Creating the Paperless Office
One of the best new technologies available to a home office are electronic document scanners. These allow you to take any type of paper document and scan it into your computer. Once you have it stored on your computer, you can do anything that you could do with any other computer file. Whether it be send it via email, or have access to the document from your laptop anytime or anywhere, it is extremely convenient and versatile.
One of the biggest benefits of this is the amount of paper and space you save. Once you digitize all your old documents, you can get rid of them for good. Think of all those file cabinets filled with old payrolls, bills, and other documents. You can store all that on your ordinary PC and get rid of all the wasted printouts, and old hard copies. If you ever need to make another hard copy, all you need to do is print from your computer like you would do with any other document. It’s a great way to maximize space in a small office and streamline your workflow!
Get Rid of Your Fax Machine
In the past, dedicated fax machines were a necessary addition to any office, but this is no longer the case. Now using email to send or receive documents is extremely easy. Not only do you not waste all the paper to send and print the faxes, but also it is a lot more convenient. You do not have to worry about having the fax number of the person in question, and you can have access to any of your received files from any computer or mobile device with Internet access.
Now, you might wonder what happens if you need to send an actual fax. All computers with internet access can now send and receive faxes through your online connection. You no longer even need a dedicated fax line or machine. Any file you have on your computer can be faxed over the internet, so there is no need to keep that bulky fax machine in around your office. Try services like eFax if you’re interested in paperless fax services.
Remember to Back Up
While all these techniques are great for saving your monthly costs on paper or for saving space in your home office, you do need to remember to back up your data. Now that you have effectively gotten rid of your hard copies, remember to save your faxes, emails, and digital scans onto an external media such as a CD-ROM, DVD, or external hard-drive. You should already be backing up your data anyway but having a completely digitized office makes backing up 100% essential.
If you really want to put another layer of protection and convenience to your backups, look into going with an Internet based backup solution. Many sites offer gigabytes of space for a low monthly or yearly fee. Once you back up your files to this site you can have access to them anytime and anywhere that has an Internet connection!
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22 October, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Great post. Efax can be a good alternative to a fax machine. Although, faxing should be a thing of the past. Efax has a monthly fee that could be a waste if not used.
22 December, 2009 at 2:19 pm
[...] old fax machine, and stick with a paperless office. If you want more ideas on how to create a paperless office, be sure to look back at an older post I [...]