What’s your biggest pet peeve? If you ask me – it’s dealing with bad drivers. I recently encountered a bad driver when a car was swerving next to me on the interstate. When I got a closer look at the car I realized the driver was actually shaving his beard while driving! I honestly couldn’t believe it! His crazy attempt at multitasking left me feeling unsettled and completely frustrated.
You probably have pet peeves that leave you feeling the same way. One pet peeve we can all agree on is paper build-up in our office spaces. Even though there has been a widespread acceptance of reducing and removing paper, there are still large amounts of paper taking over our offices.
The Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) recently published an “Information Management in 2016 and Beyond” white paper that highlights statistics to help organizations take steps to become paperless. The study AIIM conducted found that only 17 percent of respondents actually work in a paper free office, while 31 percent admit that their office is piled high with documents resulting from paper-intensive processes.
The organizations working hard to remove paper clutter are seeing strong competitive advantages. The study shows that organizations who are scanning and capturing data are improving their searchability and shareability by a whopping 53 percent. Other advantages include higher productivity, reduced storage space, and faster response time.
On the other hand, the organizations who are taking their time to join the paper-free trend are doing so for careless reasons – 49 percent of the respondents said their office has so much clutter because their management doesn’t take the necessary initiatives to change. Even more startling, 39 percent feel that there’s just a general lack of knowledge when it comes to paper-free options.
Whether you’re on the right track or hesitant toward going paperless, there are simple ways you can remove the clutter. Start with small changes in your processes, such as removing mark-up copies or replacing physical approval signatures with electronic ones. Even small steps like these are small steps in the right direction.
The opinions stated in the white paper say it all: 72 percent of the respondents feel that “business at the speed of paper” will not be acceptable in 5 years, and 80 percent agree that paper content and processes are a huge impediment to remote access and teleworking. These statistics prove that now is not the time to fall behind. It’s time to turn piles of paper into clear desks. See more numbers on improving your processes in our infographic, “5 Steps to Going Paperless.”
For more information on how you can drive efficiency in your processes by digitizing your documents, contact one of our business process experts today!
