Do you want your business to go paperless? Are you struggling to convince others? Read on to find out why your business should go paperless.
Access Content From Any Location
One of the biggest reasons to go paperless comes down to access. In a traditional office, if you want to access a document, you have to be physically present. But with electronic documents, you’re able to access content from any location. Throw in workflow automation tools, and reports can be automatically sent to the people who need them. There’s no longer a need to assign work manually.
Find Information Quickly
Search costs are a significant drag on the productivity of your business. An excellent way to increase efficiency in a business is to stop using paper documents. Electronic records have the advantage that they can be found almost immediately. They can be tagged by keyword, date or other criteria. So no matter what you are looking for, you’re able to find it and start working straight away.
Improve Data Quality
Today, a significant chunk of businesses are dependent on data. Data is what drives their business model, directs their marketing and gives them information on their clients. Data, therefore, is a priority for many companies. The format in which your business keeps data is therefore critical. Data held in electronic form tends to be more reliable, meaning better access and faster turnarounds. What’s cool about electronic data is that new data can be quickly merged with existing data in databases. None of this is possible without going paperless.
Make Your Business Green
Going green used to be the mainstay of firms with enormous cash balances. But now it’s something that every business should be looking to do. The reason? Going green is cheaper than ever. In fact, going green has benefits for your company besides lowering your overheads. Of course, by reducing paper, you reduce both your costs and your impact on the environment. But you also improve your company’s image and marketing clout. Most customers like the idea that the firm that they are dealing with is socially responsible.
Better Service
It’s hard to provide customers with instant, immediate service when all your documents are in paper form. But when they are in electronic form, it’s a lot easier. You can bring up a page of customer details instantly when it is in electronic format. That means that when they call you, you don’t have to put them on hold while you scrabble around for their file. You just fill up your CRM software to view all the information you have collected about them. This allows you to provide instant, seamless service.
Document Assembly
Going paperless makes document assembly much easier. Suddenly it becomes practical to merge documents and assemble new hybrids. This improves both speed and productivity. Using document assembly software, it’s possible to construct documents from many different sources. These documents can then be automatically distributed to the people who need to see them. That could be other colleagues, clients or even suppliers.
