Have you noticed that
you're spending too much time hunting for the file or document that you need on
a stack of random documents? Not only does it cost the company a lot, it also
causes the employees a huge waste of time and space. Did it ever entered your
mind that how easier your work would be if you have a paperless office? Well
you're not alone.
The idea of paperless
office desks and electronic communication began as soon as computers became
popular more than 20 years ago. But even though that was a long time ago, it
has still been a constant challenge for offices to completely go paperless.
It's difficult to achieve this especially if you're thinking about the reasons
where you might still use paper. You probably keep your to-do list in a notebook,
or you're still used to affixing your signature on hard copies of documents.
Besides, a company probably can't be completely paperless. Some papers, like
signed, sealed deeds and legally-binding contracts, need to exist in their
original form for legal or financial reasons.
Still, many companies
will agree that becoming paperless is definitely worth the effort. The
following are five types of tools and services that can be used as alternatives
in order for an office to become paperless, they are:
- file-syncing services
- e-signature tools
- scanning apps
- to-do apps
- document delivery services
Below are some
examples of apps that can provide the perfect alternative to existing
paper-based products and services.
1. File-syncing Services
A file-syncing service enables you to access
your documents whatever device you are using at the moment. Dropbox, Google Drive, and IDrive are three perfect
examples of file-syncing services. They let you save offline copies of
documents to your devices. These apps can come in handy when you need to have
access to your scanned files and documents and you don't want to bring them all
the time.
2. E-signature Tools
When you have a digital version of a document, for example a PDF
file the someone emailed to you or that you downloaded, you don't have to print
it in order to sign it -- because you can have it digitally signed. In order to
digitally sign documents, the first thing you need to do is you must have a
signature, which is usually the hard part, since most people have poor
penmanship using a mouse, a finger on a touchscreen, and even sometimes with a
stylus. With some e-signature tools, there's an option to use pen and paper to
create your signature, and then snap a picture of it to upload. Once you have
created your signature, you can use it on more than one document, or even better,
you can save other variations of it for future use.
Software that include e-signature tools are Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat, Hightail, and Preview. Be reminded that some
documents are protected from allowing e-signatures. You may need to print and
sign those. Documents are usually protected when people want a hardcopy with a
live signature mailed to them. However, you can always keep a digital copy of
the document as long as you scan the pages and save them using a dependable
scanning app.
3. Scanning Apps
These are typically mobile apps that transform your phone's
camera into a scanner. Some powerful scanning apps have the ability to
automatically detect if you're scanning pages of a document versus business
cards versus images. They also include cropping tools, which is a plus. And
when they detect text, they automatically save the scanned version in a way
that makes the text most readable.
Some of these great scanning apps are Evernote Scannable, Microsoft OneNote, which is a
note-taking and syncing app, as well as a scanning functionality.
4. To-Do Apps
You will never realize how easy and efficient a digital to-do
app is until you've experienced using one. With the paper version, you have to
deal with cross outs in case you made a mistake, you can't easily rearrange
items to show priority, and you certainly can't assign a task to someone and
know when he or she has finished it. But with a digital to-do list, all of
those can be achieved.
Digital to-do lists sync across all the devices you use. They
can be shared among a few people. They have tools for helping you organize your
to-dos, which means you can better manage your time and activities. When you
use a to-do app on your phone, you can get reminders and alerts based on time
or your location.
Any.do, Todoist, and Wunderlist are examples of good
to-do list apps. While all of these apps have a free version, they also have
paid premium ones.
5. Document Delivery Services
While many people paperless deliver documents as email
attachments, it's not always the best way to do it. When you send files by
email, you rarely have the opportunity to know when or if the recipient got
them. You might also find that some files are too large to send thru email, or
that your email program automatically downgrades the quality of the original.
Many file-syncing services and other cloud storage programs give you a much
better way to share files. Ideally, you put the files you want to share into a
single folder in your syncing program and click to get a link that you can
share. From that link, the recipient can download the files from there.
Depending on which service you have, and whether it's a free or paid version,
you might have the option to see when the user downloads the file or even put
an expiration date on the access. Dropbox and Hightail, have many of these
options.
Luckily, there are online fax services that
allow you to fax documents and be paperless at the same time, such as MyFax.
No comments:
Post a Comment