How To Take Those Necessary Steps Toward Paperless Document Management

Wouldn't it be great to be able to manage all company documents through paperless document management?  For an employee, the frequent malfunctioning of the copy machine and printer jams obstruct them from getting necessary tasks done. The only person who benefits from such a blunder is the repairman and even he isn't often enthusiastic about driving up to  thirty minutes or longer to fix a simple issue only a technician such as himself could resolve!

Start with transfer of documents
It's time for a change for many businesses. According to Tech Radar, the transition to document management software may seem scary to some businesses used to old habits, but adoption will pay off in the long run. Many of the tangible files stored away in a seemingly endless line of filing cabinets need to be scanned. Sure, the task is going to be tedious and time consuming, but so is searching for misplaced paperwork on a regular basis.

The news source stated that one of the major benefit of implementing a paperless document management system is that it's so much easier to locate digital files. For e.g., if a company representative is corresponding with a client over the phone and needs to review a record, he or she can do it from the comfort of their own computer instead of putting the customer on hold. The stress of frantically sifting through filing cabinets, knowing full well that an important business figure is listening to audibly painful background music, is nonexistent with a digital system.

Additional Steps
If there's one thing a good number of employees don't enjoy, it's change. Despite the fact that their workdays will become much easier as a result of a paperless document management system, breaking a routine is a difficult endeavor to embark on. Paul Mah, a contributor to CIO, claimed making a paper-based environment inconvenient will change the popular opinion of the office. Part of the strategy to go paperless is rooted in executing what some would consider to be nefarious, but it works nonetheless.

1. Discourage taking a print by making it a chore and reducing number of machines in the office.
2. Obligate employees to keep a record of how many pages they print in a day, which will incite a willingness to reduce paper consumption.
3. For internal transactions requiring a signature, choose the electronic version. This will get employees better acquainted with a digital solution.

Mah listed several other strategies to help push a paperless system. Eventually, performing functions through a computer will become much more perfunctory than waiting in line at the only scanner in the office.

by PaperSave