Go Green with Document Management

Zero-in on Paperless Productivity | 5 minute read

Many companies generate hundreds of thousands, in some cases millions of documents. While some of these documents may be born digital and stay digital for their lifetime, the fact is that many get printed out onto paper at some point in their lives.  While we advocate for digital documents and paperless offices, sometimes a hard copy makes more sense. For instance, I find that sometimes a large, complicated document is just easier to read and make notes on in its printed form.   Most of the time it’s easier to share a printed document when sharing information with a large group of people in a meeting. 

How to Use Cloud Solutions to Accelerate BPI

In the twelve years since the “Cloud” became part of our everyday language, cloud solutions have influenced organizations to consider how best to use information and technology to improve business processes.  As businesses become more driven by information and cloud technology, those that are still using paper-based processes, will lag further and further behind.

For nearly every business, too much paper-based information can be costly, in terms of lost business opportunities, costly errors, dissatisfied employees and customers.  Therefore, organizational leaders should plan for cloud services that are made up of technologies and applications that work together to secure & distribute information, improve processes, accelerate workflow and reduce costs.

A Lesson from Wall Street About Back Office Paper Work

In the late nineteen-sixties, much like today, the stock market was booming.   By 1969, daily trading volume had hit 12,000,000 shares a day.  While that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the 1,786,805,986 shares that the NYSE traded on the last day of May, this year, there is one big difference.

Today trades are done via computer.  But, back in 1968, the NYSE was all about paper.  And the late sixties boom lead to a lot of unfinished paperwork.  In the period between 1960 and 1968, trade volume quadrupled, but work processes didn’t change.

So, what should have been great news for brokerage houses, ended up wrecking many of them because they just couldn’t keep up with the paperwork.  They literally died from being buried under paperwork.  In the words of the New Yorker Magazine “—offices were full of stock certificates, and trade documents were stacked halfway to the ceiling. Amid the chaos, dividend checks went unsent, trades were credited to the wrong accounts, and fraud spread; hundreds of millions of dollars in securities were stolen. And since the firms often didn’t process trades quickly enough, billions of dollars’ worth of transactions a month were simply cancelled. In 1968, the stock market started closing one day a week to let firms catch up on their work, but the brokerages’ bookkeeping woes caught up to them first, and more than a hundred firms went under. It took years—and the passage of an investor-protection bill—for the crisis to abate.”

Manage the Information Explosion in Your Organization

According to a 2016 survey conducted by Brousseau & Associates,  the volume of documents (paper and electronic) flowing through business operations increased between 2014 and 2016.  In fact, paper still accounts for much of the information flow.  Two-thirds of organizations report that there has been no reduction in the amount of paper flowing through their business processes, and many report more paper than ever.

In our technologically advanced world, with nearly every organization reliant on computers, the Internet, email and speed of information exchange, the fact that paper documents are increasing boggles the mind!

The Best Office Technology is Green, Efficient and Saves $

While 60% of company owners who were surveyed said that they would approve of their companies being more environmentally conscious, they also said that they don’t want to adopt expensive technologies, costly procedures or efficiency-hampering processes to protect the environment. 

When these same executives were asked if they would focus on environmental protection if they could also save money and make their companies more efficient, the were nearly unanimous in saying “yes.” 

The good news is that there are steps that nearly every organization can take to make a three-point difference in their business and the lives of their employees and customers: (1) Be more economical; (2) Care for the environment; (3) Be efficient.  Here are the steps that make the difference:

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How CEOs  Improve Core Business through Technology and Innovation

Running a business is more complex today than it’s ever been.  Issues like regulation, the rapid development of technology, market disruptions, and finding the right talent at the right time have been concerns for some time. 

Add to that economic concerns, regional and national differences, and the changes that the Internet continues to bring to the way business is conducted, and CEOs have their hands full.  If businesses are to succeed, CEOs need to make use of the enormous amounts of data that are available, while at the same time securing their business data and other assets.   

How to Manage Thousands of Documents in the Cloud

If your industry is growing and/or your staff is shrinking, it’s tough to keep pace with paper-based processes.   Electronic systems are proven to make companies more efficient, so, instead of getting buried by success or defeated by lack of personnel, maybe it’s time to consider an alternative to your paper-based processes.  Here’s how one food processing company stayed ahead of their growth.   

The increasing number of health-conscious consumers equals big business for many natural and organic food companies.  When the accounting department in one natural foods company began to have trouble staying on top of a growing number of invoices, it became apparent that something needed to be done, and done fast, in order to speed workflow.  One very smart comptroller realized that increased volumes of paper invoices were the problem and that without a better way to manage these documents, the accounting department was permanently hindered from properly managing company growth.

Challenges and Benefits of the Paperless Cloud

Those of us who sell paperless cloud solutions and technology for a living sometimes forget how big of a step it can be for many small to medium businesses to move from paper-based systems to cloud-based paperless systems.  While big-business early-adaptors and the technologically savvy may have been “in the cloud” for ages, a lot of smaller organizations are focused simply on ensuring enough profit each year to keep the business going. 

While single-minded focus on core business does usually ensure that the business will thrive in the short term, that kind of hyper-focus may actually prevent a business from growing in the long term.  Companies that want to grow, that want to compete successfully with larger, more technologically advanced organizations in their industry often find that the only way to do so is by keeping up with the latest technology.