Did you know that on average, each person in the United States uses 500+ pounds of paper annually, with 40% of the world’s industrial logging focused on the paper manufacturing process? According to The Paperless Project, the annual cost to maintain a filing cabinet is roughly $1,500. The average cost to file a document is $20. For every misfiled document the cost is $125, and for every lost document the cost is $350. Understandably, as a business owner, developing methods to lower costs and increase efficiency is important to you.  While it is easy to fall into a comfort zone and conduct business as usual, it can also mean that your business operations may have become outdated, causing you to fall behind the competition. Consequently, by going green, you can increase productivity, optimize workflow, reduce office supply costs, and convert paper documents into electronic formats.  Let's explore the benefits of a paperless office and Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

Five Benefits of a Paperless Office

Benefit #1: Enhanced Document Security and Confidentiality

When choosing a paper filing system for your business, you must invest in locked filing cabinets and develop policies for shredding/document destruction to maintain security and confidentiality. Despite these efforts, you may still face potential data breaches. Today, many cloud-based document management systems offer high-tech data security to keep information secure.

Benefit #2: Easy Access to Data

Tools such as Google Drive and Microsoft Office 365 ensure seamless collaboration across platforms and users. What's more, depending on your specific business needs, information can easily be made accessible to numerous employees. Properly indexed digital documents and consistent file naming conventions will make your PDFs easy to find, download, and share.

Benefit #3: Decreased Carbon Footprint

Go Green! Opting for a paperless office will decrease the number of trees used, reduce the carbon footprint in terms of producing paper products, and contribute to a sustainable society.

Benefit #4: Automatic Data Retention and Digital Backups

Manual backups are no longer needed. You can save data automatically on a cloud-based system. As a result, digital data can exist in various locations as opposed to a single paper source, reducing the risk of damage, loss, or misplacement.

Benefit #5: More Cost-Effective

Apart from saving money on mailing costs, you also eliminate the expense of purchasing ink cartridges and other office supplies.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

The use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) can also have a major impact on your decision to transition to a paperless system. OCR turns a picture of any document into an editable file that can be changed or updated, as needed. When it comes to managing paper and information, Click-Pro can create a custom solution to fit your business needs. Interested in learning more? Contact us today.