Eliminating paper is one way to begin business streamlining. Doing things by hand on paper takes a lot of time out of someone's day. It takes time to fill out paperwork. The paperwork may have to be delivered to many different hands throughout the process. At the end of its lifecycle it may then need to be filed. When you go to soft copy and put things on the computer, the forms can be filled out in seconds, emailed to other staff members, Foyle's war and stored in a folder on a computer.
Archiving means taking up space in a business when you use paper. Your business might have stacks of filing cabinets. You most likely pay someone to spend time filing and it probably is a task pulling up old records when you need them. When computers are used for data, archiving is made easy. Backups occur throughout the night to ensure nothing is ever lost. Data is easy to find when someone asks for it, and you don't need to use filing cabinets. If you have an entire room full of filing cabinets, chances are good every bit of that data will fit on one little computer. That means the space you are wasting filling the room with filing cabinets can then be used for more productive reasons.
Business streamlining by eliminating paper also gets your company up to date on technology. Not only do employees appreciate the time technology saves them with their efforts but customers appreciate it too. Some customers don't like to use businesses that do everything by hand because they don't feel safe with it. Some employees are used to technology and if you don't have it then they might be looking to work elsewhere.
Business streamlining through eliminating paper is a very beneficial way to get started with your endeavors of a more efficient business. Investing in computer systems will help you reduce the amount of space used for filing cabinets, give you more time and increase productivity, and efficiency. Not to mention the green benefits to the environment as an extra bonus!
Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solutions - Six Sigma Online ( http://www.sixsigmaonline.org ) offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.
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