Technology has dramatically changed the workplace, if you compare an office from twenty or thirty years ago against the modern business desk, you would not believe they were designed for the same purpose. One of the biggest shifts that has occured over the last couple of decades has been in our relationship with paper in the workplace.

There are a few major reasons that many businesses these days are increasingly moving towards having a paperless office, here are a couple of these, along with some great ways that you can save paper in your business.

The Environmental Reason for Going Paperless

Firstly, there is the environmental factor. If you think about the amount of paper that you go through each year and then consider the number of trees that will have been chopped down just to make that paper. And when you stop and think about how many pages get thrown in the waste paper basket because of a misprint, or when you print something out only to use the information on it printed once and then throw it away. And then comes the filing away of paperwork once it has been printed. While it is important to keep things on file, there are some much easier ways to doing this.

The Practicalities of Going Paperless

There are practical reasons for stopping using paper in your office too. Paper and the ink to print on it are an expense that you can do without. Once you have printed things, you will need to have a storage system that takes up space and time to maintain. Desks that are filled with paperwork are messy and can be difficult to keep in order.

Reducing Your Post

Minimizing the amount of paper that you use internally is one thing, but when people are always posting your items then you end up with paper letters and invoices. One way around this is using a service such as physicaladdress.com/. This virtual mailbox will mean that no physical post will get sent to you, and you will receive all of your correspondence in email form. If you want any of your mail items forwarded to you, you can do this. This will cut down on a considerable amount of paper content coming into your business.

Shared Digital Filing

Moving all of your data to a cloud-based service such as Google Drive will mean that you will be able to seamlessly share documents in real-time with others in the workplace, and externally. The fact that it is cloud-based means that it is safely backed up and you will not risk ever losing it. Anyone can who has the right access level to a document can alter it, and all of the changes will be accessible by everyone. You track and undo changes made by any employee along the way too. All in all, this digital filing system reduces so much need for paperwork, everything will be easier to find and your office will be kept tidy.