Paper VS Paperless Office

Most business owners, organizations and corporate bodies have been using papers for years. Papers have been the means through which we get things done, sign contracts, issue memos, apply for jobs, bid for contracts and so on.

Bottom line, papers have been at the heart of every endeavor that required some sort of documentation over the last 500+ years. Recently, however, there’s been a lot of clamor for paperless offices whose processes and functions aren’t impeded by the absence of papers.

For many, this transition from a paper-based office to a paperless one is a very difficult, if not inconceivable idea. The notion of existing and functioning without paper for these companies defy logic.

Yet, multiple studies, research, proof and successful adoption of the paperless technology by multiple organizations have shown that it is possible for organizations to not only go paperless but actually benefit tremendously from it. For those who still need some basis for comparison, the following should help paint a clearer picture:

Document Archiving and Filing

In offices where the use of papers is predominant and documents are filed or archived in that form, locating archived documents –particularly old documents- can be quite the task. Individuals often have to first locate the right cabinet, determine the date and time of filing, search for folders where they may have been kept, and know the precise name of the file itself.

Doing this alone, even when the documents are properly filed can take half an hour at the very least –although it’ll probably be hours depending on how old the documents are. When improperly filed or “dumped” in a folder, you can be sure that it’ll take longer. There’s also the possibility that you’ll never find the document.

With a paperless office like Lucion’s Filecenter, locating archived documents is a breeze. All you’ll need is to simply access the interface, type in a keyword, and the software will return a list of all documents with those keywords in it. There’s no need to memorize the date, time or name of the file. And the best part is you can actually locate the file within minutes of conducting your search.

Possibility of Lost Documents

No matter how careful you are as an employee and or an employer, chances are that you have lost certain valuable documents. In paper form, you know that retrieving and doing all the work on the document alone can take so much time.

For instance, if it took you approximately three months to get a particular contract signed by an elusive individual, losing that paper document would not only mean lost time, but a potentially lost deal. However, if everything was digital, the odds of you losing the contract or file would be next to nothing.

And if you were to mistakenly delete the file –it might be difficult as you would get a notice asking you if you really want to delete the file, you will be able to access the file through the software’s recycle bin or trash. Bottom line, a digital copy of your document means a higher likelihood of recovering lost documents.

Increased Document Security

You will agree that corporate espionage is still very real. Using papers further encourages vulnerability in the workplace and exposes your organization. This is possible courtesy of savvy corporate spies who are willing to do anything including digging through your trash –shredded or not- to get your documents and decipher your prized intellectual properties.

To do this in a paperless office, however, the spy would literally have to access the building, login to the firm’s Usenet, internal network or remote server to access the document. While this probably wouldn’t deter a determined corporate spy in a huge organization where no one knows everyone, it will possibly prevent that in a small organization.