Administration almost always involves paperwork. Any business, government department or other organization uses forms and official documents in its procedures and archiving system. While this enormous volume of paperwork has traditionally been the subject of annoyance or jokes, paperless office-document scanning offers an electronic alternative.
A paper-based office entails the costs of the paper, ink and printing equipment, and file storage venues. Staff have to spend time sorting or packing away files. Moving paper records from one place to another is also an exercise in logistics: the boxes of files are heavy and fax machines do not always produce copies of acceptable quality. Physical files sometimes get lost or damaged.
Environmental activists have raised the issue of how the manufacture of paper uses trees. They oppose the use of paper as a storage or correspondence material. Recycled paper, which was introduced in response to this negative sentiment, is not yet a universally utilized resource. Discarded paper is a significant element of landfill sites and pollution.
The electronic management of documentation therefore makes more sense. An enormous amount of paperwork can be stored on a single USB stick or hard disk. Making back-up copies, even of the entire records of an organization, takes relatively little time. Electronic media occupy very little space, and are easy to transport. E-mail and document cloud facilities make their physical transport unnecessary anyway.
A document cloud system is an online facility that gives users space to upload and retain considerable quantities of administrative files or other material. This is useful because users can then log into the site and retrieve the material from any physical location. They do not need to carry hard copies around with them. The cloud system may or may not charge a user fee. People interested in this option should assess the storage capacity and security profile of different sites to see what is best for their needs.
The advantages of a paperless office over a paper-based one are, firstly, that the quality of scanned text is consistently high. Secondly, e-mail is instant and can be used to transmit massive amounts of records or other files. Recent file formats enable several hundred pages to be sent in a single attachment of several hundred kilobytes. People would not consider trying to fax a document of that size.
The expense of running an office can be greatly reduced through scanning and electronic document archiving. The outlay on the equipment required should be compared to the money saved. Paperless administration represents an area of the economy where those nasty paper cuts can be replaced by the press of a button.
A paper-based office entails the costs of the paper, ink and printing equipment, and file storage venues. Staff have to spend time sorting or packing away files. Moving paper records from one place to another is also an exercise in logistics: the boxes of files are heavy and fax machines do not always produce copies of acceptable quality. Physical files sometimes get lost or damaged.
Environmental activists have raised the issue of how the manufacture of paper uses trees. They oppose the use of paper as a storage or correspondence material. Recycled paper, which was introduced in response to this negative sentiment, is not yet a universally utilized resource. Discarded paper is a significant element of landfill sites and pollution.
The electronic management of documentation therefore makes more sense. An enormous amount of paperwork can be stored on a single USB stick or hard disk. Making back-up copies, even of the entire records of an organization, takes relatively little time. Electronic media occupy very little space, and are easy to transport. E-mail and document cloud facilities make their physical transport unnecessary anyway.
A document cloud system is an online facility that gives users space to upload and retain considerable quantities of administrative files or other material. This is useful because users can then log into the site and retrieve the material from any physical location. They do not need to carry hard copies around with them. The cloud system may or may not charge a user fee. People interested in this option should assess the storage capacity and security profile of different sites to see what is best for their needs.
The advantages of a paperless office over a paper-based one are, firstly, that the quality of scanned text is consistently high. Secondly, e-mail is instant and can be used to transmit massive amounts of records or other files. Recent file formats enable several hundred pages to be sent in a single attachment of several hundred kilobytes. People would not consider trying to fax a document of that size.
The expense of running an office can be greatly reduced through scanning and electronic document archiving. The outlay on the equipment required should be compared to the money saved. Paperless administration represents an area of the economy where those nasty paper cuts can be replaced by the press of a button.
About the Author:
Loris F. Anders is an office management specialist focused on optimizing workflow processes in document management. If you would like to learn more about paperless office, she recommends you check out Docufree.
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