e-Newsletters: The Top 5 Financial Benefits of Going Paperless

Early in June, Maine was named as one of 12 states selected to receive federal money as incentive for medical practices who use electronic health records systems. Several media reports indicated that as many as 100 participating Maine practices could be eligible to receive as much as $58,000 per physician or $290,000 per practice under this program.

Why is the government willing to pay incentives to medical practices that use electronic records management systems? Because it has been proven that enhanced medical efficiency and timeliness can improve patient care -- and help reduce medical administrative costs.

Businesses and organizations of all kinds are embracing the electronic document age and are enjoying a number of benefits, including cost savings.

If you’ve ever considered what “going paperless” really means for your business, you have probably asked yourself, “What are the real potential cost benefits to my office?”

Here are the top 5:

1. Eliminate “paper mismanagement” costs.

A global study by Gartner Group determined that 60% of all companies still process, store and retrieve documents manually. Here are some sobering figures about “mismanaged” files:*

• 25% of documents are misplaced and never located
• Document mismanagement affects:
  • 40% to 60% of office workers’ time
  • 20% to 45% of labor costs
  • 12% to 15% of company revenue

All these figures affect the bottom line of company profits. Wouldn’t it be great if you could eliminate the negative impact of paper-handling from your office?

* Gartner Group: www.gartner.com

2. Slash overhead expenses in general.

The hard costs of managing paper files can really add up each month, including costs related to file cabinets, file folders, tabs and labels, paper, postage and other related supplies.

Consider this: A single 80-gigabyte hard drive holds roughly 2.7 million documents and costs about $120. What would it take to store the same amount of documents as paper files? The answer is, about 68 4-drawer file cabinets. Just think - a single 4-drawer cabinet can cost more than $120. If you multiply $120 times 68…that’s an extra paper storage cost of $8,160.00 compared to a digital hard drive; nothing to sneeze at.

And, file cabinets take up precious square footage that could be used for more profitable purposes. You only need to look at the square foot cost of commercial real estate in your area to see how file-storage space eats up valuable real estate...and then determine what else you could be doing with that space for revenue-producing business operations.

3. Boost revenue through improved quality of customer service and response time.

Quick and easy electronic access to documents at any time can make a HUGE difference when it comes to customer service.

For instance, if you’re on the phone with a customer who has a question about an invoice, with electronic documents, you can retrieve the correct invoice at your fingertips in seconds and instantly resolve the customer’s concern.

Do you think that customer will buy from you again? It’s probably much more likely than if you had to put the customer on hold, go searching for a paper file, find the exact invoice in question (if it’s filed properly), and then come back to find that the customer had hung up in frustration.

4. Save BIG on fuel consumption.

With gas prices skyrocketing, going paperless facilitates creating virtual offices. This means more employees could work from home on company laptops and access records on secure Web-based portals via passwords.

With gas prices expected to rise above $5.00 per gallon this year, employers in several industry sectors would be wise to consider how virtual, electronic offices would lead to greater efficiency and reduced fuel consumption for all.

5. Protect your information – and your entire business or organization – from financial ruin.

Can anyone begin to count the number of paper files potentially lost or destroyed during the recent Midwest floods? How many of those businesses won’t reopen because of lost paper records?

When disaster strikes, there’s a devastating cost to having paper files.

With electronic records, you become better prepared to face the devastating results of disasters. Documents stored electronically on AAA-rated, encrypted and redundant, secure servers like those Brown & Meyers uses, can be easily recovered and help get your business back in operation after a disaster.

Can you afford to continue managing paper?

Because every situation is different, you need to look at the cost benefits for your specific office before making a decision. Let us show you a cost-benefit analysis of using Brown & Meyers’ professional document conversion services. We’ll prepare and sort your documents, scan them with our state-of-the-art equipment and indexing software, and house them on the best electronic document management platform for your industry, including digital medical charts and HIPAA-compliant electronic medical records systems (EMRs).

If you’re interested in exploring the benefits of electronic records conversion, please contact us for more information.

In the Know:
Try the “Paper Chase” Test

With most electronic document management systems, a typical customer or patient record can be retrieved within 20 seconds.

Just for fun, ask someone in your office to retrieve a paper file for a particular customer or transaction dated sometime in October, 2005.

See how long it takes!

Free Trial Offer:
Discover How Easy It Is To Go Paperless and Save Some Significant Green!

Contact us now for a FREE initial consultation and cost analysis, and our free 30-day "Try Before You Buy" online account.