Can You Save Money from Going Paperless?

Everyone knows that printing is costly. They come from nearly every direction: paper, ink, machines that seemingly always need some type of maintenance, the list of costs goes on and on. Some businesses, looking to get away from rising printing costs, and from paper files in general, are starting to do their best to eliminate printing and filing costs. Let’s take a brief look at how going paperless can save your organization money in the long run.

Why Would You Go Paperless?

Most people in business don’t understand how expensive paperwork is. The frequency that workers create new documents, print those documents, and file them makes paperwork one of the costliest endeavors at your whole organization. So, to answer the question, businesses go paperless to reduce costs, but that isn’t the only reason. 

Another is that by going paperless, you can get all the documents and files your organization saves at any time, from nearly any device or location. How does this happen? Workers scan physical documents to create digital files and then store them in a database where a simple search of the document management system (DMS) will return any file stored on the system. Best yet, the files in the DMS are actually stored in the cloud, so files can be retrieved from any place at any time, on most devices.  

It may seem simple, but how many documents and files do you keep in your filing cabinets right now? Scanning all those documents takes a lot of time and effort; and does cost a bit up front. Industry averages are about 7-to-12 cents per page to scan and upload to the DMS. It might seem like a lot of money when you consider the thousands of files your business will need to scan to have a reliable and comprehensive solution for your business’ document management, but that cost pales in comparison to the money your business is spending right now on a paper filing system. 

One thing that’s nice, however, is moving forward with a paperless system is easy (once you’ve fully implemented it). You don’t need a traditional scanner for every document, most smartphones can simply scan a document by snapping a quick photo of the page, and then you can push the document into your digital filing cabinet.

How Does This Equate to Cost Savings?

It’s simple. Once your files are stored in the database, you never have to worry about paying people to physically find a file. All they need to do is search the DMS and the document in question is available almost immediately. The cost in filing paper files and in file retrieval is substantial. More than that, by storing this information digitally, and using a comprehensive backup solution, you will never lose files. Studies have shown that large organizations lose one file every six seconds and employees average about 20 minutes to find a file. That cost goes way down when all it takes is seconds.

More than that, the physical files that you have to keep take up space in your office. Some businesses, like many professional services, keep a lot of files and the more space they take up, the less space is in use for operations. With paperless solutions, you can move those files to less-expensive offsite storage and use your current office space more efficiently.

How to Get Started

Would you like to learn more about implementing a paperless DMS into your office’s technology strategy? Reach out to Directive and our team today by calling 607.433.2200.