We still like paper: a newspaper, a book, even mixed paper with the thrill of a contract to sign. But it is undeniable that the big difference is made by small gestures and, in the future that is looming before us, paper management will represent a crucial point.
We can evaluate paper management in different ways, but the common principle is that it should not be wasted and that, where possible, we must lean towards ecological choices.
In Italy alone, each worker consumes 70 kg of paper per year and each citizen uses 32 sheets per day. Within a company, paper often does not represent an important cost item, but it represents 70% of the garbage produced inside the officesand is often wasted: just think of the wrong prints, or those printed twice by mistake or in A3 instead of A4.
We are all involved when it comes to consuming less paper, and we all make our contribution. Those who prefer to print less (it is no coincidence that banks and utility providers are among the first organizations to introduce electronic bills and statements), joins those who evaluate the print settings, selecting 2 pages on the same side or using the 2-sided settings.
Digital documents win across the board – they’re just more sustainable than their paper counterparts, longer-lived, and easier to navigate. They are not susceptible to the effects of water and fire, do not turn yellow and are accessible at any time, as long as the appropriate technology is available in the dematerialization and archiving phase.
Dematerialization: revision of document processes to operate on digital and non-paper documents.
Digitalization:Conversion of paper documents into digital format
Archiving: protocol applied to documents that turns them into identified, classified, archived and searchable assets through different search keys.
Companies that choose this approach open the door to more agile work, accessible from any company smartphone and laptop, and compatible with a new generation of workers and with a new management of physical spaces.
Marie Kondo, author of the book “The magic of tidying up”, indicates 2 concepts on which to focus when it comes to paper management.
1. paper to be kept over time (contracts, diplomas, important documents) that require filing
2. Paper that should be managed immediately
If the paper does not fall into one of these categories, it is digitalized and recycled.
This trend is also confirmed in other types of costs: the demand for office space has dropped considerably, thanks to the push towards hybrid work and the challenge in finding the needed skills in a 30 minutes radius around the office. The office changes shape: from a space in which to physically find the history of the company, in the form of an archive, to a space for creative and strategic exchange, a source of stimulus and home of the corporate culture.
At Eight Twenty, we have experience in dematerialization, dematerialization and archiving projects with a particular focus on corporate data security and the realization of projects in a short time. Contact us for a consultation with our experts on how to renew document management in your company.
