What is paperless? Its benefits and how to proceed

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What is paperless?

Going paperless literally means eliminating paper documents by digitizing them. It must be said that Japan is a country in the world that consumes a particularly large amount of paper materials. Even in business, it is still common to see materials printed and distributed for everyone at each meeting. The “stamp culture” that is deeply rooted in Japanese society is also a major factor preventing the abolition of paper materials.

However, in modern society, there is a lot of waste in continuing to use paper materials, and recently the government itself has taken the lead in promoting a paperless society. Specifically, one of the key policies of the new Cabinet inaugurated in September 2020 is the establishment of the Digital Agency. Furthermore, the Minister of Administrative Reform’s announcement of a policy to eliminate stamps and faxes from administrative procedures has become a hot topic.

Benefits of going paperless

When embarking on a new initiative, it is important to first consider what benefits it will bring to your company. If the benefits are clear, it will be easier to gain cooperation from employees and speed up promotion. There are three main benefits you can expect from going paperless:

Reducing paper costs and associated costs

First of all, the cost reduction effect of going paperless cannot be overlooked. If you can digitize your documents, you can save on paper and printing costs. The cost of ink is especially impactful. Normally, when printing an A4 size page using an office printer, it costs 2 to 4 yen per page for black and white, and 7 to 15 yen for color. If you print dozens or hundreds of pages a day, the savings over the year can be enormous.

You will also need to provide a storage location for paper materials. Many of the documents handled in business must be stored for several years or more, and when the documents grow large, they become extremely bulky. If we can go paperless, these storage costs and administrative staff costs can be significantly reduced.

Business efficiency

Digitizing documents directly leads to improved operational efficiency. For example, many of the approval documents and business trip applications can be drafted smoothly by referring to past records. However, paper documents are not very user-friendly because it takes time to find just one page, and only one person can view them at a time.

Electronic data is easier to search because all files have metadata. By simply entering keywords, a list of past records will be displayed on the screen, and similar projects can be used as templates, greatly shortening the steps required to draft a proposal. In addition, by centrally managing the system and tools, you can check the content from home or on a business trip, speeding up the process of approval and start-up.

Enhanced security

Another major benefit of digitization is that it allows for thorough storage and management of materials. Storing information in paper form not only carries a high risk of deterioration, theft, and loss, but also the risk of tampering by a third party. On the other hand, if you digitize the materials and manage them in a system, you can make them physically inaccessible to anyone except those who have access privileges. You can also set passwords and viewing permissions for each file.

Additionally, log management keeps a record of who accessed the site, when it was accessed, and from which device. This will greatly reduce the risk of information leakage, and will also make it less likely that it will be tampered with. As a result, compared to paper documents, multiple security effects can be expected and internal controls will be strengthened.

Disadvantages of going paperless

On the other hand, there are also issues with going paperless. It is necessary to be aware of these issues before proceeding with the introduction, and to consider countermeasures.

Risk of business outage due to network environment

First, the weakness of going paperless is that it is strongly affected by internet line and system failures. In the case of electronic data, you will basically be accessing an in-house file server or a shared folder in the cloud. However, if these storage systems fail, you will not be able to view or download materials until they are restored. If recovery is not possible, all materials and information will be lost. If this happens, the damage not only to business operations but also to the trust of the company will be immeasurable.

To avoid these risks, time-consuming and costly maintenance such as regular backups is required. In order to protect data from malicious hacking and cracking, it is also necessary to take all possible measures to ensure system security.

IT literacy is required and implementation hurdles are high

Secondly, in order to make full use of electronic data, the user also requires a certain level of IT literacy. Particularly for workplaces where most communication has been done on paper, the hurdles to implementation may be quite high. In addition, it is easier to work with processes that everyone is familiar with, and even if you introduce a paperless system, you cannot deny the possibility that work efficiency will temporarily decrease immediately after the introduction of a paperless system.

In order to lower the hurdles, it will be necessary to provide IT literacy training to employees prior to implementation to improve their knowledge and skills. It is also important to have a support system in place for the time being, such as preparing Q&A regarding usage and setting up an in-house inquiry desk. The cooperation of employees is essential to realizing a paperless system, and it is necessary to consider how to reduce the burden on workers.

Points to promote paperless

Going paperless is a bold business reform, but it requires carefulness and caution in the way it is carried out. Specifically, let’s proceed with the following two points in mind.

IT literacy is required and implementation hurdles are high

The first point is not to try to digitize everything at once. Changing all business processes at the same time will not only reduce work efficiency, but also cause concerns about lower morale among employees who feel burdened. The key is to set up several steps to reach your goal and move gradually.

In doing so, it is also a good idea to shift from tasks that many employees find “troublesome” and “time-consuming.” For example, why not take a look at daily time cards and application documents with many input items, and start converting them into digital data by promoting the benefits to employees? In addition, it is also effective to start with low-barrier tasks little by little, such as starting with paperless faxing.

Make effective use of IT systems and tools

The second point is the effective use of IT systems and tools. Going paperless cannot be achieved without IT systems and tools. Online storage and document management systems are essential for storing and managing data. Online storage, which can be accessed from outside the office, is extremely convenient for telework and business trips. A document management system that allows you to set access privileges for each folder and file increases the efficiency and safety of teamwork.

It is also important to introduce an online conference system and practice paperless meeting materials. By projecting materials on a large display, everyone can see the contents at the same time. As an initial step, we recommend introducing paperless fax, which allows you to go paperless without changing traditional business processes.

summary

Going paperless is an opportunity to drastically change the way your organization works. There are several challenges to implementing this system, but if it can be implemented, the productivity of each employee will definitely increase. As your work becomes more efficient, you will also have more time to take on new challenges. “Creating new business potential” can be said to be the true goal of going paperless.