Monday, September 8, 2014

Paperless Office-Document Scanning: The New Office Environment

By Loris F. Andres


It is hard to operate any administrative system without making use of extensive documentation. Companies, state authorities and other institutions use documents and papers in their processes and record systems. This gigantic amount of paperwork typically attracts criticism or barbed remarks. But these days, paperless office-document scanning presents people with an electronic option.

A paper-based bureaucracy carries the expense of paper, printing and storage space. Productive time is lost to filing processes. The transport or transmission of paper items is also challenging sometimes. Large files are heavy and faxes do not always come out clearly on the other side. Physical records are always at risk of being damaged or lost.

In terms of social awareness, modern environmentalists argue against paper as a medium of communication or data storage. Paper is made using trees, and the impact on the environment of paper's manufacturing process has been raised. Recycled paper is not yet a standard item in the stationery industry. The disposal of waste paper adds considerably to the burden of pollution in the economy.

The electronic management of documentation therefore makes more sense. An enormous amount of paperwork can be stored on a single USB stick or hard disk. Making back-up copies, even of the entire records of an organization, takes relatively little time. Electronic media occupy very little space, and are easy to transport. E-mail and document cloud facilities make their physical transport unnecessary anyway.

A document cloud system is an online facility that gives users space to upload and retain considerable quantities of administrative files or other material. This is useful because users can then log into the site and retrieve the material from any physical location. They do not need to carry hard copies around with them. The cloud system may or may not charge a user fee. People interested in this option should assess the storage capacity and security profile of different sites to see what is best for their needs.

A paperless office has advantages over the traditional one. Electronic documents, if scanned properly, are always legible. E-mail is an instant form of communication and allows large amounts of material to be attached and sent. Some file formats can condense hundreds of pages into a relatively small file of only a few hundred kilobytes. Faxing that same item would take hours and would not be attempted, not to mention the paper that would be used.

The expense of running an office can be greatly reduced through scanning and electronic document archiving. The outlay on the equipment required should be compared to the money saved. Paperless administration represents an area of the economy where those nasty paper cuts can be replaced by the press of a button.




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