The Paper Consumption in Small Businesses is too High

Talking about the office of the future means talking about the paperless office and, more specifically, how new technological improvements can help enterprises of any size obtain cost savings and operate more efficiently using electronic documents.

Although the advantages of the paperless office seem more than clear, it is hardly implemented by SMEs, which are generally resistant to technological innovations. When asking about the the reason for this "lack of interest in document management" among SMEs, a general observation is, that Large enterprises, such as banks, understand the need to reduce their paper consumption, and many have already implemented document management systems. However, the advantages of document management are not as clearly appreciated by SMEs, which have a much lower volume of printed documents.

Despite this, this does not mean that paper consumption of small companies in Spain should not be a matter for consideration. There's an abuse of paper and employees are normally not aware that printing is a cost for the company. They do not realise how much printing costs the company at the end of the year.

For this reason, we encourage businessmen to implement document management systems with a little experiment. It is sufficient to inform employees that a print control system will be installed (even though one really won't be) for them to pay attention to their printing habits and drastically reduce unnecessary printing.

Cost savings for SMEs However, document management does not only depend on making the employees aware of its need, since technology also plays an important role in this field. In fact, adequate management of print processes can produce cost savings of 30%.

Cost savings are obtained with multi-functional systems that allow office workers to print, copy, capture as images and send and receive by email all kinds of documents, and with adequate software to control who is printing what and why, set printing limitations, etc. Moreover, if the whole process is outsourced (physical components, printer supplies, etc.), SMEs can reduce costs even more.

However, why aren't these technologies more successful among small businesses despite all their obvious advantages? Several factors come into play. In the first place there's a general lack of knowledge in the small business sector, which tend to be excessively conservative and not very eager to take risks in the management of their IT systems. The same small business mentality makes the small businessman act impulsively, without defining clearly distinct roles in the company. The small businessman wants to have absolute control over everything and this just can not be.

Another factor to point out is that organizations are often resistant to change because of obsolete processes that have been operating for ages but can not be easily replaced because businessmen believe it is difficult to find and implement new and adequate technologies.

In reality, it's a problem of a lack of knowledge, since installing this type of document management systems is very simple, investment costs are low and the ROI is almost immediate.

The office of the future However, there are reasons to believe that the paperless office will also be a reality in the world of SMEs sooner or later. The first reason is the existence of a "generation gap" that indicates that businessmen over 50 years old continue to be very attached to paper, to such an extent that they even print all documents they receive via email. The new generation is becoming more and more aware of the importance of efficient management of a scarce resource.

On the other hand, our society is becoming more and more open to ecological conscience and considers that enterprises should play a leading role in environmental matters. Clearly, movements such as Green IT and ecological conscience will have much to say in a near future.

An ecological conscience, however, does not only emerge from the businessmen themselves but is also "imposed" by the Government by means of bills and taxes, but I do not believe it to be the ideal way to bring about change. We cannot change things by decree, and institutions that try to are naive. Changes must be brought about gradually. Instead of imposed, change must be encouraged.