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Can a floral business really go paperless? This is what I'll be exploring today and tomorrow as I pen next month's Plugged In column for the Society of American Florists magazine, Floral Management. Today, I'll be gathering resources online which I'll post to this page as I find them. So come back to check out my progress and learn from my search. COMMENTS with links/leads APPRECIATED!
First place I always look is Wikipedia. So here's the first link:
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paperless_office
"The paperless office is now considered to be a philosophy to work with minimal paper and convert all forms of documentation to a digital form. The ideal is driven by a number of motivators including productivity gains, costs savings, space saving, the need to share information and reduced environmental impact."
"A traditional office consisted of paper-based filing systems, which may have included filing cabinets, folders, shelves, compactuses, microfiche systems, and drawing cabinets, all of which take up considerable space, requiring maintenance and equipment."
"Meanwhile, a paperless office could simply consist of a desk, chair, and computer (with a modest amount of local or network storage) and the user could use and store all the information in digital form, including speech recognition and speech synthesis."
Source - Paperless Pros & Cons: http://blog.avertua.com/2009/02/should-your-business-go-paperless.html
Wikipedia mentioned of converting current docs into digital but to floral business, this is crazy as it entails even more work for them with the only benefit of speeding searches for old docs. I think the focus of the article should be on how to implement policy and technology to minimize paper and keep things electronic.
Policy Changes: I just sent out an email to SAF's Technology Committee asking them the prevalence/usefulness of electronic invoicing.
Less Paper Options: Fax to PDF, duplex printing
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multifunction_printer
Source: http://www.staples.com/office/supplies/p1_Staples-Multipurpose-Paper-8-1-2-x-11-Case_89948_Business_Supplies_10051_SEARCH
I gather a multifunction printer (MFP aka AIO - all in one) seems to be the ideal less paper office tool since it can print duplex, handle your faxes - some even allow to store as a PDF so you can review whether to print, can scan old docs as PDF (which I mentioned won't be a key issue) and lastly eliminate the need for all the devices it would replaces, saving on energy costs.
Search: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=Pkt&q=duplex+laser+printers&btnG=Search |
