The future workplace - Going paperless in a Digital Office
There are various ways to utilize less paper for day to day work. However, a fully paperless office environment is still rare. Since the objective first surfaced there have been a number or large enterprises that have succeeded in eliminating all paper from their offices. It is not necessarily about fully eliminating all use of paper. Going paperless can also involve greatly reducing the use of paper in the office.
The future office resembles a digital workplace. It is about the process of ultimately moving to a situation where no paper is used at all and all data is digital. Often that goal is set in the faraway future and the way toward it is filled with measures to reduce paper consumption. It originates from a growing environmental concern combined with goals for sustainability and a reduced ecological footprint.
How to go paperless
A paperless office strategy starts with an analysis of paper intensive processes. Besides regular office printing, the majority of paper comes from physical correspondence and faxes received. The latter are being printed and then often filed, either digitally or in paper format. It greatly reduces paper by digitizing all of these documents, including invoices and contracts. Then store them in an online filing system or also called a digital filing cabinet. Some businesses or departments will remain in need of printing documents for the foreseeable future. A signature may require printing contracts and agreements. Even though the legality of a digital signature has been declared years ago. Paper digitation is however becoming increasingly more important and a key focus for many large enterprises.
The OCR functionality of LRS solutions enables users to extract valuable information which can then be used to perform Business Intelligence on digitalized documents.
LRS has office document management software solutions that can help organizations implement and execute a paperless office strategy. We have a range of solutions available. All of those solutions work seamlessly together. MFPsecure®/Scan turns paper documents into digital ones and sends them to a file folder, portal, cloud repository, email address, FTP server, and storage platforms such as PageCenterX. This software solution files the documents or routes them to the appropriate destination. If files are shared with others via PageCenterX the system will prompt users with a ‘Print or View’ option to encourage online viewing versus printing them. This software eliminates the need for paper based information archiving and filing systems.
MFPSecure/Scan and PagecenterX can be used to scan and archive visitor registration books. For security reasons these can be stored in digital format and - if needed - can be retrieved for quick consultation by security.
Digitizing paper documents and storing them in an online filing software offers great benefits, besides the paperless component. Paperless filing solutions, like PagecenterX, reduce the time required to organize or retrieve files. All data can be shared easily and is available at any location. It also prevents mistakes that can occur when manually filing data. It is also more secure and reliable. Which is another aspect that is becoming more and more important. And because files can also be accessed during potential downtime, there is no impact on employee productivity when an outage occurs.
Reducing paper consumption
While going fully paperless may not be as easily attainable, reducing paper consumption is. First step is setting individual goals for printing documents that are likely to end up in the trash (emails, presentations). If a document must be printed, settings for duplex will reduce paper volume by 35%. LRS offers policy printing. This enables IT administrators to set certain rules that can either be suggested or enforced. This is another part of the process towards a paperless environment.
A paper free environment can ultimately improve the core of the enterprise. With increased visibility and quick identification of information needed, added security and more flexibility. The future workplace has a lot of ground to gain. LRS solutions can help this transformation with solutions for digital archiving, scan and capture, and much more. Schedule a call with our experts to learn how LRS can be a strategic partner for companies that want to strive towards a paperless workplace.