Guest Post by: Robert Dean
There is a reason that companies are constantly sending out emails in an attempt to get customers to go green. The concept of paperwork and postal mail is doing much more than killing trees. Paperwork is also costing companies millions of pounds. This is evident through all the different reports and documents that are being stored, printed and filed away each day.
In a single glance it may not appear to be much of a big deal. It is only when the sum total of all of this is taken into consideration that companies can truly realize the cost of their paper trails. Paper has to be purchased in the very beginning. This is where the paper trail starts. The cost of paper is cheaper in bulk, but this is still a major expense for large corporations.
Hidden Paperwork Costs
After this paper is purchased there is a need to print out these documents. This accounts for two additional non-paper expenses: printers and printer ink. No one can print a document without either of these, so this much be factored in to the cost of paperwork in the business world.
Costly ink and printers are major, but this still isn’t the end of the paper trail. There are also lots of documents that must be stored. This storage space may be a large room that is being used solely for document storage. It may a filing cabinet that is used on a regular basis. Either way, this can become a costly expense over a long period of time.
In the past this just seemed like a necessary expense. There appeared to be no way around it so organisations just continued to go with this. Today there are alternatives thanks to smart devices and PDF files. A large majority of companies are minimizing their paper this way. Portable devices like smartphones and tablet PCs have made it much easier to view documents.
The cloud servers that are being used also allow many people do store documents online and access them from anywhere. This is a great improvement because it eliminates the need for a ton of filing cabinets or large file storage rooms. A server with these documents takes up a lot less space and saves far more money.
Technology has definitely improved the way that paperwork is handled. The ability to email or upload files to file host servers has reduced paper waste. It’s also important to remember that the storage of paper documents needs to be held in secure physical locations, whereas the lower cost of online security comes through the form of encryption and passwords.
With technology advancing at a great rate, it’s time for businesses to embrace the future and look to the benefits involved in reducing the amount of paperwork they hold. This includes greater security, lower storage costs and following a more sustainable way of doing business.
Robert Dean has worked in the document shredding industry for several years and believes in the importance of data security. He currently works for The Shredding Alliance.