The term paperless office was originally coined back in 1978 by an automation company. It means to run a business without relying on paper. Giant corporations are already benefiting from digitization as it helps streamline communications and timelines between thousands of employees.
However, there is also a great upside in using paperless office software for small businesses.
Why Paperless?
- 40% of the world’s commercially cut timber is used in the production of paper
- A single A4 sheet of paper consumes nearly a tonne of water to produce,
- When paper is not recycled and thrown away to rot, it emits methane. Turning paper-based landfills into highly flammable heat traps.
We definitely shouldn’t ignore the environmental facts, but even if we did for a moment, we have to contend with the fact that the sheer manpower required in sifting through increased piles of paperwork becomes exponential, no matter how efficiently stored. Ask anyone who has worked in a legal office without a document management system.
On top of that, all paper is only as safe as the physical location in which it is stored. Water damage, fire damage, deterioration over time, or even theft are very real concerns.
Finally, the greatest setback is wasted time. The act of taking a physical paper from one location to another, getting it processed and if it needs to be changed even by a fraction of a percentage, the entire page will likely need to be redone.
When an office goes paperless, it takes all of those factors out of the equation and gets you to work almost instantly.
Law firms are a great application for Paperless office software for small business
The right evidence can change the direction of a legal proceeding. The right piece of paper could end up becoming that evidence. With Folderit, you can easily scan the document and store it on Folderit’s hyper secure 256-bit bank-level encrypted cloud for easy retrieval later.
With physical documents, it is an added challenge to limit which kind of users get what level of access to which documents. Folderit lets you configure users and user groups to accomplish exactly that. To unauthorized users, it will be as if the document doesn’t even exist, and to some users, you can configure it such that only they can view it, without modifying it in any way.
If professionals in a law firm wish to consult any document, Folderit allows for advanced OCR enabled search that can search content, meta titles, names, and even read-only content such as PDF files, scans, and even images. Moreover, you can even associate files and folders with one each other, so that regardless of location, you can retrieve files together. This way, you don’t have to retrieve every case file with every search, it just happens seamlessly.
Accounting firms and paperless office
Accounting firms deal with a lot of sensitive financial data. When clients are involved, that data isn’t their own, making security and safety a high priority. The best part about processing content through Folderit is that not even Folderit’s own team has access to user content. And any data that goes off-site is transported through an SSL encrypted layer. Also, there Folderit maintains an audit-trail that keeps track of which user accessed which file and when, giving you complete control over the process.
Integrating with Microsoft Excel, you could, theoretically carry out the accounting process within Folderit.
The following can also benefit from the use of paperless office software for small business
- IT Firms – Already paperless by nature, reinforced by collaboration through Microsoft Office 365 integration.
- Architecture firms – Folderit even creates the perfect environment for automated building plan approval, the entire process can and should be carried out digitally.
- Shop/Store – Stock keeping, bookkeeping, inventory management, receipts, etc. don’t have to be printed out anymore.
- Workshops – if a car rolls into your shop for repairs, Folderit can help you coordinate with your team as well as customers without having to put any ink on paper.
Conclusion
Paperless is no longer just a buzzword, it is an imperative need to speed up how we do business as well as save the environment and Folderit facilitates small businesses in accomplishing this.
