Paperless Office Improves Efficiency and Reduces Environmental Impact

When a company decides to move from a paper environment into a paperless environment, the company makes a big leap forward into improving the efficiency of its employees and the reduction of environmental impact. Not only that, the company will have also made a move to significantly reduce its operational costs.

A paperless office improves employee efficiency in many ways. In the human resources department, one HR personnel can easily manage the records of hundreds of personnel very efficiently. Employee records are in electronic format thus the HR personnel do not have to spend so much time in going through paper documents, filing them accordingly, or retrieving them.

When it comes to other departments, the efficiency of the employees is increased because they have a way to easily manage and track their workload. In a single screen, they can view all of the documents that they need to work on.

Efficiency is also increased because the documents are quickly routed to the concerned individuals, even if some individuals are in a remote location. An employee may be working in the field and still be informed of documents that they need to be aware of.

A paperless office greatly improves the productivity of each and every employee. Less time is spent on searching for records meaning more time can be spent working on the tasks required.

Another good reason to move to a paperless office is to reduce the environmental impact. In a paper environment, the environment is affected in so many ways. Our natural resources are consumed faster than we can develop them. More trees are cut down every year than planted. Forests around the world are disappearing at a startling pace.

The processing of paper and even the recycling of paper leaves chemical wastes that are sipped into the earth or routed into the rivers and oceans. The earth’s fresh water supply is greatly affected and so is the marine environment.

Many environmental disasters can be attributed to the use of paper. The move to a paperless office will significantly improve the condition of our environment. Recycling paper may help our environment but only to a limited extent.

One of the solutions to the environmental crisis that we are in today is to completely stop or significantly reduce our paper usage. A 100% paperless office may not be possible for many organizations, but a paper usage reduction of even 50% will greatly contribute to helping our environment.

Millions and even billions of dollars are wasted every year around the world due to the widespread usage of paper. The use of paper not only hurts our economy, but our environment as well. The more companies that move towards becoming a paperless office, the more we can help our environment. The fewer trees are cut down each year, the greater the chances are of improving the quality of air that we breathe and the quality of water that we drink every day. A simple move to a paperless office will help to improve our quality of life.

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Remote User Productivity with Document Management

In today’s business environment you would not often see a company that only has a single location. Limited markets mean limited revenues thus a company will usually have two or more locations where they operate. Even small to medium scale enterprises will have more than just one sales office. Large corporations will need offices scattered around the country or even around the world.

Having many areas of operations will mean that a company will be able to penetrate different markets. However, remote locations also mean a wide variety of challenges to a company. One of these challenges is document management.

A company with remote locations will have a wide variety of correspondence going back and forth from the main office and the remote location. Not so long ago, a company had to rely on couriers to deliver documents between the locations. Couriers are still being widely used today, but in this electronic age, many companies rely on electronic communications rather than couriers.

An essential part of electronic communication is document management. Without proper document management, electronic documents can easily disappear into cyber space. Important documents may inadvertently be deleted. Computers and hard drives may crash thereby losing all the important data that the hard drive contains.

The lack of an effective document management system greatly reduces employee productivity and may even be the cause of reduced revenues for the company.

In order for a document management system to increase productivity, it should be able to accurately track documents, track updates, automatically back-up documents, and provide adequate security.

One of the biggest concerns of an IT infrastructure is adequate security. The infrastructure must be secure enough to prevent hackers from tampering with the system and yet easily accessible to employees.

A document management system that has too many security levels may be very secured, but it could also affect productivity if employees need to take too much time in retrieving documents or saving documents in the system.

When implementing a document management system, especially for companies that have remote locations, security must be carefully balanced with employee productivity. In fact, the whole document management system must be focused on increasing productivity.

Employees, especially those at remote locations, must be able to quickly access the documents that they need. This includes searching for records and storing records.

Efficiency is the key to a document management system. Without a high level of efficiency, the system may prove to be a liability. The system must be efficient, not only in storing and retrieving documents, but also in security. This is an area where the IT departments need to carefully look at. Too much security and the system will not prove to be efficient. Too less security and the system will be opened to hackers.

IT departments need to closely work with the rest of the company to ensure that every employee is comfortable with the security measures in place and that these measures will not reduce their productivity. This could be a huge task for a company with several remote locations.

Going Paperless has some Real Advantages

A truly paperless office has still not been possible even with today’s advancement in technology. However, the advantages of a paperless office can already be realized even if a company has not reached a 100% paperless status. Let’s take a look at the advantages and benefits of a paperless office.

Less Paper Means Reduced Cost

Probably the most important advantage of a paperless office to a company is cost reduction. A reduction of operational costs literally translates into an increase in revenues. There are many different ways that the company will be able to reduce costs and not only in the cost of purchasing paper.

A company will be able to reduce costs in purchasing and maintaining paper reproduction equipment. Reproduction equipments are quite expensive and maintenance costs are also pretty high as well. In fact, many of these equipments need maintenance contracts.

Store costs will also be reduced as well. Filing cabinets, file folders, binders and other items required to store paper documents will no longer be required. The cost of these items can be quite substantial especially in a large operation.

A company will also have more space available to their employees. In many companies, a whole room may be dedicated to reproduction. Another room is dedicated to storage, in some companies a whole warehouse is dedicated to storage.

Productivity is also increased when a company goes paperless. Employees will be able to quickly access the documents that they require. Employees in remote locations will also benefit from going paperless because they do not have to worry about instructions or important information that is printed on paper that they are not aware of.

Security is a major concern for many companies. Paper copies of memos, internal and external correspondence can easily be left lying around or worse, thrown in the trash without being shredded. In a paperless office, documents can easily be secured. Different security levels may also be applied according to the sensitivity of a certain document. Access to the database can be controlled and restricted at any time.

The human resources department is one of the departments that are affected in terms of workload when a company grows. Every employee has a corresponding employee record and a human resources department needs to keep track of different paper documents in a single employee record. If the company has thousands of employees and intends to employ hundreds more due to company growth, the human resources department will need to track thousands of documents more.

In a paperless office, employee records are all electronic thus the human resources department can easily track and update an employee record. Finance and payroll departments are also in the same boat.

A paperless office produces less paper wastes. Every year a company needs to deal with tons of paper wastes. Most of these wastes are pieces of paper that only had a temporary purpose. In a paperless office, the amount of waste paper is significantly reduced. This means that the company saves a good amount of money in the procurement of paper that is only to be used for temporary reasons.

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Information Risk Management

The development of technology has without a doubt improved the means wherein information is accessed, processed, stored, and retrieved. Today, information can be obtained from anywhere in the world and even on distant planets, processed and stored at a central location, and retrieved from another location within a matter of minutes.

However, with the means to readily access information improving, the risk to information security also increases. Information Risk Management is a system to which these risks are identified, classified, and protected against.

The first part in information risk management is to identify the threats to the information being protected. These threats could include:

Intentional Disclosure

This is when protected information is retrieved by an inside source and intentionally provided to unauthorised persons or organisations. This could be achieved by altering software or releasing access codes intentionally.

Unintentional Disclosure

Accidents do happen. Protected information may be leaked unintentionally to unauthorised persons or organisations.

Acts of Nature

Earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes and other acts of nature can potentially destroy information storage and processing equipment.

Once the threats have been identified, vulnerabilities also need to be found. Information can be vulnerable in so many different ways.

• Security procedures may not be clearly defined.
• A contingency plan may not be in place or if so, may not be distributed to affected sectors effectively.
• Not everybody in an organisation may be adequately trained in contingency measures.
• The system may lack back-up capabilities.
• Disaster recovery procedures may not be in place.
• The lack of alternate processing locations can also make the system vulnerable.

It is important in Information Risk Management to identify the threats and identify the possible vulnerabilities of the system. Once a deeper understanding of the risks is achieved, a plan to manage these risks can be formulated and implemented.

It is also imperative in Information Risk Management that the risks and vulnerabilities that are identified be communicated to the affected departments. This would usually mean all of the departments within an organisation. Managers need to be aware of the risks and vulnerabilities and so do every other personnel.

In fact, proper communication is the key to preventing many threats to information security. If everybody within the organisation is completely aware of the risks and how to minimize them, then managing the risks is a lot easier.

In many organisations it is the responsibility of the Information Technology (IT) department to manage the risks to information. However, in many cases, this responsibility may be outsourced in part or as a whole to an information security agency.

In a time where information can be easily accessed with the right technology, the risk of unauthorised access becomes greater. Before, information could only be accessed through wired connections. Now, wireless connectivity is widely available and this makes it more challenging to protect information on a network.

Electronic Data Management Systems need to be carefully scrutinized to ensure the protection of information that they process and store. Without the proper security measures in place, the risk of information falling into the wrong hands becomes greater.

 

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Accountants & the Role of Document Management System

In today’s business environment where the key to a successful business is to manage costs while increasing efficiency, document management software has become an essential tool to accomplish these goals. Accounting departments and accounting firms will benefit the most out of Document Management Systems and here are some of the reasons why.

Cost Reduction

Accounting departments rely heavily on paper to produce financial reports. In fact, a typical accounting department will take a good percentage of an organisation’s paper consumption.

The cost of paper has continuously risen over the years to a point that many companies are actively searching for methods to drastically reduce their paper consumption to reduce operational costs.

When dependence on paper is reduced, so will other costs directly related to its use. Storage costs, reproduction costs and delivery costs will be greatly reduced as well.

Compliance and Regulation

Regulations require organisations to be able to readily access records. With these records in electronic form, accounting departments and accounting firms improve their compliance to these regulations.

Increased Security

Security of their records has been a major concern for accounting departments. Document Management Systems provides different levels of security according to the permissions programmed into it.

Only a certain group of people are provided access to accounting records. Within this group, different levels of security can also be provided in accordance to the sensitivity of the information.

As an added security feature, electronic back-up copies of records can be frequently updated to ensure that data is protected under any circumstances.

Real-time Collaboration

Document Management Systems will enable different accountants to work on a single record simultaneously. This is particularly beneficial to organisations that have remote locations or even have different offices located around the globe.

Records are updated in real time so reports can be processed and presented in a more efficient manner.

Increased Productivity

It has been proven that Document Management Systems increases the productivity of accounting personnel. Much time and effort is wasted in accessing files in a paper environment.

With the efficiency of Document Management Systems in storing and retrieving records, the time required to access documentation is greatly reduced thereby improving the productivity of accounting personnel.

Many corporations around the world, regardless of size and industry, have started to rely heavily on using Document Management Systems for their accounting departments. The role of Document Management Systems in accounting is to greatly reduce costs and to improve the efficiency of accountants and other positions directly or indirectly affected by this department.

With Document Management Systems improving the efficiency of the accounting department as a whole, the efficiency of the entire organisation is improved as well. Other departments that require reports produced by the accounting department can have access to these reports in a matter of seconds.

Departments that require updated reports, especially for global corporations, can have access to updated reports whenever they require. With this type of efficiency, the performance of the entire company and even associated companies, are greatly improved.

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Document Management Systems and the Modern World

For centuries, the world has relied on paper to keep records of events, places, and people. When monetary systems were established, paper was the only way to keep financial records. Paper was used for almost everything. However, the wide use of paper has put a strain on our natural resources. In fact, this strain has been realized in many countries and the negative effects have been devastating.

Fortunately, the development of technology has paved the way for the world to slowly ease away from the use of paper thereby giving nature a little bit more breathing space.  However, nature has not been the only beneficiary. Technology has improved our lives in so many different ways.

We used to rely on postal mail to get our messages to far locations. Now, all we need is email and our messages will be received in a matter of seconds. We used to rely on telegraph to get short messages across faster. Now, mobile phones and text messages are widely available. Companies used to have large rooms filled with file boxes and documents. Now, a single room with a few servers is all a company needs to file millions of documents.

Technology has enabled us to make improvements to our way of life. Unfortunately, not every company in the world has been able to fully utilize technology. There are companies that still have rooms filled with file boxes and millions of documents, even if they have computers on every desk.

In the modern world, having correct equipment to realize the benefits of advanced technology is not enough. In addition to the equipment, systems also need to be adopted. This is one of the primary objectives of Document Management Systems.

A document management system enables us to realize the full benefits of the computer equipment we have. Instead of creating paper copies of our documents, distributing them to different departments, and having each department file their own copy, we can keep the document in electronic format, distribute to the departments in the same format, and keep a copy in a centralised location that all the departments can access.

Document management systems save a lot of time and effort. These savings will later on translate into financial savings for the company.

The modern world we live in is still not as modern as we would want it to be.  There are still companies that need to take advantage of these systems.  Document Management Systems are now widely available and all that is really needed is for companies to integrate these systems into their workflow.

Docusoft creates Document Management Systems and promotes the use of these systems to many companies. Companies like Docusoft are helping us transition in to a modern world that no longer relies on paper. The less we rely on paper, the less strain we place on our natural resources. When we no longer rely on the use of paper, we will create a modern world that still has an abundance of natural resources.

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