, easier retrieval of information, and reduced costs in locating relevant records.
Document scanning, internet and intranet sites, and electronic storage can all make the retrieval of information far cheaper and easier than paper records. Although there are certain documents such as VAT records or court documents that companies need to hold as paper copies for legal reasons, companies can still significantly reduce their reliance on paper records. Introducing a document management system can provide huge benefits to a business. A document management system refers to a range of systems designed to manage electronic files and paper that includes tools for converting paper records into electronic files. Some of the benefits of such systems are:
- Cost – The main benefit of a paperless office is a reduction in cost. It can take up to five minutes to retrieve and replace a paper document. If an employee accesses 10 files each day, that represents 216 hours per year. If the employee is being paid $20 per hour, the cost is $4320 per year just for walking around fetching files. If the employee were able to access the documents from a desk, costs would be cut immediately.
- Space – converting rooms into areas for storing paper files is an expensive use of office space. Storing documents electronically could help to free up the space to be used more productively.
- Security – documents held electronically are more secure and there is also better disaster recovery protection. Document management systems are the best way for a company to ensure that it complies with strict record keeping and security rules.
- Environment – reducing the amount of paper that a company uses improves its green credentials. The average office worker will use up to 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year. The USA alone uses 30 percent of the world’s paper. You may think that paper is cheap, but the costs of using paper can be up to 13 to 31 times the initial cost of the paper itself. Citigroup, which is a large financial services company, has estimated that if each of its employees saved just one sheet of paper per week, the company would save $700,000 each year.
Document scanners, such as the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500, convert paper documents into electronic files at the touch of a button. The scanner is easy to use and the automatic features ensure that the final scans will look their best. All of this can be achieved without any operator intervention. Documents can be scanned at 20 pages per minute even with resolutions as high as 200 or 300 dpi grayscale or color. Intelligent paper feed detection helps prevent misfeeds. With the interactive interface, users can bypass intentional double-feeds. The software provides users with a menu so they can choose to load documents into editing software such as Microsoft Excel or Word. Password protection and digital ids can be added to protect personal and confidential data. Users can embed keywords and searchable content and distribute to e-mail or SharePoint. Documents can be quickly and easily converted into PDF’s as well, which offers a low file size, high resolution, and searchable text all in one.
Contact Oval Solutions today to learn more about how your office can go paperless. Call us at (517) 902-7851.
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Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 PA03586-B005 Sheet-Fed Duplex Scanner