The majority of small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) would like to cut paper out of their business processes to reduce time and money waste and security risks. Switching to mobile forms and data collection software can have a positive impact on your business growth and productivity.
Without a digital process in place, data collected in the field on a paper form must be send it back to the office before it can be analysed. If the paper is not immediately uploaded, it will have to be filed properly so that it can be evaluated later. Paper documents gets easily misplaced, damaged or even lost.
The security issue
When you print sensitive data, this information become vulnerable and it is unnecessarily exposed to misuse and lost because it’s impossible to predict when an emergency situation might arise. Fire, flooding and burglary can destroy paper-based records available to anyone who passes by. A digital document management system can cater a backup for paper records, if not replace them completely.
Paper is an expensive option
The average office worker in the United States uses about 10,000 sheets annually. If your company has 15 field employers and two back-office managers, that’s 170,000 pieces of paper per year which is a quite relevant amount of money. To that sum, we should add printing and storage costs and the time spent working with paper forms. Bear in mind that there is time cost associated with printing, filing, and managing paper. By getting rid of paper documents, your company can save up a significant amount of time which is a very valuable resource.
The benefits of getting rid of paper documents
Digital solutions have entirely improved information flow and management disregarding the industry. Technology is affordable now, even for the smallest enterprise, therefore, going paperless is no longer just a wish; is a must have. Ditching paper from your business processes will benefit your organization in many ways. Here are four benefits of getting rid of paper documents that will increase productivity, reduce costs and work stress, and simplify your team workload.
-
Improved employee productivity
Mobile technology has significantly impacted the bottom line in the supply chain industry for the last decade and it has immensely improved accuracy and reduced delivery times.
For employees, working with digital files and mobile forms means that they won’t deal with boxes or containers full of papers. Data transfer and storage will be easier as well as data sharing and collaboration. All these factors will boost productivity.
-
Reduce costs and increase ROI
In the U.S., companies spend over $120 billion each year on paper forms, even though most them will be out of date within three months. Eliminating paperwork can reduce significantly these expenses. The Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM), after carrying out two surveys on the costs and benefits of paper-based and paperless solutions, established that the majority of the organizations they surveyed (84%) had increased return on investment (ROI) from a paperless office software project.
By ditching paper documents and using cloud storage technology and hard drives you can maximize your space, save money and store large amounts of information in a small space.
-
Accessibility
The main issue with paper documents is that they are not easy to find when you have piles of papers and the information is not immediately accessible. Employees in businesses with paper-based processes spend up to 40% of their time looking for documents, and around 7% of them are lost or misfiled. This also involves a lot of time waste and processing delays. Digital processes make access easier, simpler a faster.
-
Data security
Digital documents are more secure than printed ones. For one thing, digital files can be rendered through encryption. They can also be secured against printing because access controls are more severe so the chances of keeping the information secure are higher. When documents are digitally stored, you could know who accessed what information and when. This type of restriction cannot be done when working with printed documents.
By implementing a mobile forms solution and ditching paper you will remove the vulnerability of data printed documents and will allow your company to implement more effective security policies.
The digital workplace is here now, and everyone is already going digital. Have you done the switch? DataScope is a mobile forms software used by hundreds of organizations worldwide. We make it easy for organizations to eliminate paperwork, improve data quality and increase efficiency by using mobile forms for data collection and delivery.
DataScope is a platform which allows various industries to streamline, organize and evaluate the work of their field staffs thanks to online forms which provide real time indicators 100% adaptable to any field.
