Digital Transformation: How Much Are You Spending on Paper Documents?
If your office is still working on paper documents, it's easier to update than you might think. Modern IT teams and Document Management software can help you to quickly digitize your entire paperwork system. From there, you can join the rest of the business world on the cloud managing servers and trading files instead of shuttling paper documents from one office to another. But going through the 'digital transformation' isn't just about going digital. It's also a profound way to save money for your business. Consider how much you spend in office supplies alone.
How Much Office Supplies?
When you think about the difference between a paperwork office and one that deals entirely with digital documents, the change is astounding. How many things to you buy each month and year just to accommodate the outdated paper-based working style. You need folders, binders, dividers, and label tags to keep organized files on your desk and a different kind of folder and divider to keep them in a filing cabinet.
Paper clips, staplers, staples, clamps, and plastic sleeves are used to group individual sets of papers together and every employee needs an in/out box setup to manage active files on their desk. Then there are the editing tools. Pens, pencils, felt-tip pens, white-out, clear tape for repairs, ink pads, and custom stamps. Not to mention the reams of blank printer paper and the boxes to hold all your older files in.
Whatever combination of supplies your office uses and no matter how cheap they are in bulk, the numbers are likely to stack up. After a few hundred boxes of pens, staples and colored folders, the annual cost is usually quite impressive.
The Reduced Cost of Going Digital
Your old paper system may have functioned relatively well for your business purposes, but there's nothing employees can do manually filing paperwork that can't be done better and faster with an online document management system or DMS for short. With a DMS, all the costs from your paper and pen budget are completely wiped out. Paperclips, file folders, pens, and gallons of printer ink you've needed a regular supply of can all now be set aside. You can stop buying all but the most minimal backup stock of office supplies cutting hundreds out of your annual budget if not more.
The minor cost of DMS software and cloud management will require only a fraction of your previous overhead. Not only will you be saving money, you'll also be saving space as documents get scanned into the system and can be cleared out of the office. You'll have room for several new desks or perhaps a new celebratory recreation area for your fast-scanning employees.
The Time Savings of Digitization
Of course, reducing your overhead budget isn't the only way that a DMS can save your company money. With a physical paperwork system, every week your employees spend valuable paid work time printing, collating, stapling, filing, and looking for misfiled documents. Simply managing, moving, and storing paper takes up an incredible amount of lost time that is often assumed to be unavoidable. Like the power bill, time spent filing paperwork is seen as a necessary evil. But it doesn't have to be.
These hours spend filing papers every week could be regained because a DMS takes care of all these needs instantly. There's nothing to sort, no boxes to carry, and organization is quick and easy. By removing the filing and paperwork management tasks, your employees will be able to get much more productive work done each week through the quick and efficient automation.
Digitizing Doesn't Even Take Long
The best part about making the switch? It won't actually interrupt your office flow and valuable work time as much as you might think. Most companies, when they think of digitization, imagine spending countless hours scanning thousands of documents into a single office scanner-printer then manually naming and filing each item, but times have changed. Scanning technology has gotten a lot easier and more intuitive. In fact, your employees can scan practically everything in current use simply by keeping their phones handy during the workday.
A quick snap of a document will enter it into the DMS, and a complex program might even be able to identify the document's name and contents then organize it into the right digital folder for you. Whether you choose to spend a few dedicated days to digitization or make the transition over the course of a few weeks of regular work, modern technology makes adapting to digital documents a snap. You might be surprised how much your employees enjoy making the switch and how quickly they adapt to online document management.
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If you haven't yet digitized your office, it's never been faster or more convenient to do so than right now. However much you're spending on office supplies for paper documents today could be profits in your pocket next year with a simple document upgrade. With the help of a skilled IT team and the right DMS software, your office supplies costs could be turning into profits in a matter of months. For more on how to digitize your office and optimize one step at a time, contact us today!