Intro
Going paperless seems like an herculean task given that quite a number of tools are required for the implementation to take place, examples include scanners, a document management system, Computers and Labour (if outsourced) or time (if internal employees) to handle the process. Digital transformation does not have to be expensive after all. There are tools that are cost effective enough and can be customised and used in the managing and storage  of digital documents. 

There are a number of reasons which might be ignored that going paperless will be able to eliminate in the long run. These are factors that frequently occur but we tend to brush aside and continue with business as usual.

One of the reasons is the safety of your important documents. As your documents keep on compiling and this includes also the important documents all you have to do is buy more files and filing cabinets for storing them. These documents are accessed by different personnel. You may even decide to lock the important files in a different secured room. Do you have time to monitor who went into that room? Was the person the authorised personnel or another personnel who is not authorised? How high is the possibility of the confidential and important documents being stolen? The documents may not even be safe from natural disasters such as flooding or even fire. Would it not be better if these documents were kept in the digital format whereby anybody accessing them can be monitored.

The second reason is how productive are the employees?If they spend most of their productive hours searching for documents when required. The documents may have piled up as the years go by and yet the documents are still in use. During an audit, it takes a while to search for the required documents. This can be made easy if the documents are in digital format whereby the auditors can easily access the documents. It leaves the other personnel to continue with their productive work. And the auditor can do his work with ease.

What if a document is misplaced, how much time are employees spending on searching for the misplaced documents? That is non productive time.

The third reason is the impact of having paper documents on the operation cost?With files and file cabinets of paper documents obviously you need space for these documents which means either you lease more office space or look for a place to store them. There are certain instances where you may even get a room in your house to store them. How much more would it cost you? How expensive is your office space? This means more expenditure for non productive purposes. There is no return on investment on the acquired space for storing paper documents. 

As you are creating more paper documents. There is additional purchase of paper, Box Files, folders and cabinets? The dent this causes on your overhead cost is quite high, especially now when companies are working on minimising their operation cost due the economic downturn.If you were to go paperless the cost of leasing office space would be reduced or the space used for a more productive activity. The money being used on the paper consumables, cost of ink cartridges used to produce prints and copies,cost of pens, printer maintenance and other office costs related to paper staples, paper

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