Nov 10, 2022
Inflation is at its highest level in more than four decades, and cash flow – or lack thereof – has been on everyone’s mind this year. In these uncertain economic times, most companies are faced with the challenge of how to maximize returns on tighter margins. It’s a do-more-with-less strategy that requires business operations to optimize to meet current economic realities.
The answer may be right in front of you: paper.
In recent years, it has become obvious that maintaining paper files is inefficient, a security risk, and expensive. Many organizations may not even realize the astronomical price tag around maintaining physical filing and storage space used to manage paper files.
On average it costs about $4.82 to handle a single paper document and it is estimated that US companies will waste about $8 billion every year on managing paper.
Despite the pandemic speeding up digitization by seven years, 89% of small companies still process paper invoices or PDFs. The potential productivity gains of document automation are huge for every department in an organization. For example, highly automated A/P departments can process eight times as many invoices per full-time employee which helps with productivity and efficiency.
Here are five ways automation is proven to save your company money:
The cost of storing paper is high and can quickly add up, from filing cabinets to floor space. If you also maintain a copy off-site in case of disaster, paper documents can really drain your budget. There are many benefits to digital storage, such as its low cost, its ability to provide redundancy, and the fact that employees can access documents from anywhere they work.
Electronic file management reduces the need for printing, which is one of the most expensive things a business can incur. With digital files, version control ensures that everyone has access to the same document – giving users the ability to share information easily.
Printers, copiers, and fax machines are expensive to purchase and maintain. Additionally, companies spend thousands of dollars on paper alone for employees to print and copy reports, e-mails, accounting statements, expense reports, and tax forms. Even if the cost of paper doesn't convince you, consider the environmental benefits: producing 10,000 documents requires 11,427 gallons of water, 961 pounds of waste, and 3,725 pounds of wood.
The amount of data businesses create each year grows by more than 65 percent, and knowledge workers spend half of their time seeking information. There is no need to hire additional employees for the sole purpose of scanning, entering data, and retrieving documents. Your entire staff can access documents within seconds with document management because administrators can define user and role access privileges.
Every business is concerned about data security. With document management, your documents are encrypted and securely stored with redundancy you can ensure that you have disaster recovery capabilities for your data. Content management systems can track and provide audits on who has accessed documents and when, which can be useful in the event of a data breach.
Would you like to find out just how much paper is being stowed away in your filing cabinets? Our Paper Calculator was built for this very reason.
An effective document management solution is defined by its capabilities. Automated document retrieval and filing leads to less confusion and lost information. In addition to capturing content, tracking files, sharing information, and editing documents without having to print them, your document storage system can also track your files. Our document management software specialists would be more than happy to help you figure out what your business’ needs are and what will work best to help your company grow as the digital transformation continues. Feel free to reach out with any questions.
