subject: The Benefits Of A Paperless Office [print this page] Having a paperless office was a pipe dream for many businesses 10 years ago, but today technology has become so advanced that creating a paper free office is fast becoming a reality for many.
Departments that are paper intensive, such as Accounts Payable (AP), Human Resources (HR), Accounts Receivable (AR) and Procurement, can now implement technology such as an Invoice Management Solution (IMS) to help the department to automate and streamline their documents.
Todays digital age has helped to transform the way companies work, communicate and do business. For example the AP department can now send and receive invoices via email, whereas before staff would have had to post the invoice; which is a much longer and more expensive process for both the sender and the receiver. Manually processing invoices is considered very labour intensive and expensive, however, implementing an invoice management solution can help to reduce the amount of time and costs associated with processing invoices.
Most invoice management solutions are able to read an invoice, through the use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and input the details straight into the finance system. This reduces data entry costs and also improves the productivity of the AP team, as they will be able to spend their time on more strategic tasks, such as negotiating improved supplier discounts.
Introducing IMS into your business will help to reduce your reliance on paper, whilst also providing benefits such as:
Accessibility All documents are available online 24/7 a day, and you can also access any documents you need remotely. This will save you from carrying around or physically storing important documents that could get lost.
Security Access can be granted on different levels so only people with the right level of security can gain access. Additionally documents are backed up, so in case of an emergency, such as a fire or a flood, all documents will remain safe and secure. If you were storing paper documents in a filling cabinet, then most likely all of these would be destroyed.
Simplicity Instantly being able to access documents online will save staff wasting time looking for documents in filling cabinets. This will be particularly useful when looking for historical documents.
Online Storage Retrieval Stores all documents online, making it quick and easy to retrieve. It is very easy to manage documents and gives instant access anywhere and to anyone who needs it.
Improved Customer Service Queries can be answered faster, the document and all accompanying details can be instantly retrieved, saving time and removing the cost of calling people back.
Reduced Document Storage Costs Due to documents being stored electronically, this will significantly reduce the amount of physical storage needed on or off-site.
Reduced Costs Automating your paper processes will reduce office costs, as the need to buy paper and ink will be reduced, as well as reducing the amount of power that is used to print and scan documents.
In a report by The Aberdeen Group, evidence shows that automation is yet again the way forward for cost savings and improved efficiencies. Best-in-class Accounts Payable performance can give you 92% lower invoice processing costs and 81% faster invoice processing cycle times. This statistic shows that companies can benefit hugely by implementing an automated system, and although some companies wont be able to go completely be paper free, investing in a solution such as an IMS could be the first step to achieving a more paperless office.
