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WORKING
TOWARDS THE PAPERLESS OFFICE
Digital Imaging
- IMT Magazine (Issue 1 - 06)
By: Jeremy Sacco (The Buyer Zone)
The paperless office -
promised since the first desktop computers started appearing in the 1980s -
has yet to become a reality for most companies. Despite the increasing use
of computers in all types of businesses, a good portion of most day-to-day
work is still paper-based. In addition, basic human behavior works against a
truly paperless office: employees will always want to print documents for
more careful study or to bring to meetings. For now, the perfect paperless
office system remains an elusive goal.
Paperless Office - Buying Tips
Start slow.
Even if you're after a totally paperless office solution, it's best to get
started by implementing DM for one application in one department. Once the
value is proven, you'll be able to get support for expanding the effort.
· Expect
sticker shock.
Cost could easily scare you away from DM solutions - take a deep breath and
compare the prices to the costs of doing business the same old way. Even a
mid-range solution can cost $50,000 - but you should be able to recoup your
costs within a couple of years.
· Find
the right vendor.
Good DM vendors will work with you to provide a system that fits the way you
do business.
Despite these challenges,
you can drastically reduce the amount of paper documents your business
depends on by choosing a document management system. The term "document
management" (DM) covers a range of systems for managing paper and electronic
files. To work towards a paperless office, a more specific term is "document
imaging systems"
- they include tools to help you convert paper records into electronic
files.
Benefits of a paperless office solution
One of the biggest
benefits of getting rid of your paper files is the cost savings. If it takes
five minutes to retrieve and replace a paper file and an employee works with
ten paper files per day, that's 216 hours a year - over five weeks' time -
spent walking files around. At $20/hour, that's $4300 per year. A system
that lets employees find and work with those documents without ever leaving
their desks can instantly slash those costs.
DM provides additional
cost savings by eliminating paper records. Converting records rooms into
usable office space can let you make much better use of expensive real
estate, and you may be able to eliminate warehousing costs entirely.
Other benefits include
increased security, better disaster recovery protection, and remote access
for your important documents.
In addition, some
companies are almost being forced to adopt DM by laws that govern the
safekeeping of data, such as Sarbanes-Oxley in the financial industry and
HIPPA in the medical field. Document management systems are the best way to
ensure compliance with strict security and record-keeping rules.
What
about your existing documents?
Implementing a paperless
office system doesn't mean your old paper records are unimportant. However
it's important to understand that you don't have convert all your old paper
files right of the bat. Instead, try a "scan forward" approach to
conversion: choose a cut-off date, after which all new documents will be
created electronically.
Only scan existing paper
records if they're used - in many cases, documents that don't get scanned
after a year can be archived or simply destroyed. This approach lets you get
started much more quickly - and you can always decide later to start
scanning older files.
For some businesses,
access to all their paper files is essential. In those cases, you'll need
back file scanning services. These niche vendors have expensive high-volume
scanners and plenty of staffers to operate them. Typically, you'll ship your
documents to them, but if your files contain highly sensitive material, it
may be worth the extra cost to select a scanning service that will come to
your office.
Once they're scanned, you
can shred your old documents - and you're one step closer to a paperless
office. |
