Over 30 years ago we all saw visions of a "paperless office" shown to us by companies such as IBM. Wind forward to 2009 and the technology is available but if anything we have even more paperwork to keep us occupied.
Much of this paperwork is scanned to create an electronic document or is already in electronic form such as a Word document or a Sage invoice.
Once in electronic form the paper copy can be dispensed with and electronic filing is far superior to anything in the physical world. Want to file a document by date - that's easy! Want to file it by supplier number, name, buyer, item type etc all at the same time. Not so easy with paper documents but no problem with document management. Try using Windows Explorer to achieve this.
Of course computers can go up in flames or drown in floods the same as paper can, but try taking a backup of all your paperwork.
Also paper is less secure than electronic files which have been encrypted so that it needs the application to read it.
Travelling away from the office? Suddenly realise that you don't have some vital papers in your laptop? Laptop has gone kaput? If you can get to the internet you can get your documents via web versions of EDM (Electronic Document Management).
Picking up lots of papers / brochures on your travels? Carry a small portable scanner such as the Canon P-150 and scan them in as you go. These can be loaded into your EDM when you get back to the office or when you next log onto the web.....
..............................................................................................To Be Continued
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