Paper is expensive, but it’s not like you didn’t know that already. In addition to the costs that unnecessary paper usage can have on your business, there’s also the environmental impact to consider. According to the EPA, the average American uses more than 700 pounds of paper per year, the highest per-capita figure in the world. Making a few changes around the office can help reduce your dependence on paper to conduct business. Here’s how to phase it out.
How to Start Going Paperless
As with most elements of business, going paperless will require a little more than just taking it off of your vendor order forms. With a change to something so fundamental to the office, you have to be ready for whatever pops up, which means you need a step-by-step strategy to follow.
Step 1: Identify How Paper Is Currently Used
The first step you should take is to identify how paper is being used, filed, and stored. Ask yourself:
- Are unnecessary duplicates of data being produced, only to be disposed of?
- Are your file cabinets filled to bursting with copy after copy of a data set, with only incremental changes between each version?
- Are you sacrificing needed office space to paper storage?
Knowing the answers to these questions is the first step to creating a plan that eliminates these issues.
Step 2: Leverage Available Solutions
Naturally, in order to properly go paperless, you need to have something to take its place. Innovations in office solutions have largely eliminated the need for very much paper at all.
Between digital signage, document scanning, advancing your equipment to allow for such processes to be adopted, and all the other solutions that assist you in going paperless, the initial cost may be considerable. However, the capital you are likely to save in the long run can help make up for it. This also allows you to leverage a cloud solution to store your documents, potentially allowing an increase in productive hours and helping you to keep files organized and accounted for.
Furthermore, using the cloud and other digital solutions provides a higher level of data security than antiquated physical document storage could. While certain rules, requirements, and user roles can be set to allow or deny access to certain cloud files, all it takes to access a physical document in a file cabinet is a simple key, and that’s assuming the cabinet was properly locked after it was last accessed.
Step 3: Engage Employees
Like any change around the office, the most important step is quite possibly getting your employees on board. Remember, they have grown accustomed to doing things a certain way, which means they are most likely comfortable with that method. To get them to make the switch with minimal resistance, you should not only patiently train them to use their new solutions, you should add some incentives to motivate them to embrace the changes.
Of course, you will undoubtedly encounter some resistance during your switch to paperless. All you have to do is stick to your guns and try to make the change as seamless as possible.
What other initiatives have you launched in your office? Tell us about them in the comments below.
Go Paperless With the Right Technology Partner
Going paperless is more than a cost-cutting move. It is a step toward a more secure, scalable, and efficient way of working. At WheelHouse IT, we help businesses across South Florida and New York modernize their operations with Microsoft 365, cloud collaboration tools, and managed IT services designed to keep your team productive and your data protected.
Ready to take paper out of the equation? Our team is here to help. Reach out today:
- Florida: (954) 474-2204
- New York: (516) 536-5006
Contact WheelHouse IT to learn how the right technology can help your business work smarter and spend less.
