A paperless office improves document security, saves money and makes your team much more efficient. These facts are quickly becoming common knowledge. But what other benefits can you reap from getting rid of your office's paper documents in exchange for digital files? Let's take a look at some of the unexpected benefits that a paperless office will provide:
1. You can provide better customer service
The quality of your customer service is affected by several factors, including how fast you do things for people. With a paperless office, you can answer questions, respond to inquiries and provide details to customers more quickly than ever, because you won't have to dig through a mass of paperwork to find what you need.
2. It is easier to handle the stresses of tax season
What documents does your accounting team need to give you the best possible tax results, while protecting you from an attack from the CRA? You cannot know the answer to this question until the relevant documents are actually needed; in a paperless office environment, this won't matter because these documents can be retrieved in a matter of seconds. A paper-based office, on the other hand, puts you in a situation where you may not even be able to find the necessary financial documents in the first place.
3. It is easier to get around the office
This is one benefit of a paperless office that all of your organization's employees will love. Because there is no need for massive filing cabinets in a paperless office, you can provide your employees with more room to move around and feel comfortable in their working environment.
4. Email will be even more efficient
Email is one of the most efficient ways to communicate in the office. It allows you to send communications, large and small, to people in and outside of your office. However, the efficiency of email can be thwarted by paper because you can't attach a paper document to an email without taking the time to scan it – assuming that you can find the paperwork in the first place. When all of your documents are already digital, all you need to do is pull the correct file up.
5. More interior design flexibility
You spend a lot of time in your offices, so you should enjoy being there. Just like your home, a part of enjoying your office is making it look great. An office without an abundance of filing cabinets, folders and stacks of paper scattered everywhere gives you a lot more interior design flexibility to enhance your office's style without breaking the bank.
6. You can choose to have less office space
Because all of your documents are digital in a paperless office, you can share them with people who are located anywhere, allowing many of your employees to work from home. This provides you with the opportunity to cut back on office space, saving yourself a great deal of money on the cost of maintaining a facility.
7. You will be helping the environment
While going paperless will yield a large number of virtually instantaneous benefits for your organization, you are also creating many long-term benefits for the earth by taking this step. This is because you are significantly reducing your company's impact on the global environment by using fewer trees and creating less trash.
The list of benefits you can gain from a paperless office is growing fast
As digital technology continues to expand its capabilities – and paper documents become more outdated – you can expect to find additional unexpected benefits of having a paperless office.
