As businesses continue to grow and adapt with the changing times, more are opting to go paperless. The tech world is growing at a rapid rate and creating systems that allow business to streamline their services. The use of paper to share information company-wide seems to be increasingly unnecessary as their electronic siblings take center stage. In fact, it is being proven that businesses can do more with less of a paper trail in today’s environment.
According to Business News Daily just about 80% of business are taking steps to lighten the paper load, with almost 90% of UK business using some kind of cloud storage and sharing service – something that Syntax IT support in London is helping to facilitate.
Pretty much every major tech service is offering some kind of cloud platform for personal use but businesses are embracing the cloud trend. Although ‘trend’ is perhaps the wrong word, as it suggests that cloud services are something that will disappear when in reality it is the future of document gathering and sharing.
But what are some of the benefits for going paperless?
Environmental friendly
Using less paper does help save trees but the less paper you print the less ink you need to use; you are decreasing your footprint when you print less. Electric bills decrease significantly when businesses go paperless. Going paperless doesn’t just mean printing less, and being mindful of what paper is used in your office and when it is so much bigger than that. Going paperless is about being more conscious of what you’re printing and taking note of its purpose. Does there need to be a copy for everyone in the office? It forces you to ask who needs to see this document and why?
Streamlined
Yes, going paperless is good for the environment but it also allows for a more streamlined process. Utilizing digital content in proposals, presentations, and contracts allows for content to be shared with audiences with varying needs. It also allows for many employees to work seamlessly together.
Automatic Audit trail
What happens if you need a document from one, five, or even ten years ago? Well, cloud systems make that easy as well. For almost every businesses compliance is essential to their framework. Cloud data sharing systems helps to modernize this process because there is no limit when it comes to file storage. Furthermore, paper records usually have to be kept stored at an offsite location which creates an additional expense for businesses. Storing files on cloud systems lets important documents be accessed quickly in times of audit or reporting.
Going paperless and the utilization of cloud data sharing systems go hand in hand. The information that once resided on paper has to go somewhere and has to be accessible to all those that need it. Cloud sharing services are the answer to that. There are many benefits to using these systems; the most notable being that they are simple and easy to use. Some additional benefits are:
Low cost
Probably the biggest benefit when it comes to cloud data management systems is the cost, or lack thereof. Most of these services are free or have very low monthly subscriptions for business use. For larger companies their internal IT work with companies to move entire systems over to a cloud database or simply create their own. Syntax IT in London is one of those companies they have created CloudSuite which is a platform that businesses can utilize to streamline their paperless systems.
Easily Accessible
Cloud data services offer many of advantages but arguably one of the best is its accessibility. Documents can be retrieved easily at any time. This may speak for itself but sending an attachment to a client is much easier than printing a document and mailing it or faxing over for approval. Cloud sharing services are taking it to the next level of ease in that you can share documents and entire files with people just by syncing devices. This skips the step of even having to email large documents back and forth.
More and more businesses are allowing their employees leave the office to conduct their work, remote work is increasing and utilizing a cloud service allows for many people to work on the same project from any location in the world. Cloud sharing services ensures that all parties can access anything from almost anywhere. If there is internet you have access to your document. Furthermore, increasingly work is able to be done by smart phones and tablets and sharing services are capitalizing off of that. Many services have apps that can be downloaded onto many devices for users to pull up from anywhere.
Disaster relief
Another great benefit of going paperless is eliminating the risk of disasters destroying crucial documents. Cloud services helps eliminate technological risks as well. The unfortunate thing about technology is that sometimes it fails you. Computers get bugs, and crash and data is lost, even devices like USB and external hard drives can malfunction. Even if computers crash or a natural disaster strike, cloud services provide a solid safety net. They are essentially a back up to a backup because anyone that has been given permission to view and edit a file can pull it up from anywhere. It safeguards against potential disasters, natural and technological. Also security with these services is much higher than keeping paper that perceivable anyone could access. Documents are stored on secured servers that are password protected and can be customized by security levels, given access to only those who have be cleared and need it.
Cloud data systems are definitely here to stay and business would be smart to consider them when considering going paperless. The cloud isn’t completely perfect yet, but is quite on its way to becoming an absolute necessity in the future of business.
[Image via Google Images]
