Recent statistics on document management suggest that 80% of most companies’ business information still exists in a paper based format. If you’re a millennial this may seem unbelievable to you. If you grew up watching TV before the Internet, that statistic makes sense doesn’t it?

Regardless of your age, digital documents have immense appeal as the preferred medium for content creation, storage, editing and dissemination.

Here are nine specific benefits your organization will enjoy after making the shift from paper documents to digital documents to run your business.

1. Space Savings – Think of the amount of hardcopy documents you produce every day. Where do they all go? Unless you’re recycling, mailing or managing your print volumes with an office print policy, chances are your paper storage issue is getting bigger each day.
2. Disaster Proof – Why does it take horrible disasters like a hurricane, fire or flood to make people think defensively? If your business faced some form of disaster, do you have a business continuity plan that includes access to your important business records? Digital documents stored offsite or in the cloud give you an advantage over the unexpected.
3. Editable – Most business documents require edits and revisions during their life cycle, especially those that require collaboration or multiple parties participating on the content creation. Digital files allow for easy editing and version control that keeps the content fresh and accessible to all approved parties.
4. Loss Prevention – According to a study conducted by Pricewaterhouse Coopers 7% of all paper based information gets misfiled and 3.5% of all hardcopy documents are lost. Digital documents provide quick and easy storage and retrieval capabilities so people can easily find the files they're looking for.
5. Security Protection – Unsecured filing cabinets, paper sitting in printer output trays and even files on people’s desks are all examples of hot spots where the wrong eyes could see what they shouldn’t. Employee records, financial information, pricing documents and client records can be very vulnerable. Digital documents provide access control measures for peace of mind.
6. Speed to File/Recover – If a person makes $50,000 per year, they cost your company roughly $25 per hour. If this employee takes an hour searching for one or more hardcopy documents, you’ve just lost two hours of time. The hour spent searching and the hour the person could have spent using the information. Digital documents can be located quickly without leaving your desk.
7. Searchable – Have you ever gone looking for a hardcopy document and found something else that was actually better for the task at hand? Sure you have. This is the power of digital documents. Search capabilities allow you to perform a search, much like doing a search on Google, on all the information that relates to the topic at hand. Being able to search content topics allows for faster recovery and better business decisions.
8. Sharability – In case you’re wondering, email is not a document management system built for sharing information, even though most people try to use it as such! Sharing the correct version of the right document can be challenging in an online workgroup setting. Digital documents break down silos of storage and accessibility issues so all members can collaborate on documentation to achieve the best result.
9. Cost Savings – A speaker at a recent technology conference said that “people are buying savings in today’s economy”. It’s so true isn’t it? Depending on the type of printer you are using, a printed page will cost you anywhere from a penny to a dollar. Digital documents cost you nothing. This is why so many companies are leveraging scanning as their on-ramp to digital documents. Printing less will cost less.

Are you leveraging digital documents yet? Maybe now is the time for you to start printing smarter and printing greener with a digital document strategy.

Would you like to see more statistics on documents? We invite you to read our recent blog called Document Management Stats You Should Know.