A recent study has found smaller businesses are moving much faster than larger ones in terms of adopting paperless processes.
Despite having fewer resources at their disposal than larger organisations, Europe’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) appear to be winning the race to introduce paperless processes.
This is according to a recent study commissioned by office equipment supplier Ricoh, which found almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of European SMEs expect to digitise their documents – or at least, the ones they haven’t already scanned – within the next three years. By comparison, less than half (46 per cent) of larger organisations planned the same.
Furthermore, the survey found that almost four fifths (78 per cent) of SME business leaders argued their workforces were able to work remotely from any authenticated mobile device, compared to 69 per cent of bosses at bigger firms.
It’s testimony to the agility of smaller companies that they’re much more likely to have efficient paperless offices than their larger counterparts. However, that’s not to say that SMEs’ information handling isn’t entirely without problems – the Ricoh study found these firms also have a tendency to put themselves at risk when it comes to security.
Some 62 per cent of SME leaders admitted to pollsters that their employers stored sensitive data assets on personal drives, such as their smartphones’ storage or USB keys. The figure was lower – but still significant – for larger organisations, at 55 per cent.
David Mills, chief operating officer of Ricoh, concluded SMEs have some way to go in terms of optimising their processes. Once they do, however, he said they have "a fantastic opportunity ahead of them".
"By further digitising their business critical documents and optimising their processes, they will be able to access information quickly, whenever they need it," he commented. "Importantly, by doing so, they will increase productivity as they manage their knowledge more effectively."
If your business has a document scanning project lined up, consider getting in touch with Dajon. Our electronic document management solution makes sure your data is accessible from anywhere with an internet connection, but also keeps it out of the wrong hands with encryption and comprehensive audit trails.