Escaping the aggravation of the paperwork is next to impossible — no matter how organized you are it gets you. Now imagine this scenario: you have finally landed your most awaited dream job only to be met with a tedious stack of paperwork – rental paperwork, lease agreements, and those irritating guarantor forms. Each page is eagerly waiting for your signature but suddenly your pen disappears. It’s like hitting a raw nerve.
Paperwork has existed for decades but lost documents, environmental impact, and cluttered cabinets are just some of the hassles that come with it. Things have changed a lot in this digital era that is driven by innovative digital tools and has transformed our approach to paperwork completely.
Problems with Paperwork
The inefficiency of paperwork has completely wiped out its benefits. How? Have you ever been trapped in a jungle of personal invoices, contracts, and filing cabinets? It’s just not about information rather it takes a lot of time to search. Envision a company that is finding crucial paperwork and loses a project as a result of or a hospital searching a patient record constraining critical decisions. The slowdown rate is not only personal instead it hampers business growth in sectors like education, healthcare, and teaching.
Financial stress is another factor that comes after losing an important document or receipt. Let’s be honest, when was the last time you lost an important document and you lost your sleep over it? And how happy were you when you finally found it? Even worse are the environmental impacts as every single paper is the result of a chopped tree let alone the rising carbon footprint.
Escape the Paperwork labyrinth with Digital Tools
While the paper had its own time, now it’s time to turn to digital tools that have made things easy and organized. Let’s discuss some of the Digital tools that are on a mission to wipe out paperwork.
Sharing Platforms
Keeping track of various documents and checking out emails continuously can drain more than half of your energy. There are platforms like Google Drive and Dropbox to your rescue as they have made editing much easier. There are a ton of benefits to these sharing platforms. They help us to connect with our colleagues so that we can share our products, services, and content. There’s a thin line between supervision and micromanagement and sharing platforms make sure to maintain control without entering into the employee’s space.
These platforms provide users with the necessary space to work independently while building community and engagement. It saves employees from micromanagement at the workplace and also ensures that they are being supervised the correct way.
Location does not affect how you collaborate as these platforms make sure everyone is on the same page and using the same document version. Since your documents are secure and saved, you can access them from anywhere. Google Docs is a more convenient option because if the computer shuts down you can still access it as the file is automatically saved.
E-signatures
E-signatures are relatively a new thing, by leveraging signature tools like Adobe Sign and DocuSign you can completely skip the delay that comes along with traditional mail signatures. Instead of going to every single employee of the company to sign documents using pen and paper, you can get it done through online signature tools within seconds. An electronic signature is an indication that a person has agreed to the content of a document or even data concerning the signature. It’s like a digital imprint of one’s consent.
E-Signatures are used for a variety of reasons including vendor agreements, Internal compliance, authorization slips, expense reporting, tax returns, bank forms, insurance agreements, recruitment, onboarding, Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), non-compete agreements (NCCs), and many more.
E-signatures are cost-effective, time-saving, safe, and have a faster document processing time. There are plenty of handwritten signature generator too if you are opting for a personal touch. They permit digital signatures that resemble your handwriting. It’s not surprising that signatures are more environmentally friendly than pen and ink alternatives.
OCR Scanners
These include tools that make document management much more convenient. These tools aim to breathe new life into old paper documents that were nearly useless. Tools like Soda PDF or Adobe Acrobat Pro make static PDFs editable and scannable. There is a huge productivity boost as old files have precious information that is irretrievable, these tools make information accessible and document management easier. But how does this technology even work? The OCR uses a special algorithm for pattern matching. This compares text images and characters with data that has already been saved in the internal database.
Data Integration
How much easier life would be if you had a seamless connection between your document tools and important systems like accounting software or CRM? These tools include Panadoc which streamlines the process automatically and helps to start invoices by simplifying HR paperwork. The benefit of such integrated work is that it saves a lot of time and guarantees consistency which is the most valuable in most companies. Data integration provides an interconnected and efficient organizational structure that benefits the entire ecosystem of a company.
The Future of Digital Tools in Document Management
The advent of digital tools will bring about new trends and important predictions. Digital document collaboration has certainly facilitated creating, sharing editing, and storing electronic documents a piece of cake. Irrespective of the timezone and the location they can foster uninterrupted and smooth collaboration. As we head towards an era of speed and efficiency these tools and software will be in high demand and will experience price hikes greater than before.
Conclusion
Enhanced efficiency, productivity, and quality user experience are the buzzwords for this digital revolution. Document management has indeed become a beast due to cloud storage. Organizations are tapping into these advancements and are experiencing a wave of productivity and efficiency at the same time. Not only will these technologies cater to the demands of the digital era but predict upcoming challenges as well.
