Another Look at the Paperless Trend

The concept of the paperless office has been around for decades, as the first computers and data storage technologies showed the IT sector that it was possible to move away from traditional filing systems and toward more efficient and sustainable methodologies. However, even in 2016, many companies have yet to implement a strong and intelligent plan to get their operational processes into more paperless and digitized realms, which is somewhat worrisome to say the least.

Virtually every firm can benefit from a more automated business process management strategy, as well as the digitization of workflows and other aspects of accounting and information handling, for a range of reasons. With these benefits extending from fewer expenditures and a far more streamlined experience for employees to modernized information sharing capabilities and beyond, the time to begin digitizing document management and moving away from paper filing is now.

A look inside

Fierce Content Management recently published a blog post by Francis Dion regarding his opinions on the assessment of paperless office investments’ worthiness for each company, and he pointed out that relatively simple internal analysis will reveal the need and value of such projects. According to the author, one study from TechNavio found that digital document management investments are expected to be 14 percent higher in 2019 than they are today.

Now, it is important to note here that some of the more transformative digital trends to have surfaced in the past few years have seen highly volatile adoption rates and have been tricky to predict accurately as a result. This includes mobile payments, which many analysts believed would lead to the cashless society within the next decade or so, but those forecasts have simply not panned out in reality thus far.

This is important to remember because it clearly shows that technologies which will transform enterprise operations, shopping experiences and the like should be approached with care and patience. However, Dion asserted that companies will be able to intelligently manage paperless projects by ensuring that the customer is being considered every step of the way, collaboration among various leaders and departments is high and experiences are assessed consistently throughout the duration of the overhauls.

A real boost to performance

The paperless office will generally be characterized by the introduction of solutions that digitize, automate and streamline core transactions, business processes, workflows and more. Each of these defining matters should not be viewed as an option at this stage in the game, as the drivers of competition in every industry are increasingly dictated by the successful completion of digital transformation projects.

Rather than waiting too long and watching others in the market excel in terms of financial and operational performances, business leaders ought to be putting the legwork in to become less reliant upon paper and use digital technologies more progressively. The top priority in this regard should be the introduction of digital document management solutions and more advanced workflows.