A Guide to Going Paperless
Introduction
The paperless office is being transformed from a much ridiculed cliché into a cost saving reality. Especially now it ties in with worries about the ecological consequences of endless printed paper documents and forms. One in six pages printed in the workplace is never used – the equivalent of over 1.2 million average sized trees – according to printer supplier, Lexmark. Yet a Capita survey into paper use in the UK found that 47 per cent of offices store more than 50 per cent of their documents in paper format.
Businesses that survived the dotcom crash have already taken action to cut their outgoings significantly. Yet many have also overlooked the cost of document production which, according to research done by Gartner, accounts for between one and three per cent of a company’s total annual revenue. IDC says it’s more like five per cent.
If a business can cut down significantly on the amount of paper it uses, then there are obvious savings to be had on the costs associated with printer consumables and postage.
If a business can cut down significantly on the amount of paper it uses, then there are obvious savings to be had on the costs associated with printer consumables and postage. That’s a major advantage given that the UK’s Royal Mail is moving towards a more complicated system which charges for size as well as distance from August 21st.
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