Has your company considered going paperless? You may be considering the benefits of document management services as a result. Given that 17% of printed materials are considered to be unnecessary by StopWaste.org, you may have also come to that conclusion. In addition to the waste associated with printed documents, they are time-consuming to manage and are often mismanaged.
The Financial Costs Associated with Paper-Based Businesses
Every year, estimates indicate that 10,000 sheets of paper are used by each office worker. The average printing costs for each employee tend to be between $600.00 and $1,300.00 every year. After rent and payroll, printing and copier costs are usually the most significant office expense.
Filing also creates office debt. The average cost to file a single document is roughly $20.00. When a document is misfiled, however, this can account for a loss in productivity of $125.00
The Time Costs Associated with Paper-Based Businesses
In order to effectively perform their jobs, many employees waste a considerable amount of time to locate necessary information. According to Interact, 19.8% of business time is wasted as a result.
The Gartner Group reports that 15% of paper documents are often misplaced, and 7.5% are completely lost. As a result, approximately 4 weeks are used every year when various personnel are waiting to access misfiled, mislabeled, or untracked documents. This time could, of course, be put to greater use.
The Benefits of Going Paperless
There are a variety of businesses and business departments that would benefit from going paperless. While printing and copying may be needed under some circumstances, more businesses are opting for electronic storage.
While there are other departments that would benefit from utilizing a document management system, the following departments would receive the most benefit:
- Accounts Payable
- Accounts Receivable
- Contracts Management
- Human Resources
The Paperless Project coalition reports that 85% of business documents continue to be in paper form. When companies shift to using electronic document systems, they can save time, money, and increase worker productivity. Furthermore, since missing or lost documents can create a variety of issues, including lost business, it makes good business sense to use document storage systems as a solution.
