Paperless office and Cost Cutting

Question: Discuss about thePaperless Office and Cost Cutting. Answer: The Literature Review: The vision of the high quality, creativity, and efficiency, are the main ingredients of a profitable or successful business. The companies or businesses are paying emphasis on the factors that are affecting the profit and the growth. The companies are also seeking different ways to the internal operation and the growth of the company. The management is increasingly finding that the reduction of the paper consumption in the companies not only increases the efficiency but also helps in the cost cutting. Additionally, the less consumption of the paper may also help in earning a reputation for being conscious for the environmental changes. According to the theorist Lui and Stork, a paperless office was comparatively more distant when the concept came into the existence. Paper always remains the popular medium of documentation due to its tangibility, credibility, ease of use, compatibility, and portability with all the imaging equipment such as the facsimile units, printers, copiers, and scanners (Andersen, 2008). The research will help in identifying the reasons for still making paper in use in the offices, in spite of the increased popularity of the personal digital assistants and computers. With this the improvements in the technologies related to the mobile computing and screen technology, gives the best electronic alternative. Sellen and Harper also believe, that still the paper is in use as a result of the increased knowledge-based activities from the last few years. The activities which are knowledge based basically uses the mind for controlling and monitoring the information flow (SILVERMAN, 2005). Many of the workers for reading the report, requires the hard copy, so that they can, make notes or mark them up andcollaboratively bring both the mind and hands in the activities of the intensive document. It is believed by the researchers that unless the improvements in the technology make the documents of the digital annotating equivalent and easy as compared to the annotating paper documents, as this proess is manageable for the individuals to explain each and every document viewed by them. The printing of the paper is not likely to be reduced (Verkuijl, 2004). The only fact is that the individuals usually roll out number of documents whereas, the writing presents an interesting challenge. Going Paperless In the 20th century, the concept of the paperless office started. The people start thinking about the concept and tried to apply it in their business. This concept of the paperless office was firstly predicted in one of the article of the business week in the year 1975 The Office of the Future", and in the year 1980, this resulted into the buzzword. This concept of the paperless office was advent with the computers and it was believed that all the documents of the office are to be processed electronically and the use of the papers in the offices will become irrelevant. Additionally with this many of the new technologies come into the existence, among them main are the desktop publishing, e-mail, the web, systems related to content management, XML, e-books and much more. In the present scenario, the digitisation of the information around the globe and throughout the organisation has helped to manage and secure such information in the digital repositories and the business is driven at very fast speed (Pieper, 2005). It has been also documented by many of the companies. Conclusion: But still, the use of the paper is a predominating activitiy, related to the work, reading, knowledge and also the collaboration related work. The paper is being used as the temporary mediums because the individuals print the documents in use and then discard them rather keeping each and every printed document. Hence, in spite of the advances and all the promises related to less use of the paper still the people are consuming lot of papers in the daily activities and the vision of the paperless office is still an illusion. Paperless Accounting The paperless accounting in the business is based on the electronic transactions and where all documents are recorded electronically. The literature review of the paperless accounting from the academic sources is to be targeted primarily on the positivity of going paperless, and ways to implement it in business. The sources are focused on developing such cases for businesses, so that the paperless strategies are being adopted by the offices. Still, the paper is the widely used medium for the documentation, due to easy going benefits it is not easy to be replaced and will always coexist with the electronic documents. The usage of the paper cannot be significantly reduced unless the practices of the work are reorganized, and the alternatives of the paper are also be improved. Gragg the theorist further pointed that it is difficult to completely depend upon the electronic documentation due to the increased developments in the software technologies, and hence the usage of the hard copies is unlikely to be removed permanently, but can be reduced to a great extent (Reedman, 2015). It will be also not correct to assume that in fewer offices there will be no printing cost because it will be the need of many of the employees to get the prints of the documents which are sent electronically. In spite, of the concept very large investments are made for obtaining such technology which will help in digital storage of the documents. Nevertheless, it will be true to say in spite of such facts still the usage of the paper in the world is increasing and many of the business are still stuck to the documentation through paper. Even though the business who has invested largely in the technology for automating their business processes still depend upon the paperwork largely. For example, it is very general to see some of the executives printing the email correspondences hard copies (O'Connor, 2014). The shipping and the Logistics companies still require the hard copies of the bills for the certificates and the landing on the goods. The tax authorities and the banks also till time require the hard copies of the documents for the hand-signed institutional. Environmentally friendly will also help in achieving the aim of reducing the companies costs eventually. Conclusion: Hence, we can conclude that the concept of the paper accounting in the businesses is the concept which is widely known all over the globe. But in a survey, it was observed that the awareness and the adoption of the process paperless accounting among the people is still very less. Printing the Documents Electronically Nowadays, the communication and the information technologies are providing many of the new opportunities for the functioning of the businesses with the less usage of the paper. Intranets, Electronic mail, and the document scanners will help to reduce the usage of the paper step by step and will also help in saving the money and time. In one of the estimate it was cleared that the usage of the available technology may help in the reduction of the paper up to 10-30 % (Giles, 2012). Below are few examples of utilizing the computer for eliminating paper usage; Usage of the electronic means for the communication with the customers; E- mails to be used instead of using the faxes and the memo for the interoffice communications. Use of the electronic communications for the forms, bulletins, reports, manuals and the storages when possible. Copying of the images on the both sides of the paper sheet is also one of the processes which can help in saving the consumption of the paper up to 50 % (Havard, 2015). This process of e using the paper as Duplexing helps in saving the money on the purchase of new paper and in the mailing and storage purposes. The duplex copies are also easy to staple and fold. Conclusion: This usage of the technology will not only results in the less consumption of paper but will also help in reducing the expenses of the organisations. The use of the electronic technology is to be adopted by the business on the large scale for the great changes in the usage of the papers in the business and ultimately achieving the goal of cost cutting in the business. Paperless Office from Customer Perspective The comprehensive development of the electronic solutions enables the clients to access their doubts and queries, refer the company computers much more easily even without any kind of the hurdle by the staff of the company. This has already been evident in the insurance and the banking industries, here the clients have the immediate use of the bank statements plus they can also file insurance claims which they receive almost quickly or immediately. The paperless offices can generate important clients service effects, which serves them around 24/7 access refer the information. So, the idea, on one hand, benefits the company refer the saving of the cost and may also direct the benefits to the clients of the company (Connolly and Kleiner, 1993). When an organisation decreases its cost of operation in the areas which are discussed above, it could also very effectively pass these kinds of the benefits onto their clients by decreasing rates and also offering loyalty incentives and much mor e. The company which is comparatively efficient shall also serve to the clients efficiently as well. Refer the doctor's need and requirement; these services may help them take a much effective step at the very last stage or step. These huge services to the clients shall definitely result in some kinds of the additional referrals plus also repeat the visits of the patient, augment the profits in the time to come. It is significant in all kinds of the companies to remain very competitive (DeVries and Kiger, 2005). The organizations may also maintain the competitiveness by decreasing the costs and also keeping their concerned clients happy. The cost of the equipment of the companies may also be reduced. The environmental services, 24/7 kind of the document access plus the better client service are all kinds of the aspects refer the paperless operations which are understood and realized by the clients. Conclusion: It is believed by many of the practitioners and researchers that the businesses must opt for the paperless processes in their strategies. These strategies will help in the success of the companies with the cost cutting in the companys expenses. With the growth of the company the transactions of the companies increases which will need the system related process for applying paperless processes for the business. Hence the options of the paper fewer offices will be the aim of the business to be achieved. This concept of the paperless office will not only result in the increased efficiency of the companies but also helps in lowering the costs of the companies. According to the Brian Steinert, a software specialist, the cost cutting has to be the primary objective of many of the vendors who are considering the considering the concept of the paperless offices. References Aftergut, K. (2008). The Truly Paperless Dermatology Office.Arch Dermatol, 144(12). Andersen, E. (2008). Time to get serious about the paperless office.Ubiquity, 2008(April), pp.1-2. Connolly, T. and Kleiner, B. (1993). The Paperless Office of the Future.Logistics Information Mngt, 6(5), pp.40-43. DeVries, D. and Kiger, J. (2005). The risks of ?paperless? bank checks.J. Corp. Acct. Fin., 16(4), pp.49-55. Giles, J. (2012). Going paperless: The digital lab.Nature, 481(7382), pp.430-431. Havard, J. (2015). The paperless NHS at the front line.BMJ, p.h4171. O'Connor, K. (2014). 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