Simplify paperless initiatives for success

Going paperless has a number of benefits for businesses. Document management solutions can reduce the cost of day to day workflow, improve productivity and enhance operations in many other ways. However, one of the most important advantages that paperless solutions offer is simplification.

According to Finextra, paperless strategies should improve business processes by making workflow and customers' interactions with the company simpler. To achieve maximum success with document management and paperless strategies, a business has to ensure that simplicity is the primary focus, and that it affects both internal and external operations.

However, accomplishing this requires more than a simple investment in digital information management – it also needs an internal paradigm shift in the way the company thinks about its documents and paper, or lack thereof. Traditionally, data is "pushed" by consumer and partner interactions, but now businesses are trying to pull that info, rather than wait for it. According to the news source, this is creating rifts in the success of paperless initiatives and slowing down the flow of information.

Businesses need to consider this paradigm shift when investing in paperless. To get the most out of information management and see a return on that investment, companies have to help employees, partners and customers transition to paperless in a simple yet effective way. Without taking this into consideration, any initiative is bound to suffer, and implementation could take significantly longer than desired.

Going paperless is no simple feat, and for a business to succeed it needs to consider the effects that this switch will have on all areas of operations, not only internal ones. By doing so, not only can time and money be saved, but the company will be able to see the results of such a move that much faster. Rather than make the change difficult and slow down progress, organizations should ensure that operational processes align well with the new way of gathering information. A business has to support a paperless initiative with policies as well as technology to see success.

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