People-less Paperless Offices Are Here to Stay

Working from home has become the norm for over half the country. Information access in our hyper-connected world has never been easier thanks to tools like Google, Slack, Dropbox, ApplicationXtender, and many others. As wonderful as these tools are, many critical documents remain entombed in file cabinets.

Some employees are left without access to files they need to carry out responsibilities like paying bills, responding to clients, and managing employees. Companies are scrambling to make sure employees can take care of these tasks away from the office for the first time. 

This reality tests a model that most business owners haven’t had to seriously consider in the past – what if my entire workforce worked remotely? Could it actually be… better? Employees think so! Polling suggests that most employees would prefer to remain working from home.

Most companies already use tools for their existing remote workforce that end the need for in-office presence. Video conferencing tools like Zoom have revolutionized how meetings take place. Document management software provides instant digital access to your business documents. Electronic signature tools like DocuSign eliminate the cumbersome process of printing, signing, and scanning documents.

How do you create a remote work environment for employees?

The short answer is to digitize everything and create a paperless office!

The calculus associated with figuring out what to scan and what not to scan has changed. A ‘we only need to keep that document for 7 years.’ conversation has turned into a ‘what if we can’t access that document for 3 months?’ conversation.

Getting rid of all the paper is the only way to stop paper usage (and create environmental impact). Then you need to stop it from entering your office.

Before cutting paper off at the pass, you need a documented process for managing information from its point of origin, to the file cabinet, to its digital home, to deletion. You also need the right electronic document management technology in place for a digital workforce. Do your systems allow workers to get their work done remotely?

Once you have documented practices in place and a repository for your content, you will need to start the scanning process. You will likely face two types of paper collections, your backfile of legacy documents and new, day-forward records. There is a mixture of tools and services to handle each.

Tools to scan a large backfile of paper records

While most document management systems have scanning functionality, few have the horsepower to handle high volume document scanning. There are several products designed to handle scanning large backfiles of documents like Intelligent Capture, Abby, Kofax, Psigen, and others.

Document capture software tools do a lot more than scan paper. They capture data from your documents to augment and automate manual business processes. Common examples of workflow automation are invoice processing, employee onboarding, vacation and expense reporting, and incident response management.

We have used several document capture products over the years. Our document scanning service bureau scans tens of millions of records every year for clients. Our favorite document capture software to date has been Intelligent Capture from OpenText (formerly known as Captiva).

Document capture software isn’t for everyone, though. You might have a large volume of paper now, but do you still create a lot of paper that will need to be scanned regularly? If not, take into consideration the learning curve for adopting a new product and the ongoing costs for software maintenance and employee expenses for a process that has a short life cycle.

If you fall into this category, you are probably best suited for outsourcing your document scanning.

How much does it cost to scan a box of records?

If you’d like to explore the options of DIY versus outsourcing scanning of your backfile, reach out to discuss.

Scanning documents as they enter your organization – day-forward scanning

As fast as paper skedaddles after your backfile scanning project, it stealthily sneaks in the backdoor to make itself at home. To prevent the inflow from taking over again, you must have a day-forward scanning program in place. Blog: What is day-forward scanning?

Day-Forward Scanning is converting paper documents to digital files as they enter an organization. Documents are scanned, indexed, and imported to a system of record before being destroyed or stored. You can handle day-forward scanning yourself by assigning personnel to handle scanning documents as they come in. This model doesn’t work for documents that come in if your employees are forced to work from home. A popular alternative is outsourcing day-forward scanning to a business process outsourcing (BPO) company.

We handle this for clients in several ways, but in its simplest form, we host a PO box designated for clients where their mail is re-routed to us for processing. We pick up the mail daily and scan it into their system of record, providing instant digital access where you need it.

Learn about mail room automation here

Digitizing processes is the way forward

Moving toward a digital workforce isn’t only about future-proofing businesses against the next threat. It’s also about getting rid of bad habits that you know you have to save time and save money. Most companies have already started the process of digitally transforming their offices. That’s why every tech company has turned into a ‘digital transformation’ company in the past few years.

COVID-19 is acting as the accelerant that will unstick stuck transformations, unlocking the benefits of a paperless office. It will be a tough road that will involve all business units and departments working in symphony, but it can and will happen for your organization.

If you’d like to talk to an expert about turning your paper into electronic documents and transitioning to a digital workforce, get in touch with us to discuss.