The term “paperless” has been around since the 1960s. You might think that 60 years would be ample time for companies to embrace the idea, but, no. In the average business, paperwork is still growing by 22 per cent a year, and over 50 per cent of knowledge workers’ time is spent creating and preparing paper documents. Businesses are still far more paper-based than digital.
There are bound to be a few bumps on the road to the paperless office. They certainly don’t become paperless offices overnight. This kind of change takes time. Why? For one thing, there’s the human factor. Many, if not most, people like paper. It’s familiar and it’s tactile — it can be stacked, shifted, passed around … touched. However, there are many more reasons why going paperless is a good idea. Here are just a few:
- Anytime-anywhere access: Using the cloud, and the right tools, create and route electronic documents and data to the right people right away.
- Quicker finds: Electronic documents can be indexed using keys like date, doc type, and other custom, user-defined criteria. Optical character recognition (OCR) scanning converts paper documents into data that you can edit in another format like word. It also makes the data searchable. Tracking down important business documents has never been easier.
- Easier compliance: Certain regulations require companies to take measures to establish and maintain data confidentiality and integrity. Paper-based systems can’t compete with electronic document management systems for providing an audit trail of when documents were sent and received.
- Stronger security: Electronic documents are more secure because they can be encrypted. They can also be protected by access controls and tracking mechanisms so you know who has seen, or copied, the document.
- Sped-up approvals: E-signature solutions are used by companies to speed up the approval process for internal and external documents. Electronic documents can be signed digitally and sent on for next-step processing.
Paperlessness is not easily achieved, but it’s something more and more organizations have been pursuing. They see how dramatically the benefits outweigh the effort required to surmount any cultural challenges that might be encountered along the way.
A company that says paperlessness costs too much or upsets “the process” too much is ignoring the fact that, by going paperless, it will save many times more with more efficient employees and processes, happier clients and customers, and, very likely, tighter data security.
Small frame, big performance
High speed and ultra-powerful performance comes to the office in the form of the imageFORMULA DR-M260 document scanner. Canon’s compact DR-M260 is loaded with innovative features and boasts incredible image quality. It also offers such features as:
- Wide range of uses: Ideal for workgroups and departments in any industry, from legal to financial to healthcare to government. Plus: efficient records management, less paperwork
- Easy-to-operate design: Convenient, accessible LCD panel. Customizable, pre-programmed scan tasks. Notifications for errors and roller replacement.
- Reliable feeding: Roller system designed to ensure unattended scanning. Scans a wide variety of document types: thick or thin; long or oversized; plastic embossed cards; optional carrier sheets for passports and fragile documents.
- Powerful processing: Scans up to 60 ppm in colour, black and white, and grayscale — both sides of an item in a single pass. Can hold up to 80 sheets in the automatic document feeder. On-board processor quickly captures and converts paper-based documents into usable digital information.
- High-quality imaging: Character Emphasis improves legibility. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to help create searchable and editable information. Auto page size detection and image rotation. Auto resolution setting for scanning mixed batches of text documents and photographs.
The imageFORMULA DR-M260’s user-friendly design, high-quality image processing, reliable item handling, and robust software offer end-to-end options for capturing business information improving workplace productivity. The reliability of the imageFORMULA DR-M260 scanner is backed by an industry-leading five-year manufacturing warranty.
With the launch of the imageFORMULA DR-M260, Canon gives future-facing organizations yet another option for moving ever closer to being a paperless office.
