Paperless Office-Document Scanning: The Filing System Of The Future

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.

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.

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 website is a site on the internet that provides extensive storage space to its users. They can upload and keep substantial archives of records there. This is helpful, since users can potentially visit the site and download their stored records from anywhere that they may find themselves. They do not need to transport the material with them. Some cloud sites operate on a paid basis, so interested parties should research the available options in terms of the sites' security integrity and storage allowances and decide what will best meet their requirements.

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.

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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