Is Going Paperless Cost Effective?

Printing is costly and those costs come from a lot of different directions. They come from paper and ink and the fact that printers seem to need constant maintenance. For some businesses, it’s all too much and they are actively looking for ways to go paperless and cut out their printing and filing costs. Today, we will examine whether or not forsaking the troublesome printer is actually cost effective. 

A Couple Reasons to Go Paperless

Obviously, if your business is looking to cut out its printing costs, you’ve identified printing as being prohibitive to your business’ operational budget in some way. It’s true that your average employee doesn’t consider your business’ paper, ink, and printing costs when they print off every document they work on; or worse yet, three-dozen NCAA brackets. They just figure that you’ve got it worked out. So one reason is to obviously cut costs. 

Another reason is that it’s basically unnecessary. Today, most employees, customers, vendors, etc. have access to machines that can function better (and faster) than traditional business document filing strategies. Smartphones, laptops, and other mobile devices all can access databases filled with content much faster and more efficiently than the fastest file clerk can deliver it. While this also cuts costs, relying on always-available digital systems just makes sense in today’s business climate. 

What is a DMS?

A DMS, or Document Management System, is effectively a digital database of all the paper files your employees would ever need, and it is how businesses cut costs from traditional methods of paper-filing and retrieval. With a DMS, your paper documents are scanned and digitized. They are then filed away in a computer database that can be accessed around the clock so that the people that need access to that information, have it on demand.

Many people may not understand just how expensive filing can be for a business. Not only do you have to pay an entire staff of people to constantly file and retrieve paper files, you also need to have a filing system in place that is secure and makes files readily available. Industry averages are about 7-to-12 cents per page to scan and upload to a DMS. This is substantially lower than the printing, payroll, and storage costs of keeping an onsite paper-filing system. 

So while there are still costs involved, they don’t recur at the same rate once the file is scanned and stored inside the DMS. Anyone with access to the database will be able to access the file. Best yet, securing the file is as simple as managing user account access; something that most businesses already do with their digital resources. 

So, How Does DMS Save My Business Money?

It’s simple. Once your files are stored in the DMS, you never have to worry about paying people to physically find a file. All they need to do is search the DMS and the document in question is available almost immediately. Not only that, file redundancy is there. The system comes with a comprehensive backup. Studies have shown that large organizations basically lose a file every six seconds, a problem you will avoid with a properly-functioning DMS. 

To talk to one of our experts about the possibility of managing your printing costs, and how a document management system helps in keeping those costs down, give our IT professionals a call today at 253.777.0763.