A common myth is that technology has not yet advanced enough to create a paperless office.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The main obstacle is not technology, but people.

Replacing paper with electronic forms is easy, reduces business costs and wasted time.
Not only is a paperless organisation more eco-friendly, but it also benefits in increased organisational efficiency, increased business visibility and enables you to abide to compliance, legal and regulatory requirements.

Business Benefits

• Cost - cost of paper, cost of office storage space, cost of staff dealing with paper
• Staff - reduces the number of employees dealing with paperwork and manual tasks
• Visibility - audit trails - electronic forms enable you to have visibility over your processes. everything is stored in the database.
• Compliance, legal and regulatory requirements - government regulations, legal requirements, lost documents, data security
• Efficiency - Improves organisational efficiency, minimizes risks, enforces organisational policies.

Paperless Technology

Paperless technology is available today and is proven to be successful.

• Convert your paper forms to web-based, online forms, electronic forms.
• Convert your manual paper-based processes into automated electronic processes
• Convert your manual approvals into automated approval cycles

How does the paperless software work?

Lets take a common expense approval process for example:

• The user opens a link to an internal web page and fills in the expense request online.
  - the data is saved in the database, so the user won't need to re-submit the information in other forms.
  - the system recognises who is logged in, so the user won't need to write in their details - saves time and hassle
  - the information is validated before submitting - reduces errors
• The system sends a task to the first approver.
  - the approver gets an email with the request information already embedded in the email.
  - the email has a link that enables to approve/decline and add comments.
  - all the information and comments are saved in the database - enables to create reports like: show me the reasons for unapproved requests
• If the expense is over the company expense limit - send it to the finance department for approval
  - automated business rules - lets you set company policies
  - decisions are enforced by the software, not by humans
• Approved - create purchase order.
  - submitting forms online eliminates the need to mail purchase orders and create paper documentation.
• SLAs and escalations
  - if one of the approvers has not completed their task in time, the system will send a reminder, send a warning, forward the task to another approver in the group or escalate the problem to the manager - making sure that nothing falls in the cracks.
  - humans make mistakes - software picks up on the mistakes.
• Monitoring and reports
  - the paperless software will show visual gauges and data reports of the budget used, budget left and any irregularities.
  - trend analysis - based on current spending, when will we go over-budget?
  - alerts and notifications during the approval process to all participants
• Audit trails
  - timestamps – who approved, when did they approve?
  - how many requests were sent to the finance department?
  - transparency and process visibility

Replacing traditional paper-based processes with paperless software enables you to increase your business efficiency, productivity, and operational visibility.
Paperless software automates manual tasks, automates decisions and streamlines work processes

Paperless software enables you the flexibility of reducing printed paper, but still enabling users to print copies, if needed.
All the paper that your business uses has both a financial and environmental cost associated with it.

The impact on the environment - Statistics

The use of paper in businesses causes forest degradation, and increases the use of chemicals, water and energy to manufacture the paper.
Recycling does not solve the problem. The only way forward is to completely eliminate the use of paper in the office.

UK

• UK uses 12.5 million tonnes of paper and cardboard every year
• On average, each person in the UK uses over 200 kg of paper per year.
• 80.6m tonnes of writing and printing paper enters the waste stream each year
• To grow enough trees to provide the amount of paper that Britain uses each year, you would need a forest the size of Wales
• Every tonne of biodegradable waste produces 300-500 cubic metres of landfill gas

USA

• U.S. businesses use around 21 million tons of paper every year
• On average, each person in the U.S. uses 650 pounds of paper a year
• Every year, nearly 900,000,000 trees are cut down to provide raw materials for American paper and pulp mills
• On average, every American, in one lifetime, uses: 18 ton of paper, 23 ton of wood, 16 ton of metal, and 32 ton of organic chemicals.
• America is home to 5% of the world's population, yet it consumes a third of the Earth's paper and timber, making paper the largest part of the waste stream at 37.5% of the total waste stream

• It takes 24 trees to make 1 tonne of paper
• Every tonne of paper recycled saves 17 trees
• One tonne of paper from recycled pulp saves 17 trees, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 7,000 gallons of water, 390 gallons of oil, 4,200 kilowatt hours and prevents 60 pounds of air pollutants

Paperless software can help you support the environment while generating significant time and cost savings for your business

Reduce costs, Reduce wasted time, Reduce your environmental footprint

For more about paperless software, contact us or request our white paper