3 / 8
SUMMER 2017
3
business
solutions
Save time and trees
by becoming a
reduced-paper office
PARE
DOWN
PAPER
T
he goal of a paperless office isn’t
entirely far-fetched, but it’s not
entirely realistic either. Rather
than trying to go completely paperless,
aim to become a reduced-paper office.
This is relatively easy to achieve and still
yields many benefits including reducing
costs, increasing efficiencies, helping the
environment, and reducing clutter. Creat-
ing a reduced-paper office involves shift-
ing processes and learning new skills. For
best results, consider the following areas:
Planning
Thinking ahead can mean the differ-
ence between making your life easier
or more difficult.
• Decide about what you hope to achieve
by reducing paper use.
Which pro-
cesses can be most easily automated
and will save you the most time?
Which are currently taking up the
most space? Start by converting one
area of your business and then move
to others.
• Consider the additional costs for
storage space.
Storing electronic
documents may require increased
storage space or additional servers.
• Discuss how new processes will affect
each employee.
Make sure everyone
understands and is on board with the
switchover, and that employees have
time for conversion activities.
• Leave plenty of time for the conver-
sion.
Set realistic goals in terms of how
many documents to process per day,
week, or month.
Equipment
The key to paper reduction is converting
hard-copy documents into electronic files.
To do this, you need specific equipment,
some of which you may already own:
• Scanner.
Look for one that is fast and
allows automatic sheet feeding and
duplexing. Additional software may be
needed to operate it.
• Shredder.
Find one that can handle
large volumes and is reasonably secure.
• Off-Site Data Backup.
Make sure to
protect critical data and electronic files
with a secure offsite data backup service.
• Document Management System.
This
feature is part of software programs and
enables you to “tag” files with informa-
tion that can be used to track them later.
Workflow
Now that you have everything in place to
convert your documents into electronic
files, use a process that will make the
most of it:
• Devise a filing system.
Make sure
you know how to categorize each elec-
tronic file, and post it in the appropriate
folder immediately.
• Develop and follow a regular
backup routine.
With no paper
duplicates, backing up electronic
files becomes critical.
• Maintain procedures for hard-copy
documents.
Keep them as long as
necessary to fulfill compliance require-
ments and then shred them.
Looking for data backup services?
Ask about SafetyNET Assure
solutions from Networks Plus.