Over the past few months I have seen an increase in questions regarding when businesses should consider moving to a paperless system.  Especially in Human Resources where personnel files can get huge really quick.  This blog post is not to convince you to go paperless, it’s to help get you in the right mind-set to determine if the processes you have in place is working correctly or not. 

This is the first of a series of posts on this topic because there is a lot of information to consider.  I have ask Bill King, Vice President of Centurion Data Systems, a database storage company in Pewaukee, WI, for his expertise in the matter.  He and I have sat down and discussed this topic in-depth and thought it would be beneficial for all of you to read and chime in.  Your feedback and questions are welcome and we will be happy to answer them.

Sam: “Bill, why are businesses so attracted to going paperless and what should they think about in regards to whether or not they should pursue?”

Bill: “Today’s increasingly economical technology makes the move to paperless even more alluring than ever.  Knowing when to jump on that band wagon and make the move towards a paperless environment can be a difficult decision.

If you are like many businesses in the current economy you need to be able to justify the expenditure in time and dollars. How do you know the initiative will produce efficiency gains?  The important thing here is that going paperless does not necessarily mean eliminating all paper.  In fact, you may be able to realize low-cost high impact results in the early stages of determining whether or not you want to pursue a paperless environment.

Determining whether or not paperless is right for your situation begins by evaluating the flow of paper information within and among your departments.  Simply eliminating disconnects and redundant workflow will produce immediate efficiency gains. 

Seeking out paperless reporting systems from suppliers and partners can reduce paper workflow.  For example: payroll reporting, tax reporting and electronic data interchange with customers and suppliers can eliminate paper workflow and manual data entry.”

Sam: “In our previous conversations you had mentioned that one of initial steps that businesses need to conduct before making a decision to go paperless is a “Discovery Exercise”, where you look at your current process and see if there are any ways to improve it.  Can you elaborate on this process to help us think about our current paper workflow?”

Bill: “The benefit of a discovery exercise is the uncovering of business process shortfalls and the identification of disconnects in the existing paper information workflow.  This exercise not only makes it easier to quantify time-saving efficiency gains or elimination of data errors, but it ensures that those issues will be corrected in future project plans.

The key to successful discovery and project development is not technology.  Rather, it lies in fostering an atmosphere of cooperation and innovation from the CEO to clerical staff.  Even if you aren’t ready to dump paper entirely you will gain an understanding of what factors need to change in order to take the next step towards a paperless environment. 

Whether or not a full or partial paperless environment is right for you will depend on what business processes you currently have in place.”

To recap, it’s good to take an in-depth look at your current paper workflow to see if the process you currently have in place works for your company not only now but also in the future.  It is also important to get everyone in your company involved in analyzing every aspect of your workflow.  This will ensure that the entire process is being reviewed.

Please stay tuned for the next post in this series.  If you have any questions that you would liked to be answered we will be glad to answer them for you.