Save Money And More By Going Paperless

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Save Money And More By Going Paperless I
love trees, you could call me a tree-hugger and
I wouldnt care, Id be honored. Trees are great,
especially when they are standing upright and
have leaves on, and maybe the odd squirrel
running around them. In a piece of research
published in Nature last year, a tree density map
showed that there are around 3 trillion trees on
earth at the minute. That may seem like a lot of
trees, but the research also pointed out that
around 15 billion trees per year are being cut
down, and that 3 trillion trees equate to only
half of the number of trees that were around
before humans come along. A lot of those trees
are used in paper products. It is estimated that
the average North American uses around seven
trees per year in the form of paper. Thats an
awful lot of tree pulp. Seeing figures like that
makes the idea of going paperless seem like a
good idea. Trees are great. And they are, of
course, an essential part of the worlds
eco-system, without which we would all perish.
But its not just about the trees, its about the
money. Using paper costs lots of money. Its not
the initial cost of the paper itself, it is all
the associated costs, like printing out (the
printer cost, ink, and electricity), filing
paper, losing documents, finding documents and
archiving, then getting rid of documents
(especially those with sensitive data on them).
In the U.S. companies spend a staggering 120
billion a year on printed forms.
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But we seem scared to go paperless. In a survey
by the Association for Information and Image
Management (AIIM), they found that even though
folks were sending out invoices electronically,
they still printed them out as well. One day soon
we will look back at behavior like that and say
it was nuts. In the meantime, the future beckons
and paperless enabling technologies such as
e-signature platforms are giving us the means to
save money, and be more environmentally conscious
its a win/win for the planet and
ourselves. Why incorporating an e-signature
platform is better than using paper There are
three main reasons why using an e-signature
platform is better than using paper. Weve
already touched on two of them, but we can go a
little further here Reason One Going
paperless using e-signatures saves you money. You
are going to create the documents, forms, and
contracts electronically, so why then print out
if you can complete the process of adding
signatures electronically? Taking the process of
creation reading agreement signature
archive and making the entire lifecycle
electronic, removes all of the extraneous steps,
like purchasing ink, printing out, postage,
storage, and retrieval. All of those steps cost
money. Research by environmentalist
organization,
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Environmental Paper Network has shown that the
cost of using paper can be 10 times the costs of
the original paper itself. So your 10 ream of
paper actually costs you about 100 in indirect
costs. An AIIM study into how the digital office
can improve how we work found that over half of
organizations actively wanted to use e-signature
technologies that were easy and robust. Reason
Two Using e-signatures to go paperless is kind
to our planet and therefore ultimately ourselves.
This is a reciprocal altruist reason to go
paperless, and it does everyone and everything
good. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) are big
advocates of achieving the paperless office
through the use of technology. They point out
estimates of up to 30 reduction in paper usage
if you use modern technologies, like
e-signatures, to replace paper processes. Save
paper save the planet. Reason Three Its
just more efficient to go paperless and
e-signature technology enables paper free
working. If you think about the steps in paper
based processes, just to get a contract signed,
sealed and delivered, it is like the workflow
from hell. A typical paper based contract process
goes something like this
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1. Create the contract draft 2. Print it off and
read it to check for mistakes and ask
opinions 3. Update it 4. Email it out 5. The
recipient prints it out 6. Reads it 7. May or
may not send back annotations 8. If you receive
annotations, go through steps 1 4 again 9.
Agree contract sign it 10. Scan it 11. Email
it back 12. Send onto any other signatory
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13. S1ign it 14. Scan it 15. Email it back 16.
Final signatory 17. Email to all involved 18.
All print out and file a copy The e-signature
process workflow looks something like this 1.
Create a centralized version of the contract 2.
Add in signature blocks for people to add their
signatures 3. Send an automated email alert to
the signatories to check and sign the
document 4.Allow the document to flow through
the signatory list 5. Signed document is shared
with all
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6. Keep a copy locally (if required) Tools to go
paperless Of course to actually make sure that
your paperless process works you need the tools
to make it happen. There are a lot of options for
Cloud based document management systems, that let
you share documents across disparate people and
places. However, if those documents need any kind
of signature youll need an e-signature platform.
And not just any e-signature solution will do.
You need one that is built to certain standards
and which cover 1. Workflows Have a way in
which you can easily set up workflows this is
important to ensure that all signatures are
collected in sequence after agreement 2.
Document management Centralize the management of
the document so its easily accessible 3.
Alerts Automatically email people to sign the
document 4. Security Make sure the system is
secure, so access to the document is controlled,
for example
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5. Compliance That the e-signatures offer
non-repudiation, and comply with digital
signature laws like ESIGN ApproveMe offers all
of the above to make sure that going paperless is
pain free. The world has been talking about the
paperless office for decades now. The stumbling
blocks have been bandwidth, technology, and just
plain old human habits. But going paperless
really is a life hack. It solves problems of
cost, efficiency, and even saves the planet. We
have come to a juncture where we have the
technology to make going paperless happen, all we
have to do is step up and take the opportunity
with both hands and embrace digitization. Article
Source https//www.approveme.com/e-signature/sa
ve-money-going-paperless/