Workflow Automation Software

Millennia Group Blog

Is this the real end of paper?

The paperless office concept has been talked about for years.  In fact, at least for all of the 25 years that Millennia Group has been in business with that as our focus.  But, here we are and our facility is full of boxes of paper documents that our clients want scanned.  And more boxes arrived today.

But now the concept is no office, not just no paper.  So if there isn’t an office, that pretty much means no paper, right?  What else does it mean?

There is scanning work to be done.  If there was an office and now there will be no office, then any legacy paper files will need to be scanned.  This is achievable with either internal or external resources.  Scan, verify and then destroy the original paper documents.  Unless those paper documents happen to be negotiable securities or documents that are legally required to be in paper form.  Keep those somewhere safe.  This effort is probably long overdue anyway.

There is communication that needs to happen.  All clients, vendors, partners, etc. will need to be notified to never send anything via mail or overnight delivery.  Only send documents digitally.  And if they send documents digitally, send it to specific email addresses only.  Or they can send paper to a PO Box that can be picked up daily, scanned and routed via digital mailroom functions.  And they can send email into that same managed digital mailroom.  The point here is don’t lose information!

There are file cabinets to get rid of.  Getting rid of the file cabinets isn’t the real story here.  The real story is that you need to upgrade your electronic document management system.  No longer will an unmanaged, easy to use but no controls solution work.  If nothing else, those old file cabinets were for critical documents and company records that had to stay organized and safe.  Invest in a document management system that has content input controls and records management functionality.

If having no office is not in your future plans, these “To Do’s” should still resonate.  Very likely your company will have a more flexible or distributed workforce in the future.  Having a digital centric game plan, aka paperless, will be the best approach to future proof your business.  The bottom line is you will need to get digital, develop digital centric processes and then focus on your digital organization solution.  No office or beach office, whatever your plan is.  Get it done.

Millennia Group provides workflow and document management solutions including document conversion services.  For information – www.mgdocs.com, info@mgdocs.com.