Become a Paperless Office
Whether you're a mid-sized corporation trying to go green or a startup business drowning in paperwork, the advantages of switching to paperless office software are numerous. Here's how to make the switch as painlessly as possible.
Steps
- Invest in a Document Management System. Document Management System (DMS) is the core of any good paperless plan. You need to establish guidelines for where electronic documents will be stored, who can access them and from where, how they will be protected, and when they can be safely archived or deleted. Your HR, legal, and financial departments also have governmental regulations they have to follow in this regard. You can create a system like this yourself, or you can purchase document management software] (usually included as a part of a paperless-office-software package) to create a suitable workflow for you.
- Change Printing Habits. Your employees don't need to print all of their electronic data. Encourage an attitude of necessity revolving around printing -- even if that means removing some printers and making the remaining printers less easy to access. It doesn't take a huge drop in convenience to convince most office workers to think twice about printing something unnecessarily. Installing print-management software (again, often part of a good paperless-office-software package) can further direct the document to the most cost-efficient printer on the floor or in the department, saving a few fractions of a cent on every paper printed.
- You should also set your printer to automatic duplex, using both sides of every sheet of paper that comes out of it. Furthermore, install a PDF printer on every computer, allowing users to 'print' anything into a PDF file which is universally recognized and easy to take to any other computer.
- Switch to Digital. Give workers an easy and simple way to scan paper documents so that they can be e-mailed rather than copied multiple times and distributed by hand. Have important archived documents shipped to a professional scanning service and have them send back CDs or data DVDs for archiving. Also, provide a method for faxes to be delivered electronically to your workers' e-mail accounts rather than printed at the fax machine.
- If your employees deal with many documents, it may also reduce printing to provide them with a second monitor -- the ability to compare documents side-by-side on screen can measurably reduce excessive printing.
List of Document Management System Software
- Ricoh Document Management System
- DOCS Open
- Docushare
- AutoEDMS
- Content Central
- Hitachi Enterprise
- Domino.doc
- Panagon
