• February 16th, 2024

6 Indicators That Can Make or Break Your Document Workflow System

An average office-goer experiences 10,000 sheets of paper every year. Papers, printers, tools, paperclips, folders, staplers, and so on cost around $400000 a year for an average company. If you aim to integrate more sustainable business practices into your company, minimise the amount of paper used and, therefore, trees. A paperless workspace does not just bring massive ecological benefits; it can save your organisation’s money and time, and improve productivity.

By switching to electronic documents, you’ll eliminate a lot of your stationery costs. You and your staff will also invest less time dealing with printer jams and searching through piles of papers to find the correct document.

Paper is known to obstruct essential business operations such as contract management, online purchases, and authorisations. Authorising these paper files creates delays, signature inconsistencies, security risks, access issues, storage costs, and more.

Keep document management from going dark with these 6 tips:

1. Say Hello to digital agreements and eSigning with MSB Docs

In a paperless environment, signing agreements and contracts indicate printing out long papers for several signatures. Instead, this expensive and time-consuming process is replaced by obtaining electronic signatures. By connecting MSB Docs eSignature to your business, you’ll have the ability to sign and send agreements and contracts electronically from within the apps you already use like Google Docs, Google Sheets, Gmail, Google Drive, etc. This saves you from the hassles of saving, printing, signing, scanning, or emailing the documents.

2. Store your documents in the cloud─ electronically

Along with minimising paper usage, storing documents and files in the cloud enables your business to store and back-up crucial files using online storage such as Google Drive or Dropbox. You can automate data back-ups, ensuring that your essential files are never lost. This makes sharing documents with staff and clients process quickly without the additional cost of faxing or mail services. Storing your documents in the cloud adds security and control over who can gain access to it, making sure that your sensitive data is safe from falling into incorrect hands.

3. Adopt document management system & cut down on printed documents

Getting a document management system will be your foundation for running your paperless organisation. It is like your digital document filing and retrieval cabinet, along with a service for sharing and collaborating on documents. You will use your document retention service as an important tool to create, safeguard, and send important files, so make sure you put in the time to get the system that’s best for your business requirements. Also, ensure that you have the technological capability to operate and manage the system. If you can take care of your website management, you will be great with handling your new document management system.

4. Use emails instead of letters

One of the simplest means to go paperless in your business is by moving to digital communication. An Email offers much faster communication than sending letters. You normally get a quicker response from the recipient, and you have a record of all communications on your computer system. There are project management systems like Basecamp that enable you to monitor and receive updates on the status of tasks with just one click. In order to bring efficiency and convenience to your business’s internal communications, you can utilise instant messaging platforms, for example, Skype. Using a paperless bill payment system through the internet helps you to minimise paper waste. Additionally, digital calendars allow businesses to set up conference calls, client calls, meetings, etc., without wasting paper.

5. Use emails instead of letters

Writing, printing, or posting bills is time-consuming and expensive. It would help if you considered the possibility of something happening in the post; it may be bad weather making your posts wet or the receiver not receiving it. This is something a paperless business does not want to go through. By emailing out your invoices, you not only have the evidence of it being sent out, but you also have a date and time of reference. Additionally, generating invoices electronically enables you to make any modifications in real-time and saves you a great deal of paper over time.

6. Use emails instead of letters

Technology plays a significant role in this case. When presentations and discussions are involved, choose electronic devices like Google Slides or PowerPoint rather than printing out slides to share among the team. Make use of a projector or screen that attaches to your laptop via an HDMI cable to display your slideshow. Finally, motivate your team to make notes with their laptops and share key takeaways via a cloud link or email instead of noting them on paper pads and replicating multiple copies to share with the team.

Powerful benefits of a document management system

Approximately 50% of business waste is paper. So, you’ll considerably minimise your influence on the local landfill by going paper-free.
One sheet of A4 size paper takes around 10 litres of water to make; transforming into a paperless business can also sustain eco-friendly initiatives like saving water.
You can invest anywhere from a few hundred to nearly a thousand dollars each year replacing the black and coloured ink cartridges for a single printer.
If you’re looking for methods to use government social distancing and work-from-home assistance to your office, embracing a paperless office approach is a great place to begin.
It can help boost the security of your business data. Digital documents are stored on a protected off-site server and are only obtainable by authorised users.
A faster digital document search brings up all relevant client’s data, consisting of client orders. You’ll have the ability to offer more reliable customer service promptly.
You can make your files and documents readily available. Document sharing with clients and staff members becomes easy. Digital searches enable you to locate files quickly from anywhere you have an internet connection.
It helps improve the efficiency of your staff. An additional benefit is that your employees will invest less time managing and printing documents, enabling them to focus on more important work.
One of the excellent benefits is the capability to store documents and files virtually, liberating space in the office. Businesses that need to adhere to strict policies have to maintain records for several years, which gives storage challenges. You can save a lot of storage space in your office.
You can become a sustainable organisation and boost your brand image. Clients who value eco-friendly strategies to business will have a better opinion of your company.

The technology to do so has been around for some time now, and it continues to get even more cost-effective, more straightforward to use, and feature-rich in the coming years. Businesses use document management systems to make sure they can get rid of manual paperwork and transform the process of documentation digitally.

All the tools exist to take your whole business into the digital world; however, it depends on you to lead your people through the outdated paper wasteland and show them the convenience & efficiency that awaits them in your new paperless organisation.

Although paperless organisations face their challenges, no system is perfect until it is made perfect. For businesses that desire an extra reliable and secure documentation approach, a paperless office technique is best.