Paperless Office

SAY NO TO PAPERS & YES TO DIGITAL INDIA...!!!!

 

The first thing that comes to our mind on reading this topic is why? Why do we
need PAPERLESS OFFICE?
 

Have you ever wondered what a world without trees would look like? Close your
eyes, and try to imagine a desolate Earth. There'd be no more trees, and everyone
would have to resort to artificial systems-that too if anyone would stay alive
because trees are a crucial factor to our existence not only they produce paper,
lumber or chewing gum, but because they serve an important role in the carbon
cycle which is important for our respiration process. It is well known that use of
papers in office is getting costlier and harmful day by day. Piling of stack of papers
also creates a jungle in our office for inefficient working. Moreover, we destroy
more & more of natural resources like bamboos etc. required for manufacture of
papers.  In this way by depleting our natural resources, we tend to disturb our
ecology.  We become victims of Global Warming & day to day pollution. We are
thus planning to leave the planet full of pollution, unhealthy atmosphere,
repeated droughts, floods etc. for our next generation to come. So it has become
very important to avoid use of papers so that the natural equilibrium is
maintained and we preserve and respect our nature for our coming generations.
 

A number of benefits are achieved by going paperless: Reduce

business cost associated with paper, printers, copiers, fax machines, ink and toner
cartridges. Eliminate filing cabinets and reduce office space. Conduct business in a
mobile environment resulting in faster responses to customers.
 

A paperless office (or paper-free office) is a work environment in which the use of

paper is eliminated or greatly reduced. This is done by converting documents and
other papers into digital form, a process known as digitization.
 

Another question that comes in our mind is “Why do we need a “Digital India”??
What can help us to make India digital and paperless?
 

So here is the Answer.

 

“Business leaders today emphasize on Document imaging as the first step

towards removing papers and accepting eco-friendly systems.”
 

The solution to make an organization paperless is docManager®. docManager® is

electronic filing cabinet that provides a framework for organizing all digital and
paper documents. This system work in tandem with scanners, which converts
paper documents into digital versions.
 

Following are the facilities docManager provides being a helping hand towards
paperless office:
 

ECO-FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT: - Did you know that the average firm

processes more than 10,000 pieces of paper each year? That's roughly 20 reams,
or the equivalent of a small tree. Now, imagine if every business went paperless.
We could save entire forests! The eco-friendly benefits of going paperless may
not be as apparent as the savings related to cost and space, but they are
definitely worthwhile. I guess all of us know about the saying “What we give
comes back to us in some way!” So is not harming the nature, cutting the trees for
papers going to harm us back soon?? DocManager leads to a paperless office and
an eco-friendly nature.
 

INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY: - It takes an employee’s an average of 12 minutes to

find the paper document they are looking for. With a well-executed digitalization
and document Management System, this can be reduced to a few seconds or less.
 

COST EFFICIENCY: - The cost of printing and paperwork can be exorbitant. It

involves various sub costs like equipment management, paper records
maintenance; cost of space, manpower, shipping. DMS saves a huge amount of
money.
 

EASILY ACCESSIBLE: - Access to any document easily on a single click from any
location at any time from any device with the help of indexing, Searching an
entire library of files by individual keyword with the help of tagging, keeping
records.
 

ENHANCED SECURITY: - A scanned digital document is trackable document. If

needed, only certain users can access the documents and workflows can be set up
along with permission like read, write and edit for an individual by the help of
locking and unlocking, which enhances the security and maintains the
confidentiality of the document. Archiving the documents not used from a long
time.
 

DISASTER RECOVERY: - There is always a risk of disaster, whether it is natural or

manmade. Fire, flood, earthquakes or other destructive phenomenon may cause
 a major disaster for your paper documents seriously affecting your business.
DocManager offers you to have a safe repository of your data.
 

REDUCE THE INFLUX OF MAIL: - Storing documents through stacks of mail might
not take hours out of your day, but it’s nonetheless time consuming. And when
you are done sorting through your mail, you have to throw it will away, shred it or
file it. It may reduce the amount of mail but on the other hand papers get
increased. Instead of all of these you can use the docManager® through which
you can share your documents easily.
 

WORKFLOW MANAGEMENT: - Replicate your document centric business

processes to make them more streamlined, more accurate and less time
consuming. Automate repeatable processes like account payable, leave
applications, order processing, purchase authorizations, etc. Manage documents
viewing and editing rights, according to the hierarchy followed in your
organisation. Add / Remove members in the departments for managing workflow
in the organisation.
 

REMOVE STORAGE SPACE & ALLOWS FILE & FOLDER CREATION: -  The first thing
to determine is where you will keep your files. We recommend docManager®. The
great thing about docManager® is that it store all of your documents and files in
Web Base Centralized system is that you always have a backup and you won’t lose
your files. Even through docManager® you can create your own folder and
maintain your own space for different documents.
 

Your Company can see patterns of benefits with respect to cost and efficiency
across various verticals in the organization. Investment in Document Manager
promises many advantages and an exceptional ROI when going paperless.
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1. Save money and space with a paperless office
Four years ago, independent analyst firm Gartner estimated that filing, storing, and retrieving paper for American businesses cost between $25 billion and $35 billion. This
amount is more than enough to end deforestation in the Amazon forests within 10 years!

Adopting a cloud-based system allows businesses to reduce the cost of paper, printing and copying equipment, fax machines, inks and other office supplies. Imagine all the
office space you could free up when you remove those bulky filing cabinets and boxes of archived folders! You’ll be able to reallocate all that space for more revenue-generating
business processes.

Sign up for a free online database if you want to try building database apps without dipping into your budget. Scale up your subscription as you grow, so you only pay for what
your organization needs.

2. Streamline processes and document management

Remember that time when you had to wait for your colleague to go over a report that’s been sitting on his desk before being able to review its contents yourself? Or all that time
you spent in over countless filing cabinets looking for copies of an important transaction?

A proper and organized online digital document management system eliminates the time wasted waiting for everyone else to view one document because you’ll all be able to
access the file at the same time. Searching for archived files will also take no more than a few clicks.
 3. Faster and more efficient client communication
Forbes reported that digital transformation has enabled businesses to become more customer-centric. Digital transformation goes beyond digitizing processes and has moved
towards the realm of planning priorities and strategies. Technological innovations over the last few decades have enabled customers to become more empowered and
assertive, offering huge opportunities for companies to connect and develop lasting relationships with their clients.

Investing in a customer relationship management application instantly changes the company-client dynamic. Identifying the needs and wants of customers become easier with
email, chat and social media. Integrating customer insights into business strategies also becomes less complicated.

4. Enable a mobile workforce

No more cumbersome fax machines and unreliable document couriers. All you need are mobile devices and photo-scanning apps that allow you to effortlessly back up reports
while offsite and send them to your colleagues back at the office.

A paperless office gives you the power to work on urgent tasks while in transit or work remotely while taking care of your child. Your business functions will never be disrupted
and your employees will thank you.

5. Disaster-proof your documents

Unpredictable events such as fires and hurricanes have the potential to wipe out important documents in an instant. Saving and maintaining electronic files in a secure and
reliable online database allows for multiple backup points. Pre-scheduled automatic backups eliminate time wasted on manual backups using physical storage devices.

6. Stronger data security

Gone are the days of locking filing cabinets and shredding paper. It’s now safer and more convenient to protect confidential customer information using data encryption and
other cloud security measures depending on your needs.

7. Care for the environment

Lastly, going paperless is more than just reducing paper. It means less electronic waste and less energy consumption. At the end of the day, a paperless office is an eco-friendly
office.

Paperless office
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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A paperless office (or paper-free office) is a work environment in which the use of

paper is eliminated or greatly reduced. This is done by converting documents and other
papers into digital form, a process known as digitization. Proponents claim that "going
paperless" can save money, boost productivity, save space, make documentation and
information sharing easier, keep personal information more secure, and help the
environment. The concept can be extended to communications outside the office as
well.

Contents

 1Definition

 2History

 3Environmental impact of paper

 4Environmental impact of electronics

 5Eliminating paper via automation and electronic forms automation

 6Digitizing paper-based documents

 7Securing and tracing documents

 8Difficulties in adopting the paperless office

 9See also

 10References

 11Further reading

 12External links
Definition[edit]
The paperless world was a publicist's slogan, intended to describe the office of the
future. It was facilitated by the popularization of video display computer terminals like
the 1964 IBM 2260. An early prediction of the paperless office was made in a
1975 Business Week article.  The idea was that office automation would make paper
[1]

redundant for routine tasks such as record-keeping and bookkeeping, and it came to

prominence with the introduction of the personal computer. While the prediction of a PC
on every desk was remarkably prophetic, the "paperless office" was not. Improvements
in printers and photocopiers made it much easier to reproduce documents in bulk,
causing the worldwide use of office paper to more than double from 1980 to 2000.  This
[2]

was attributed to the increased ease of document production  and widespread use of
[2]

electronic communication, which resulted in users receiving large numbers of

documents that were often printed out. However, since about 2000, at least in the US,
the use of office paper has leveled off and is now decreasing, which has been attributed
to a generation shift;  younger people are believed  to be less inclined to print out
[2] [by whom?]

documents, and more inclined to read them on a full-color interactive display screen. [citation

 According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the average office

needed]

worker generates approximately two pounds of paper and paperboard products each
day. [3]

The term "The Paperless Office" was first used in commerce by Micronet, Inc., an
automated office equipment company, in 1978. [4]

History[edit]
Traditional offices have paper-based filing systems, which may include filing cabinets,
folders, shelves, microfiche systems, and drawing cabinets, all of which require
maintenance, equipment, considerable space, and are resource-intensive. In contrast, a
paperless office could simply have a desk, chair, and computer (with a modest amount
of local or network storage), and all of the information would be stored in digital
form. Speech recognition and speech synthesis could also be used to facilitate the
storage of information digitally.
Once computer data is printed on paper, it becomes out-of-sync with computer
database updates. Paper is difficult to search and arrange in multiple sort
arrangements, and similar paper data stored in multiple locations is often difficult and
costly to track and update. A paperless office would have a single-source collection
point for distributed database updates, and a publish-subscribe system. Modern
computer screens make reading less exhausting for the eyes; a laptop computer can be
used on a couch or in bed. With tablet computers and smartphones, with many other
low-cost value-added features like video animation, video clips, and full-length movies,
many argue that paper is now obsolete to all but those who are resistant to
technological change. eBooks are often free or low cost compared to hard-copy books.
Others argue that paper will always have a place because it affords different uses than
screens. [5]

Environmental impact of paper[edit]

Main article: Environmental impact of paper

Some believe that paper product manufacturing contributes significantly

to deforestation and man-made climate change, and produces greenhouse gases.
Others argue that paper product manufacturing, especially in North America, supports
the ecological and economic balance of sustainable forestry. According to the
2018 American Forest & Paper Association Sustainability Report, paper manufacturing
decreased greenhouse gas emission by 20% in an eleven-year period.  Measures such
[6][7]

as recycling can help reduce the environmental impact of paper. Some paper

production outside of North America may lead to air pollution with the release
of nitrogen dioxide (NO ), sulfur dioxide (SO ),  and carbon dioxide (CO ). Waste water
2 2
[8]
2

discharged from pulp and paper mills outside of North America may contain solids,
nutrients, and dissolved organic matter that are classified as pollutants. Nutrients such
as nitrogen and phosphorus can cause or exacerbate eutrophication of fresh water
bodies.
Printing inks and toners are very expensive and use environment-damaging volatile
organic compounds, heavy metals and non-renewable oils, although standards for the
amount of heavy metals in ink have been set by some regulatory bodies. [9]

 Deinking recycled paper pulp results in a waste slurry, sometimes weighing 22% of

[which?]

the weight of the recycled wastepaper, which may go to landfills. [10]

Environmental impact of electronics[edit]

Main article: Electronic waste

A paperless work environment requires an infrastructure of electronic components to

enable the production, transmission, and storage of information.  The industry that
[11]

produces these components is one of the least sustainable and most environmentally
damaging sectors in the world.  The process of manufacturing electronic hardware
[12]

involves the extraction of precious metals and the production of plastic on an industrial

scale.  The transmission and storage of digital data is facilitated by data centers, which
[13]

consume significant amounts of the electricity supply of a host country. [14]

Eliminating paper via automation and electronic forms

automation[edit]
The need for paper is eliminated by using online systems, such as replacing index cards
and rolodexes with databases, typed letters and faxes with email, and reference books
with the internet.  Another way to eliminate paper is to automate paper-based processes
[15]

that rely on forms, applications and surveys to capture and share data. This method is
referred to as "electronic forms" or e-forms and is typically accomplished by using
existing print-perfect documents in electronic format to allow for prefilling of existing
data, capturing data manually entered online by end-users, providing secure methods to
submit form data to processing systems, and digitally signing the electronic documents
without printing.
The technologies that may be used with electronic forms automation include –

 Portable Document Format (PDF) – to create, display and interact with electronic
documents and forms
 E-form (electronic form) management software – to create, integrate and route forms and
form data with processing systems
 Databases – to capture data for prefilling and processing documents
 Workflow platforms – to route information, documents and direct process flow
 E-mail (electronics email) communication which allows sending and receiving information of
all kinds and enable attachments
 Digital signature solutions – to digitally sign documents (used by end-users)
 Web servers – to host the process, receive submitted data, store documents and manage
document rights
One of the main issues that has kept companies from adopting paperwork automation is
difficulty capturing digital signatures in a cost-effective and compliant manner. The E-
Sign Act of 2000 in the United States provided that a document cannot be rejected on
the basis of an electronic signature and required all companies to accept digital
signatures on documents. Today there are sufficient cost-effective options available,
including solutions that do not require end-users to purchase hardware or software.
One of the great benefits of this type of software is that OCR (Optical character
recognition) can be used, which enables the user to search the full text of any file.
Additionally, user-defined tags can be added to each file to make it easier to locate
certain files throughout the entire system.
Some paperless software offers a scanner, hardware and software and works
seamlessly in separating and organizing important documents. Paperless software
might also allow people to enable online signatures for important documents that can be
used in any small business or office. Document management and archiving systems do
offer some methods of automating forms. Typically, the point in which document
management systems start working with a document is when the document is scanned
and/or sent into the system. Many document management systems include the ability to
read documents via optical character recognition and use that data within the document
management system's framework. While this technology is essential to achieving a
paperless office  it does not address the processes that generate paper in the first
[15]

place.

Digitizing paper-based documents[edit]

Another key aspect of the paperless office philosophy is the conversion of paper
documents, photos, engineering plans, microfiche and all the other paper based
systems to digital documents. Technologies that may be used for this include scanners,
digital mail solutions, book copiers, wide format scanners (for engineering
drawings), microfiche scanners, fax to PDF conversion, online post offices, multifunction
printers and document management systems. Each of these technologies
uses software that converts the raster formats (bitmaps) into other forms depending on
need. Generally, they involve some form of image compression technology that
produces smaller raster images or use optical character recognition (OCR) to convert a
document into text. A combination of OCR and raster is used to enable search ability
while maintaining the original form of the document. An important step is the labeling
related to paper-to-digital conversion and the cataloging of scanned documents. Some
technologies have been developed to do this, but they generally involve either human
cataloging or automated indexing on the OCR document. However, scanners and
software continue to improve with the development of small, portable scanners that are
able to scan doubled-sided A4 documents at around 30-35ppm to a raster format
(typically TIFF fax 4 or PDF).
An issue faced by those wishing to take the paperless philosophy to the limit has
been copyright laws. These laws may restrict the transfer of documents protected by
copyright from one medium to another, such as converting books to electronic format.

Securing and tracing documents[edit]

As awareness of identity theft and data breaches became more widespread, new laws
and regulations were enacted, requiring companies that manage or store personally
identifiable information to take proper care of those documents. Paperless office
systems are easier to secure than traditional filing cabinets,  and can track individual [16]

accesses to each document.

Difficulties in adopting the paperless office[edit]

A major difficulty in "going paperless" is that much of a business's communication is
with other businesses and individuals, as opposed to just being internal. Electronic
communication requires both the sender and the recipient to have easy access to
appropriate software and hardware. Costs and temporary productivity losses when
converting to a paperless office are also a factor, as are government regulations,
industry standards, legal requirements, and business policies which may also slow
down the change. Businesses may encounter technological difficulties such as file
format compatibility, longevity of digital documents, system stability, and employees and
clients not having appropriate technological skills.
For these reasons, while there may be a reduction of paper, some uses of paper will
likely remain indefinitely.  However, a 2015 questionnaire  suggested that nearly half of
[17] [18]

small/medium-sized businesses believed they were or could go paperless by the end of

that year.
Advantages & Disadvantages of a Paperless Office
With the continuing advance of technology, one of the more recent trends of the 21st century has been the so-called paperless office. A
paperless office is not actually completely paperless, but rather uses a minimum of paper and converts as much documentation as possible to
digital form. A paperless office has both advantages and disadvantages, both of which should be considered by an organization considering a
transition from conventional record keeping.