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Avoiding the Top 5 Pitfalls When Choosing to Go Paperless
January 13, 2012 1:58 am
So you've made the decision to go paperless? Congratulations! That filing cabinet of papers in the guest room can now be eliminated. Whether in an office or at home, the ubiquitous paper giant looms over everyone and promises to rob them of precious time and resources. Most are in a hurry to get this problem under control. Choosing a good electronic document system and even some new hardware, like a fast scanner, may be necessary to get started.
There are several factors involved when selecting a solution. Without proper preparation and consideration of all your needs, you may select a paperless tool that cannot grow with you. Below are 5 pitfalls and some meaningful advice to help avoid them when attempting to go paperless:
Pitfall 1. Doing more work to be paperless than necessary. Go paperless only where possible and practical. If situations cost too much time or money, it probably isn't worth doing so. If you're too busy to make the change, you are best off waiting. However, look for a paperless solution that can offer hands on service to capture and shred the current paper mess. More importantly the solution should be able to help you. Keep the effort going with a simple method to continually capture documents in regular intervals.
Pitfall 2. Letting paper pile up. When looking at a mound of paper covered in a month's worth of dust, it becomes very difficult to imagine that the information there could be important. The problem is that people often don't review paper as it comes into their hectic lives. Identifying a solution that can provide physical assistance with sorting through paper is a must. Consider using the “keep or discard” method. As soon as a piece of mail or other paper is received, decide immediately whether to keep it or discard it and stack them in two separate piles. A little bit of this everyday beats waiting until the paper piles out of control.
Pitfall 3. Using too many tools at once. Scanners, cameras, smartphones, cloud resources, computer and phone software are everywhere. Many become overwhelmed with the resources and often cannot settle on the best one. The new paperless user winds up with a fragmented and sometimes duplicated electronic filing system. It is necessary to determine what functions are most important and prioritize the tool selections focusing on those that provide most of what is needed.
Pitfall 4. To store on the cloud or to store onsite. That is the question. Both choices offer considerable benefits, but come with an equally disturbing number of challenges. Storing at home or in the office is very safe when using an encrypted hard-drive and a frequent, consistent backup schedule is implemented. The solution is often a one time and low cost outlay for hardware. The challenge is that like most electronic devices, no one can predict when they are going to fail. And it is just a matter of when, not if. Online document storage offers a sound solution as long as paying a regular monthly fee is acceptable. Cloud systems rarely lose data and they are very secure. Check for those that are used in larger businesses or financial institutions with government recommended security protocols. The cloud solution should be robust but easy to use.
Pitfall 5. Printing stored documents rather than using alternative read or share methods. This has got to be one of the most confounding challenges with going paperless today. Many professionals are still printing documents to review, approve and route throughout an organization. Although this style takes up precious resources, it is a very challenging habit to break. Everyone in the organization will need to commitment to the idea of embracing a no waste attitude. If done successfully, hundreds or thousands of dollars can be saved in printing equipment and services.
Anyone can learn to review documents without printing them. Over a short period of time most will find it easier to scan through information on a screen rather than print. Running a quick search for keywords in an online document is simple on screen, as opposed to scanning through printed pages for keywords.
For more information, visit PaperErasers.com.
There are several factors involved when selecting a solution. Without proper preparation and consideration of all your needs, you may select a paperless tool that cannot grow with you. Below are 5 pitfalls and some meaningful advice to help avoid them when attempting to go paperless:
Pitfall 1. Doing more work to be paperless than necessary. Go paperless only where possible and practical. If situations cost too much time or money, it probably isn't worth doing so. If you're too busy to make the change, you are best off waiting. However, look for a paperless solution that can offer hands on service to capture and shred the current paper mess. More importantly the solution should be able to help you. Keep the effort going with a simple method to continually capture documents in regular intervals.
Pitfall 2. Letting paper pile up. When looking at a mound of paper covered in a month's worth of dust, it becomes very difficult to imagine that the information there could be important. The problem is that people often don't review paper as it comes into their hectic lives. Identifying a solution that can provide physical assistance with sorting through paper is a must. Consider using the “keep or discard” method. As soon as a piece of mail or other paper is received, decide immediately whether to keep it or discard it and stack them in two separate piles. A little bit of this everyday beats waiting until the paper piles out of control.
Pitfall 3. Using too many tools at once. Scanners, cameras, smartphones, cloud resources, computer and phone software are everywhere. Many become overwhelmed with the resources and often cannot settle on the best one. The new paperless user winds up with a fragmented and sometimes duplicated electronic filing system. It is necessary to determine what functions are most important and prioritize the tool selections focusing on those that provide most of what is needed.
Pitfall 4. To store on the cloud or to store onsite. That is the question. Both choices offer considerable benefits, but come with an equally disturbing number of challenges. Storing at home or in the office is very safe when using an encrypted hard-drive and a frequent, consistent backup schedule is implemented. The solution is often a one time and low cost outlay for hardware. The challenge is that like most electronic devices, no one can predict when they are going to fail. And it is just a matter of when, not if. Online document storage offers a sound solution as long as paying a regular monthly fee is acceptable. Cloud systems rarely lose data and they are very secure. Check for those that are used in larger businesses or financial institutions with government recommended security protocols. The cloud solution should be robust but easy to use.
Pitfall 5. Printing stored documents rather than using alternative read or share methods. This has got to be one of the most confounding challenges with going paperless today. Many professionals are still printing documents to review, approve and route throughout an organization. Although this style takes up precious resources, it is a very challenging habit to break. Everyone in the organization will need to commitment to the idea of embracing a no waste attitude. If done successfully, hundreds or thousands of dollars can be saved in printing equipment and services.
Anyone can learn to review documents without printing them. Over a short period of time most will find it easier to scan through information on a screen rather than print. Running a quick search for keywords in an online document is simple on screen, as opposed to scanning through printed pages for keywords.
For more information, visit PaperErasers.com.
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Each RE/MAX office is independently owned and operated
RE/MAX 440, PA
Agents Only