Stop Doing Business Like it was 1892!

In the 1800s, two pieces of office equipment were invented that revolutionized the business world. In 1843, the fax machine was conceived and a prototype was made by Alexander Bain, and in 1892 offices were introduced to the new-fangled file cabinet. What's so amazing about this old technology is that both of these pieces are still used in the majority of offices today!

To give credit to where credit is due, both the fax machine and the file cabinet totally streamlined the 20th Century office. However, we're now living in a new century, and therefore, it's high time to upgrade from using solutions invented when the steam engine was all the rage.

The High Cost of Old Equipment
Thanks to the advancements of the digital revolution, the technologies of the industrial revolution are outdated and inefficient. For example, it takes an average of 30 seconds per page for an employee to send a fax. Time spent faxing can really add up when you have to send a multipage document. Additionally, what does an employee do with the paper faxes they receive? Typically, they will process the documents and then store them away in a file cabinet. Eventually, someone will want to see that document again, which means that the employee must go back to the file cabinet and retrieve it (and then put it back again). With this outdated workflow in mind, it's no wonder that many employees in "modern offices" spend as much as 90% of their time handling paper documents!

An employee spending 90% of their time handling files is an efficiency disaster! Think for a moment about all the maintenance that goes into one file cabinet. How often do you have to perform spring cleaning on your file cabinets and transfer old files to boxes to be stored away? How much time is lost rooting around in drawers looking for files? Also, keep in mind that all of the labeling of files has to be done by someone. Considering how much time it takes to maintain a file cabinet, and the fact that you're paying employees for all of this time, and you're looking at a maintenance bill of $25,000 for each standard-sized file cabinet. Try not to get too depressed after adding up the number of active file cabinets in your office.

19th Century Solutions are Not Efficient Compared to Today's Tech
Another reason why fax machines and paper documents are productivity killers is because using these antiquated office tools can be extremely limiting. Nothing can waste time quite like paper document retrieval. For example, if you're away on a business trip and need an employee back at the office to fax you a document, think for a moment of all the hoops that the employee must jump through in order to retrieve the needed document from the file cabinet and then fax it to you. It would be significantly faster and less expensive to simply remote into your company's network with a mobile device to retrieve the digital document. Not only that, but it's so much easier to back up data that is digital.

In today's efficiency-minded workplace, paper gets in the way. Having your office go paperless by virtualizing your documents and taking advantage of cloud computing is a great way take back all the time wasted from dealing with file cabinets. Computerware can help your organization go paperless with new environmentally-friendly solutions, like a fax server solution which will allow you to send and receive faxes via your email account. Going with a fax server solution for your office will allow you to donate your old fax machine to the Pony Express National Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri (remember, all donations to the Pony Express Museum are tax deductible).

To equip your business with solutions from this millennia that will improve operations by freeing up your team to spend more time accomplishing work, give Computerware a call at (703) 821-8200.