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paperless working
An unstoppable trend
Space
savers
Last month saw the launch of
a new campaign calling for the
communication preferences of
consumers to be protected as
organisations, such as banks and
utilities, switch from paper-based to
electronic billing.
The Keep Me Posted campaign is
funded by Royal Mail, TNT Post and
UK Mail, but not all of its backers
have a vested interest in postal
communications. It is also supported
by Mind, the National Consumer
Federation and The National Federation
of Occupational Pensioners.
The need for a campaign such as
this reflects the growing adoption
of electronic processes in business
and the expectation that customers/
suppliers will follow suit. Increasingly,
consumers who still demand paper bills
are penalised with surcharges and/or
excluded from discounts available to
online customers.
The fear is that older and
disadvantaged consumers suffer
disproportionately from a trend that is
only going to grow as businesses seek to
eradicate paper from their operations.
According to IDC, the number of pages
printed on laser MFPs and printers in
developed economies fell by 4.2% and
Mobile working accelerates
the transition to digital,
paperless processes
5% respectively in 2012, following
similar declines in 2011.
Environmental responsibility is
frequently used as the justification for
e-billing but cost-savings and process
efficiency are the main drivers.
In an e-book published to mark last
year’s World Paper-Free Day,
The Paper-
Free Process Revolution
, AIIM, the global
community of information professionals,
claims that removing paper from
workflows can result in a 30-50% gain in
process productivity and a three- to ten-
fold reduction in turnaround customer
response times.
Fast-growing sales of document
scanners that can capture paper-based
information electronically at the start of
a process suggest that businesses have
taken note. New figures from IDC show
that in Q2 2013 (April-June), the overall
document scanner market inWestern
Europe increased by 29.9% year-on-
year (source:
IDCWestern European
Quarterly Document Scanner Tracker
).
Even so, adoption of paperless
processes has been patchy. According
to a new AIIM report,
Winning the
Paper Wars
, only one in four businesses
(24%) has a specific policy to eliminate
paper from its operations. Of the 562
organisations surveyed for the report,
47% claim to have made only 5%
progress towards updating processes
that could be paper-free and 19% have
actually increased their use of paper.
AIIM says that low adoption
rates are partly due to the enduring
misconception that paper copies and
physical signatures are required for legal
reasons. However, there are signs that
things might at last be changing, with
flexible working practices and greater
use of mobile technologies accentuating
the need for electronic access to
business documents.
There is also growing recognition
that implementing paper-free processes
delivers a rapid return on investment. In
AIIM’s study, two-thirds of organisations
that have gone down this route reported
a return on investment (ROI) within 18
months; 50% achieved payback within
12 months.
www.keepmeposteduk.com
www.aiim.org/wpfd
www.aiim.org/paper-wars-2013
Fujitsu has released a
free ROI calculator for
its scanners, including
the Fujitsu ScanSnap
iX500, which lets you
scan documents to
PCs, Macs, tablets and
smartphones over WiFi.
http://scanners.fcpa.
fujitsu.com/scansnapit/
go-green/
roi-calculator.php
Cost-savings and employee productivity
aren’t the only reasons why one might
want to invest in a scanner. For many
businesses, a scanner is also a great
space-saver.
Take the Neopost IMW-20 for example.
This all-in-one electronic document
management system is ideal for scanning
incoming post and invoices – and routing
them to the right person/department
using easy-to-use, pre-configured
workflows. Many customers also use it to
digitise paper archives.
Scanning and storing files
electronically makes it quicker and easier
for staff to find the documents they need
and also allows PC and hard copy-
generated material to be kept in the
same folder. Files can be accessed at
the device or remotely, in and out of
office hours.
Once paper archives have been
scanned, they can be destroyed (in line
with a company’s records management
policy) or stored off-site if there is a
legal requirement to keep hard copies.
This frees up valuable office space that
can then be used for more productive
purposes.
Neopost saved so much space by
scanning that it was able to create an
extra meeting room, while a marina
in SouthWest England has eliminated
much of its day-to-day paper filing and
created a more comfortable working
environment in the process.
Another customer, car parts and
accessories supplier Mill Auto Supplies,
is now scanning all sales invoices and
looking forward to the day when it no
longer has any paper invoices on-site.
Company accountant TonyWatson
said: “Increased document availability
coupled with reduced handling and
storage has saved a lot of time, and
although we’re not back scanning any
old documents, we will notice storage
space rapidly opening up as we begin to
get rid of old files.”
www.neopost.co.uk
The Neopost
IMW-20
combines an
A4 duplex
scanner, 1,000GB
hard drive and
document
management
software in one
compact desktop
unit.