The Paper Less Office™ 2013

The concept of the “paperless” office first surfaced in a 1975 article in Business Week magazine.  It was an early prediction that office automation would someday make paper documents obsolete.  Fast forward 38 years – if you feel like there is more paper than ever, you are not alone.

While over the last 13 years the consumption of paper has leveled off, and in many sectors has actually gone down, we are still far from the “paperless” world predicted almost four decades ago.

As a result, in 2012, our Enterprise Content Management Practice Director, Kyle Conquy, coined the term Paper Less Office™. The distinction is clear, if we can’t get rid of paper all together, then let’s just try to use less.  Below are several points you may find yourself nodding your head to on why a Paper Less Office™ can really help your company’s organizational and productivity goals.

We all know there are many very good reasons to make our offices Paper Less. Save money, preserve our environment, and save time to improve productivity. Any one of these would make sense, but have they helped us to meet our goal? Not necessarily. So let me repeat:

Not Just the Cost of Paper

Paper is expensive, and even using recycled paper is not exactly good for the environment. But also consider what you spend on ink. It is a lot, I’m sure you’ll agree. Review your office supply bills for a few months. I’m sure you will be surprised.

It is Also the Cost of Storage

The cost of real estate is a big factor to many companies, especially those in high rent metro areas like NY. The cost of file cabinets, file folders, storage space, lighting, fire protection, insurance…it all adds up. Then add in the cost of labor to file those papers. It’s a lot, especially when they are often filed in the wrong place. The expenses do not end there.

And the Cost of Retrieval

Given the last statement I am sure you are thinking, “What does it cost me every time one of my staff goes off looking for a document?” Some studies state that it is as much as $120 for each document search, that’s a lot of money. To make matters worse, while your staff is searching, you are losing productivity; time that should have been spent on more important activities.

What Should I Do?

There are so many other reasons to go Paper Less. You must be saying to yourself “What can I do to take advantage of this?” Be sure to read my next blog posts which will cover the steps you can take to save time and money by making your office Paper Less.

Sign up here to receive my future blog posts and related Paper Less Office™ tips.