As we enter 2025, the business landscape is increasingly moving toward automation, remote work, and heightened digital security. Relying on paper records has become not only inefficient but also a potential obstacle to progress. The growing need for seamless collaboration across hybrid teams, combined with stricter compliance requirements, has made the limitations of paper records even more apparent. For companies looking to stay competitive and agile, embracing a paperless office is now essential—not just a matter of convenience but of strategic necessity.

So your organization is now paperless! You belong to an elite club of organizations that have achieved a paper-free workplace. But the paperless state is not a one-and-done sort of story. Maintaining a paperless workplace is a challenge—fighting the inflow of paper documents takes work. 

For decades, organizations used filing cabinets stuffed with paper to organize their business information. There wasn’t an alternative. Now, the scenario has changed completely—paper documents are no longer considered the ideal way to store business records. Organizations around the world have transitioned to a paperless work environment. 

2020 was a leap year for the document management industry. Businesses still holding onto paper went digital—finally. It’s a two-part process: paper is scanned and then paper is shredded. But some businesses are still waiting in line for their own digital revolution. Until a high-volume scanner comes along and turns those old paper records (that are expensive to store and cumbersome to retrieve) into lightweight electronic files, you are obligated to take care of them. In most industries, regulations require retention. That means keeping documents for a defined period until their expiration date. While we recommend a solid paperless office strategy for all forward-thinking companies, here five tips to secure and protect physical documents from potential threats in the meantime. 

Paper doesn't just harm the environment and your company’s productivity—and therefore your revenue—paper also harms your reputation: 87% of consumers surveyed say they look more positively on a company if they run 100% paper free. And that's how you want your customers to see your company.

COVID-19 crashed down overnight in March of 2020 and it was an eye opener for businesses still running on paper. Staff left the office to work from home, but they found themselves dead in the water. There was no way to access the paper documents locked at the office. 

You know that ditching paper is the right thing to do for your business. You know that a digital process will work better, that your staff will be more productive, and that you’ll be able to downsize your office space—or work remotely—if you scan all that old information down to zero by digitizing it. 

One-third of all of Canada's waste is from paper and paper products. Manufacturing paper ranks third in the largest user of fossil fuels globally. 

We all know that we have a role to play when it comes to protecting the planet. This is why more and more business owners and employees are trying to create a paperless environment. It’s not just about that, though; the benefits of going paperless extend a lot further than this. You can expect to run your business much more efficiently, as it will be easier to source the documents you need. You can collaborate with greater ease too. You will also save yourself a lot of physical space in your office, and we all know that this is at a premium today. The argument for becoming a paperless company is very compelling, to say the least. The only trouble is that a lot of business owners don’t know where to start. The very thought seems overwhelming and the task seems too mammoth, so it keeps getting put to the back of the to-do list. With that being said, read on to discover the benefits of being a paperless business, as well as some useful tips and pieces of advice on how to achieve this. 

One of the key considerations for businesses is how to handle their paper documents when the document is no longer being actively used within the office space. Many companies are now taking the time to ensure that their records are scanned and placed into an online cloud storage system. Let’s review a few of the business process benefits of scanning paper records.