Sep 7, 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.

Paper, printing materials and record storage locations are all part of the expenses of a paper-based operation. Labor is absorbed by maintaining and searching the organization's archives. The physical transportation or sending of paper correspondence also occasionally poses a challenge, in that large collections of records are difficult to move and fax machines do not reliably produce accurate copies of faxed material. Paper records are also easily susceptible to damage or loss.

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 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.

The advantages of a paperless office over a paper-based one are, firstly, that the quality of scanned text is consistently high. Secondly, e-mail is instant and can be used to transmit massive amounts of records or other files. Recent file formats enable several hundred pages to be sent in a single attachment of several hundred kilobytes. People would not consider trying to fax a document of that size.

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.




About the Author:



0 comments:

Post a Comment