Every organization is using paper-based processes, being internal office material ordering or purchase orders to partners. With increasing pressure to reduce paper usage, especially due to the environmental damage it causes, organizations need to act accordingly. The solution is available by digitally transforming these processes, and it is not that difficult.
But what does it mean to go paperless? Much more than most think. The transition from material-based business processes to digital is a development that is bound to stay. Digitization has become a major factor in the areas of competitiveness and efficiency and is a must for companies and organizations.
The Benefits of going Paperless
As mentioned, one of the biggest benefits is reducing the pressure on our environment. But it does not end there. Companies and organizations that digitize their processes benefit from a lot more:
- Reducing costs for printed matter (business forms, etc.)
- Reducing costs for office material
- Reducing costs for document storage
- Reducing errors due to process automation
- Speed up processing times
- Significantly increase security on data (no paper shredding needed)
- Significantly increase convenience for your customers (no queuing, online applications, etc.)
Where to start?
Every company or organization, be it private or public, can start with introducing change to the way they work with paper. It does though start with an analysis of where potential transitions are the most effective.
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)
Going paperless or digitally transforming usually means introducing a technology and system like EDI. For all organizations that transact with documents, an EDI solution will be a good start. With a platform that supports EDI, your company or organization will benefit form the automation of commercial transactions between your own core system (ERP) and your partners like your clients, vendors, logistics providers just to name some.
Examples for EDI are:
- Automation of orders, invoice generation, shipping notice, price list synchronization, inventory / warehouse reports and many more.
- Electronic government reporting of tax and other documents (B2G)
- Electronic invoicing between businesses (B2B) and governments (B2G)
But EDI is not the only solution, there is more that can be done.
All Business Processes
EDI covers the majority of processes which are focused on commercial transactions. What about other processes that are not of that nature? There are much more processes that have the potential to be fully digitized and are of the same importance, for example approval processes, mostly consisting of forms with multiple signatories that will sign.
Examples of Business Processes to digitize:
- Any paper-based approval processes
- Internal ordering of goods like office materials
- Report Forms (accident report, insurance claims, etc.)
Just imagine, your employees will not print out a form anymore, but simply access your internal process portal, choose and submit their request digitally. In some cases it is simply an employee feedback but can also be an internal order form directly integrated into your purchasing system. Approvals are done more efficiently as the request triggers a notification to the person in charge in real-time.
The right Platform
Your business processes interact with various processes, systems, employees, and data sources. To bring all these actors into harmony, a platform needs to be used which enables fast and especially easy solutions to be realized. ONETool Solutions has chosen Scheer PAS to realize solutions for its clients due to its completeness. Similar to a Swiss Army Knife, all tools are always available.
To get more information on Scheer PAS, please feel free to contact us so we can talk about your plans and requirements.
