These days, organisations all over the world becoming more conscious about the need to adopt sustainable solutions, and cut wasteful practices. With the help of technology, it is becoming easier for businesses to operate in a more eco-friendly way. So, where could a business looking to become more sustainable start? One of the easiest and best first steps would be to go paperless.
Why go Paperless
Paper was perhaps the first environmental issue many of us were introduced to – we were told that being wasteful with paper meant trees were being cut down for nothing, and that deforestation is bad for habitats. It goes even further than that, because paper production and use is a worldwide industry, and the carbon footprint of delivering paper is just as big of an issue as deforestation. Slowly, we are becoming less dependent on paper due to the rise of smart phones, tablets, and digital sharing.
How to go Paperless
The way to go paperless as a business is straightforward; you need to adopt technology and practices that eliminate your reliance on printouts and physical documents. For example, mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are a great way to ensure you can always view important documents – digital copies take up little storage, so can easily be downloaded to your phone and taken with you wherever.
One thing to keep in mind as a paperless business is that if all of your important documents are stored digitally, you need to have back-up copies, and they can’t all be stored in one place. If the PC that has all of a business’ critical documents stored on it breaks down, the data might be irretrievable. This is why companies use trusted Business IT Support London Solutions for example to manage their IT Infrastructure. Luckily these days large, redundant storage solutions are cheap, and you can backup multiple terabytes worth of data.
In addition to redundant backup, it is also worth utilizing Cloud Storage. This enables you to store important and critical documents in a secure Cloud, which can be accessed from anywhere, provided you have internet connection and permission to access the Cloud.
Using the Cloud additionally enables you to share files easily between colleagues almost instantaneously. When documents are uploaded to a shared Cloud, they immediately become accessible to anyone who has access to the Cloud – this is also useful for collaboration on documents, because new copies don’t need to be made with each update, nor do multiple copies need to be made for everyone to view.
Tools for Paperless Business
These days, Cloud apps and services are the best way to go paperless. For example, with Microsoft 365, you get access to Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, for all of your document processing needs. You can easily store your files for individual use with OneDrive, or share them to colleagues via SharePoint. Contact the experts to know the best sharepoint consulting services that best fit your needs and requirements. You won’t even need a notebook, thanks to Microsoft OneNote, and if you ever need to drop someone a line, you can skip the post-its and just contact them instantaneously via Microsoft Teams.
Extra tips
You might have gone paperless, but you might have clients, or deliver services that have not. If you are given physical copies of documents only, you should be able to digitize them. This is best done with a high definition scanner.