In recent years, there has been an ongoing debate about whether ditching printers and excessive amounts of paper is a good idea. You can see why. Printers can be expensive, and having so much paper in the vicinity lends itself to a cluttered and messy environment. There are a lot of reasons why we use paper on such a hefty scale, though. What is the best solution for your office? It’s time to find out.
Paper
The argument for paper can be echoed by many business owners out there who simply rely on it in order to function. While many businesses have started to rely on digital processes a lot more, paper still takes precedence. The reasons for this are varied depending on the type of business they’re running. In many cases, paper documentation simply looks more professional. Paper also doesn’t come with the or lost quite as easily as its digital counterpart does.
The other big argument for a having paper office is that it doesn’t cost a whole lot of money. The advantages of paper are plentiful, and nowadays, printers have become much cheaper than they used to be. High-quality supplies like HP ink are much more affordable, and buying paper in bulk isn’t going to break the bank. Business owners are used to carrying out their business with the old-fashioned paper method. Now, it’s even more affordable. Why would they stop now?
Ultimately, it’s much easier to conduct business with a paper-filled office. The world hasn’t fully converted to the idea of paperless operations, and there are too many advantages that paper offers at this point.
Paperless
On the other side of the argument, we’re talking about ditching the paper entirely in favor of a digital approach. Storing documents and data in a digital space has all sorts of advantages. The biggest one is arguably the amount of clutter that can be reduced in your office itself. Documents that may have been misplaced or lost entirely can be found with a quick search of the hard drive. Even if it gets infected with viruses, a strategic backup system would make sure you never lost access.
While the costs of a paper office aren’t all that high, you can’t beat getting something for free! You won’t have to spend a lot of money when converting to a fully digital operation. Gone are the costs of printers, paper, stationery and more. You can’t argue with that!
Some would argue that going paperless makes things much easier in the long run, too. Sending big documents and leaflets to business clients can be done at the click of a button with a digitized system. With paper, you’re going to have to wait to either meet them or send it out in the post. That real-time transfer makes business operations much smoother and quicker in certain circumstances.
Verdict
If you’re asking me to come up with a verdict, I’m going to tell you that I think a bit of both is key. Why limit your decision to one or the other? Most businesses combine these two solutions to suit their needs. That’s the solution I suggest you go with!
