For these reasons and more, all kinds of businesses and public agencies are working towards paperless processes. Change can happen either top-down through corporate policies, or bottom-up from individuals managing processes that rely on paper, who see great opportunities to streamline their operations. Whichever model your organization is following or if you’re thinking ahead to future changes, read on for practical ways to get started with taking your business paperless.
Tweet this: Read the Complete Guide for Going #Paperless for practical ways to digitize paper-intensive business processes: https://ctt.ec/KSet8+AIIM, the Association for Information and Image Management, is leading the charge in the paper-free effort. Their annual World Paper Free Day encourages companies to go paperless for a day to reduce the amount of paper generated by people in their everyday work and personal life.
“Slowly but surely, organizations are coming ‘round to the idea that digitizing much of the content and information flowing through their business can have both financial and operational benefits,” AIIM Chief Evangelist John Mancini said in a 2016 survey. “We are never going to eliminate paper completely, but when it becomes clear that going paper-free delivers return on investment and can improve overall productivity, businesses will be more willing to invest in the technologies that allow them to go paper-free.”
It was June 30th, 1975 that Bloomberg Businessweek first proposed the digital, paperless, office. More than 40 years later, we’re clearly not there.
By 2012, the global demand for paper exceeded 400 million tons for the first time. Our every day is so permeated with paper that we don’t even think about it. For plenty of businesses though, there are ways to minimize the use of paper – or digitize business documents upon receipt. Digital documents are easier to access, store, and share. So, why aren’t we paperless yet?
Despite the optimism in the 70’s and the abundance of ways to cut down on paper use, most businesses and public agencies have a long way to go. Even those that have digital transformation efforts under way still have many opportunities to optimize their methods of moving everything paper-based to digital format as quickly as possible.
Research firm KeyPoint Intelligence explored the status of business going paperless in a December 2016 survey. When asked if they thought it was possible to move towards a paperless office, only 15% of the respondents though it was something they could achieve and another 23% thought it was impossible
In many ways, businesses who are in the process of going paperless are navigating through different 'ages' of digital – it's far from a single step from analog to digital information management due to the complexity of this transition.
Beyond the general advantages of going paperless, there are specific advantages to moving paper out of workflows as quickly as possible for some of the most paper-intensive business applications.
Accounts Payable
Invoicing costs money; eliminating paper from the process reduces the overhead. Invoice processing is one of the most advanced applications with digital solutions available to handle end-to-end, in many cases without any human interaction. Digitizing paper inputs in an Accounts Payable process enables:
Mailroom Automation
A company mailroom can be a key bottleneck for a company, or the speedy onramp to many business processes. Handling peak workloads is possible with a digital mailroom to a degree that a manually operated mailroom can never achieve.
Forms Processing
Forms are often used in business applications, where customers expect an instant response. They present a key opportunity to offer customers a digital only alternative (i.e. eForms) or to digitize and process automatically.
Onboarding
Customer onboarding requires far less work when it is digitized. Using the right platform, an organization is able to bring new customers onboard more quickly and smoothly. Digital onboarding is more personal. As oxymoronic as it may seem, it’s true. By cutting down the time it takes to onboard a new customer through reducing paperwork, there is more time available for the face-to-face interaction that makes a new customer feel more valued.
Records Management
Many regulated industries need to follow clearly defined processes and rules for handling and storing business documents. New regulations require process adjustments, additional validation and documentation which makes records management a moving target and particularly hard to accomplish in a paper based environment.
1. Assess paper-driven bottlenecks
2. Establish paperless processes where feasible
3. Scanning and Backfile conversion
4. Update Clients
Finally, enjoy the benefits! The rewards in time and savings will begin adding up quickly and the return in customer satisfaction and loyalty are huge.
Productivity resources abound for reducing your personal paper usage, but taking a bigger look at how paper is used across your organization will have the most impact. A key place to start is looking at where paper comes into your organization, and digitizing it on entry.
Your key tool for getting all of this done? The IN2 Ecosystem combines award-winning scanners and software with services and partnerships to help organizations easily collect information from their paper documents and go paperless. This unique approach is designed to deliver increased productivity, higher ROI and superior business value.
Advanced business scanners do much more than just capture an image, they become the onramp to a full digitization process. Scanners that are part of the IN2 Ecosystem, like the S2060w and S2080w turn raw data into information that drives real insight. When used in conjunction with capture software like Kodak Capture Pro Software, scans can be indexed, typed or handwritten text can be extracted and information can be extracted for use in business systems without any manual processing. Automating the information capture process takes out the complexity, and opens the doors to new opportunities for your business.
To learn more about the IN2 Ecosystem and the solutions to help you go paperless: www.alarisIN2.com. To get in touch with sales directly to learn about the ways we can help your organization optimize the information capture process, Contact Us today!
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Kodak Alaris est l'un des principaux fournisseurs de solutions de capture d'informations et de traitement intelligent des documents qui simplifient les processus métiers. Notre mission est de donner un sens à l'information grâce à des solutions intelligentes et connectées qui s'appuient sur des décennies d'innovation dans le domaine de l'image. Nos logiciels, scanners et services professionnels primés sont disponibles dans le monde entier et par l'intermédiaire de notre réseau de partenaires.
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