1. Paper provides a form for information that is great for reading and reviewing, but one that is too easily lost, damaged or, worse, stolen.
2. It is also a form that moves too slowly for today’s global business clock.
3. Paper is expensive. It represents a significant cost for office printing and commercial printing (more than 20 percent of the total cost). It adds up quickly when you consider that document-related activities consume up to 15 percent of a company’s annual revenue.
4. Paper is an information management nightmare. When information exists only on paper, it is extremely difficult to store, manage and share. Those storerooms with labyrinthine rows of filing cabinets are a drain on time and productivity as people go on daily quests for missing information.
5. And what about all of the ideas, notes and knowledge captured on paper and never shared?
6. When information is freed from the physical limitations of paper and converted into an electronic format, it becomes a more valuable strategic resource.
7. Paper represents a compliance and security risk. There are other impacts as well. Audit compliance issues require businesses to keep accurate records, provide thorough documentation on a number of business operations, and handle personally identifiable information appropriately. Information on paper tends to be easily misplaced, or simply left lying around where people, who shouldn’t have access to it, do.
8. Information on paper is harder to keep track of. The fact is, every day companies around the world are vulnerable to their most valuable information walking out the door in someone’s briefcase
9. Many companies find that paper reduction strategies have significant additional benefits by introducing new systems of information efficiency, which improve the quality of services by speeding up information flows.
10. An important benefit is improved efficiency as people locate and retrieve documents faster and more easily. This issue is especially significant because personnel costs are usually the most expensive component of any company’s operation. Reduced costs and increased output result in higher operating profits/gross profits