Return to blog
Digital Documentation “has saved millions” for these organizations, why not you?
Time is money, and money saved is money earned! Well, we all agree with this, and so do those zillions of businesses spread across the globe, who have successfully switched from manual, paper-based processes to digital documentation, and have consequently experienced tremendous cost savings. Yes, the use of document management systems has worked wonders for an umpteen number of organizations, who are now efficiently able to handle their documentation needs and are successfully moving on the path of advancement.
Industries which experienced cost-savings
Banks, for example, are known to all for conducting a gigantic volume of transactions on a daily basis, which means gallons of information to be stored almost each day. Maintaining all these records physically could turn into a nightmare, considering the humongous costs of storage, employee hours, etc. Thus, a large number of these financial institutions have already adopted digital technology to deal with their document workflows, thus saving huge sums along with achieving a sharp trigger in their efficiency. An analysis at a large retail bank has shown that reducing paper usage had brought down their operating expenses by approx. 25% (a reduction of between 60% and 70% of records management associated costs).
A sneak peek into these costs…
Cost of Paper
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average office worker in the U.S. uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year. This amounts to 4 million tons of print paper used in a year by a single employee. Calculate this cost for the entire company, and you would end up feeling terrible for this unnecessary resource wastage. Another report reveals that for an average business, document volume doubles every three years, which means an annual paper increase of 22%. Thus, these burgeoning costs can be effectively controlled using a document management system.
Printing Costs
Secondly, the excessive printing costs are saved. According to Gartner, companies spend between 1 to 3% of their revenue on office printing. Imagine if multiple copies of any important document are to be made, the printing needs to be done multiple times by employees, wasting their hours and the printing costs. With digital documentation, a master copy of the electronic document can simply b created, which could then be stored electronically, to be accessed by all in the team.
Storage costs and costs of retrieving documents
If the documents are saved electronically, why need that extra space to store them physically. Thus, the huge storage costs can be avoided. Also, employees spend a lot of their hours simply to manage this physical storage or to retrieve any particular document. Study reveals that an average worker in the UK spends 30-40% of their time searching through physical and electronic documents for the required information. According to another report, this wasted time associated with handling paper leads to a productivity loss of 21.3%. Thus, digital documentation saves both, time and money in this case. And not to forget, time is money!
Errors in documentation
It is a well-established fact that the manual documentation method is more prone to errors. However, with the digitized document solutions in place, this possibility gets ruled out. Again, a recent study has highlighted that organizations with robust document management systems in place have 30% lesser errors, contributing to 10% reduction in overall operational expense for document processing.
Security costs
In case those extremely critical company documents get lost or stolen, it could turn into a disastrous situation. According to a study, more than 70 per cent of businesses would fail in case of such a loss. All these inhibitions are put to rest with the digitized version of documentation, turning out to be a key cost-advantage for companies.
Cost of consent collection
Electronic signatures, which speed up the approval and consent obtaining process in organisations, also take care of a large part of their costs. Imagine if there are bundles of important documents waiting to be signed manually by employees located in different cities, the amount of time and money it would consume could be enormous. Preparing multiple copies of documents, arranging for approvals from different directions, the high cost of paper, shipping, etc could burn a big hole in the pockets and come in the way of your profitability.
Take the road to a full-proof digital future
Well, if your company is still running on those tedious, paper-based processes, then it’s time for you to embark on the digital transformation journey right away. According to a report, about 80 per cent businesses have expressed their willingness to cut down on their paper usage. Getting hold of the right technology could lead you forward.