Increasing Data Efficiencies
In some cases, paper can be an effective tool and medium, but more and more businesses are finding that reducing paper increases efficiency in the office. Managing paper is very time-consuming, as workers are inundated with more and more paper. Once a printout to hardcopy is made, that paper must be handled and managedprocesses that could include sorting, organizing, copying, filing, purging and eventually discarding. These labor costs are often more expensive than the paper itself. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the average organization spends about $20 in labor to file each paper document, approximately $120 in labor searching for each misfiled document, and $220 in re-creation of a document. In addition, when paper is the primary source of data and information, we have to spend additional time and money purging outdated informationat some point, all data becomes obsolete. By contrast, electronic information is easy and cost-effective to file, access, search, and purge.