iDOCcorp Blog

While some concepts require a sophisticated Return on Investment (ROI) analysis to prove their value; not the case with the Paperless Office. The cost savings associated with going paperless are easy for most individuals to comprehend. However, it makes sense to be pragmatic when evaluating significant change in organizational culture.

First of all, the concept of the Paperless Office is not to be taken literally. No office could exist without paper. The goal is to reduce the amount of paper in an office as much as possible, especially the printing and discarding of paper documents needlessly. Following are examples of significant cost savings that are available to organizations that go paperless:

People Costs:
Always the most significant costs to any organization are people costs. People are required to print, file and distribute paper documents. And since people are unfortunately prone to making mistakes, one has to include the costs associated with having to re-perform these functions. Consider the time it takes for an employee to first search for a document that was misfiled, realize that the document isn’t where it should be, notify the affected individuals, and then reprint the document all over again.

Materials Costs:
Paper and Printer Toner are by far the two largest office supplies expense of any organization. Ask 1,000 different employees of well-known office supply giant, Corporate Express, what two products they sell the most of and you’ll get the same answer: paper and toner. These costs are also easily identified and quantified from Accounts Payable invoices. Simple estimates of paper and toner reductions can be easily converted to cost savings that go directly to the bottom line of an organization. Other miscellaneous costs include storage supplies (hanging folders, labels, etc.), shredding costs, archival costs, and mailing costs.

Equipments Costs:
The costs associated with printers, copiers, faxing machines, shredders, and the maintenance to keep them running are all significant office expenditures. Printers, copiers, and fax machines are also sophisticated mechanical devices. We are probably still many years away from being able to manufacture printers that don’t routinely jam and require the assistance of trained individuals. The less that these machines are used, the greater the savings to an organization.

Storage Costs:
Paper documents need to be located in close proximity to workers, which requires extensive amounts of expensive storage space. Most often these storage spaces need to be protected from environmental hazards, such as fire or water damage. They also need to be heated, cooled and de-humidified if documents are to maintain a reasonable shelf-life.

These are just a few of the costs associated with a paper intensive organization. While there are costs associated with implementing and using an Online Document Management solution, such as offered by iDOC, the costs are significantly less than those associated with a heavy reliance on paper documents.

Filed under: Document Management