Go Paperless And Go Forward

By Tom Bright, CEO, Field2Base

The costs of using paper are higher than you think.

Do you know what you’re spending on paper? Most likely, it’s more than you think. Paperintensive companies may be surprised to discover how many unrecoverable dollars fly out the door for paper-related expenditures, including paper, stamps, storage, labor, and capital expenses. Not to mention circulation and management of paper-based processes, which are often slow and could possibly diminish overall employee productivity.

Ask yourself:

1. What is the average number of forms completed by your field workers each day?
2. How many miles does a field worker typically travel in a day to traffic work orders?
3. How long does it take for a field worker to travel to the home office to deliver paper work orders?
4. How much time is spent completing paper forms correctly?

It’s evident how paper-dependent organizations struggle with spiraling costs, chronic inefficiencies, and errors and have little flexibility in their workflows. We help companies go paperless and, in turn, boost ROI.

The Benefits Of Going Paperless
Crossing the “paperless” threshold and implementing a seamless automated process management system is the direct action for eliminating the cost of paper and paperrelated products. It helps reduce manual processing of documents, improves business processes, and enables organizations to scale with minimal growing pains.

Companies wanting to make their organizations more competitive and run more efficiently will see immediate benefit upon implementing a paperless system. Employees are more productive. Information is easily accessed, shared, and managed. Meeting compliance with HIPAA or Sarbanes Oxley, for example, becomes easier.

Companies that have gone paperless have reported:

• Reduced mailing, postage, and shipping costs: A paperless solution cuts costs associated with document delivery to and from customers or vendors. Files are transmitted instantly.
• Improved personnel utilization: A paper-free process management system boosts employee productivity. No more looking for old or lost files. No more time spent making copies.
• Lower equipment expenses: Going paperless eliminates the need to purchase and maintain expensive printers and fax machines. This further reduces labor and operations costs while also freeing up valuable office space.
• Simpler storage solutions: Substituting electronic repositories for filing cabinets helps eliminate long-term storage space issues and creates room for growth.
• Improved workflow: Paperless automation makes it easier to manage high volumes of orders, documents, and invoices. No more getting lost in the paper weeds.
• Fewer reporting errors: Having the ability to quickly scan, classify, recognize, validate and verify data reduces errors, eliminates rework, and drives productivity.

Additionally, companies that go paperless may also realize “soft dollar” benefits that lead to intangible savings and/or growth opportunities. These include but are not limited to better customer service, environmental savings, improved security and compliance, disaster recovery protections, increased market share, higher employee retention, and the ability to bring products to market faster.

Paperless Is The New Way Forward
If you haven’t gone paperless yet, now is the time. Paperless systems offer untold benefits and a positive return on investment. Reducing paper-based costs equates to a direct increase in profitability, longterm cost savings, and greater efficiency. Converting reports, invoices, POs, as well as single and multipart preprinted forms into paperless documents, saves time and improves customer relations. Paperless systems also allow issues to be resolved more quickly and keep your organization from getting bogged down.

We look forward to continuing this conversation at Field Service USA on April 19th for Track C: Service Innovation, “Don’t be a Paper Pusher: #GoPaperless to Reduce Operational Costs and Accelerate Processes” at 2:50 p.m.