Back to all BlogsBusy, Successful Companies Generate A Lot Of Paperwork…
Too much of this paperwork reduces the efficiency of your business and can slow down processes such as data collection, storage and retrieval, as well as being prone to errors and having issues with security. There are several reasons to become a paperless business, and below we discuss some of the reasons to do so today!
1. Save Money & Time
Becoming a paperless business saves money in so many ways. It eradicates the production of resources needed for paper forms and reports, including the paper itself and packaging required. The printing costs and money spent transporting relevant documents from place to place are also saved by going paper free, as well as the storage costs to file and keep paper documents. Unsurprisingly, almost 15% of an organisation’s revenue is spent creating, managing and distributing paper files. It is also estimated that most companies could reduce their printing costs by 10% – 30%*.
The time consuming processes involved in capturing data manually, transporting it back to the office, data re-entry, scanning, storage, etc can be replaced by digital processes. The average UK small business owner spends 16 hours a week on paperwork – almost 50% of their time, so working with mobility apps allows you to not only save money on these costly paper forms, but allows your staff to focus their time elsewhere. This in turn, saves your business more money, by becoming increasingly more productive and efficient.
2. Less Room For Error
A windy building site, a spilt cup of tea – there are several hazards within a workplace or in the field which can lead to precious forms being damaged or even lost. Having your workflows and tasks, reports, audits – whatever it might be, on a digital platform reduces these potential hazards as all of the documentation is stored digitally, safely out of harm’s way. Other factors such as deciphering scribbled handwriting or misunderstanding of written information may also contribute to errors. In fact, the cost of human error to businesses in the US & UK is estimated to be £24 billion*. By going digital, you ensure information is not having to be re-entered and allows both the employer and employee to be able to access and manage the data quickly and easily.
3. Faster Information In Real Time
With traditional paper based methods, tasks are given to an employee and the data from the field is captured manually. This is then eventually returned to the office to be re-entered into the system where it can then be accessed by anyone. This process could take hours, days or even weeks, depending on the system in place. With a mobile digital process this information, whether it be text, images, signatures or otherwise, can be captured, stored and sent back to the office in real time. This enables all tasks, jobs and projects to instantly be accessible for all those involved much quicker than transporting lengthy paper forms back and forth. This once again, increases productivity and efficiency throughout a task.
4. Be Productive Offline
With the time saving element of reducing your paperwork through the ability to capture and send information back to the office in real time – some, but not all paperless systems allow you to work fully offline. With a mobility application such as Klipboard, you are able to complete all your tasks and workflows completely offline, in which you can gather all the relevant data without having to have a connection in order to do so. When sending this information back to the office, a connection is required, however, it means that you can complete tasks in remote locations, ideal for business with workers in the field who are perhaps in an unusual location or having difficulty with connectivity.
5. Easily Store & Locate Information
No need for lengthy filing processes, storage systems and time wasting searches for the correct document! Storing files in a digital format means time and patience is saved. A search tool allows you to instantly navigate and locate the task or document you were looking for and as all the information is stored on a central location, access can be given to those necessary – although security can be controlled on this. Klipboard allows for unlimited storage of files so never again does the filing cabinet need organising or money spent on external storage units.
6. Schedule & Manage Efficiently
For a company, being able to digitally manage and oversee their employees means they can make sure staff are as productive as possible and allows a manager to run a project without having to be on site. For an employee, technology enables information to be captured more quickly and easily. With mobility applications such as Klipboard, you can send scheduled and unscheduled tasks to employees in the field or on the move within the workplace, enable location mapping for route finding, send notifications and generally keep track of staff and their work rate. It enhances communication between head office and those working in the field, creating ease of the task in hand.
7. Be Confident With Security
The security of information is always of high importance, capturing information on paper is a legitimate and significant potential security threat. What happens if a document on paper is lost, damaged or stolen? How safe are the storage units where your documents are kept, and furthermore, how much is this costing you? Capturing and storing data in a digital format, reduces these risks dramatically. A platform such as Klipboard, allows you to rest easy, knowing that you are able to keep your confidential data secure and protected from risks at all times.
8. Motivate Your Employees
The use of mobility applications within a business is becoming more and more popular, not just because of the ease of use, improvement in productivity and implications on the environment, but also to improve the working lives of the employees. After all, a lot more comes from a happy employee! With 55% of UK SME’s citing admin as their biggest hate*, you can empower your staff by using new, intuitive technology which will demonstrate that they are valued by you and worthy of investment. Eliminating the headache of using paper on a daily basis as well as the time spent filing, will help to increase morale and productivity, as well and ultimately, improve employee retention.
Going paperless really does offer multiple benefits to your business, not only through employee motivation and productivity, time and money saved, but also importantly through the experience your customers will receive. The competitive world of business means you need to stay ahead and before too long, being mobile will be essential to the success of your business.
