Tuesday 26 August 2014

Paperless Office-Document Scanning: The New Office Environment

By Loris F. Andres


Administration almost always involves paperwork. Any business, government department or other organization uses forms and official documents in its procedures and archiving system. While this enormous volume of paperwork has traditionally been the subject of annoyance or jokes, paperless office-document scanning offers an electronic alternative.

A paper-based office entails the costs of the paper, ink and printing equipment, and file storage venues. Staff have to spend time sorting or packing away files. Moving paper records from one place to another is also an exercise in logistics: the boxes of files are heavy and fax machines do not always produce copies of acceptable quality. Physical files sometimes get lost or damaged.

Environmental activists have raised the issue of how the manufacture of paper uses trees. They oppose the use of paper as a storage or correspondence material. Recycled paper, which was introduced in response to this negative sentiment, is not yet a universally utilized resource. Discarded paper is a significant element of landfill sites and pollution.

It may therefore be more sensible to process paperwork electronically. Electronic storage options, such as USB sticks or computer hard disks, offer immense storage capacity. It takes only a short time to back up those records, even if they are particularly extensive. These electronic devices don't need much space and can be carried around by the user. On the other hand, the use of e-mail and document cloud sites eliminates the need for such mobility.

A document cloud service is an internet site that allows user to upload and store large amounts of data, files or documents there. This is convenient because it enables users to access the stored material from anywhere, without the need to keep copies with them in some other form. A cloud service may be paid or free. Potential users are advised to check security features and available storage space to see which option suits them.

Paperless office management has several advantages over older, paper-based methods. The quality of scanned documents is never an issue. Turning to correspondence, e-mails are received in a matter of seconds and can have plenty of material attached to them. The latest attachable file formats may contain several hundred pages of text in less than one megabyte. To fax a document of that length would not be practicable.

Expenditure on administrative operations can be decreased by the implementation of document scanning and electronic storage methods. The price of the equipment should be weighed against the expense of stationery. Paperless administration has seen the office environment use less paper and more technology.




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