Reduce Cost with Paper Saving Solutions

In the 1980s the term ‘paperless office’ was a buzzword that captured the world’s imagination. Despite the improvements in our technology, we are nowhere close to realizing the vision of a paper free workplace. Researchers Sellen and Harper claim that "We are not headed towards offices that use less paper but rather towards offices that keep less paper." According to Lyra Research, in the year 2006, 15.2 trillion pages were printed worldwide. Paper use has been increasing consistently by 3% per year.However, the amount of paper used worldwide is still growing instead of declining. Paper is a big part of an office’s printing cost. Paper also creates additional information management problems for businesses. Information that is only on paper is difficult to store, share and archive. It also creates additional storage costs for business (Xerox, THE "LESS PAPER" OFFICE: HOW TO REDUCE COSTS, ENHANCE SECURITY AND BE A BETTER GLOBAL CITIZEN, 2008). There a few solutions organizations can employ to reduce the use of paper in a business.

Reduce and ReuseA lot of paper in organizations is wasted because unnecessary copies of documents are printed. Sometimes documents or emails that only have one or two lines of content are printed out. Organizations should discourage employees from wasteful and unnecessary printing of documents. One way to do this is to place reminder posters near the copy and printing machine. These posters should have catchy slogans like ‘Do you really need to print that?’ or ‘Do you know how much paper you used last month?’ The WWF has created such posters that are available for free download at www.panda.org/savepaper. Organizations should also encourage employees to reuse paper once it has been printed on. If a single side print is removed, employees can use the back of the sheet to take notes, etc.

Paperless MeetingsThose organizing meetings in an organization should consider whether they really need to print preparatory materials for the meeting. How many copies of these documents will be required? Instead of taking notes on paper the meeting attendees should be encouraged to use their computers. Meeting organizers should also make all the meeting related documents electronically available to attendees. Paperless meetings can help reduce the consumption of paper in a business.

E-InvoicingVad är e-faktura? The exchange of billing information between businesses electronically is known as e-invoicing. Invoice processing is a big part of what a business’s accounts payable department deals with. Invoices are also a big part of an organizations paper use. Paper invoices have to be printed, placed in envelopes and sent by mail to the recipients. elektronisk fakturering reduces the errors made during the accounts payable process. These invoices are quicker to process and are more efficient. One company that provides businesses with e-invoicing solutions is Basware.