• Swindon & Wiltshire Experts
• Wednesday May 7 2025
• Author Name: Layla Cockburn

A paperless office aids sustainability goals – Filestream

The benefits of adopting Electronic Document Management for you and the environment are plentiful, says Layla Cockburn of Filestream.

Did you know there is a simple way to get a ‘sustainability factor’ into your business?

Whether you are a tech giant or a solopreneur, everyone is – and should be – looking for ways to make their businesses more sustainable.

It can seem like a big task to do this and to know where to even start can be a challenge. Yet your technology can make a difference and, yes, I am talking about document management.

Have you ever heard of Electronic Document Management (EDM), Optical Character Registrations (OCR) and Intelligence Capture?

You may even be using elements of this technology already.

EDM describes the process of digitising, storing, and managing documents and information in electronic form and in one place, rather than using paper-based systems. This means digitising physical documents, encrypting, and storing all electronic documents.

No more paper documents, no more files that take a long time to go through to find what you are looking for and no physical space needed to house any documents.

This data is then stored somewhere like a Cloud Server Farm or a business’s personal server. You can also ensure that whoever provides this service does so using ‘green’ energy to positively impact your own use of data and energy.

The benefits of adopting a EDM for you and the environment are plentiful. Here are a few:

• Reduced paper consumption and energy usage by lowering transport and physical storage costs for paper.
• Using a cloud server farm rather than your own storage server means reducing energy. Cloud server farms typically use less energy as they are fitted with cooling technology and more effective data farming and some use only green energy.
• Less physical space. Your data is more manageable and documents can be retained for longer and there is no need to increase your physical space to house important documents – indeed you may free up space.
• Reduce end on equipment like smartphones, laptops, and printers when you take on EDM systems. You only have the tech that is necessary in your business. This prevents physical hardware and e-waste.
• Overall business costs are reduced. Travel costs are less. Physical offices and meetings are reduced as you have the ability to share documents electronically; great for teams of people, sharing information over large distances and also across multiple premises and/or if you have staff who are on the road.
• Security. Due to documents being electric, a company can use Role Based Access Control which allows select people to view documents and protect sensitive information. You can also track all changes to a document.

Another way you can increase your sustainability is through OCR and Intelligence Capture.

This is technology that can convert text from images or documents and convert it into machine-readable text. It can even read information from a scanned handwritten note. Meaning, your computer can identify key information, whether something is an invoice, a contract or a CV and file them accordingly.

Having worked in the industry for a while, I find it hard to think of a downside to OCR and Intelligent Indexing. The accuracy is impressive and the time saved can be focused on other areas of the business.

Sustainability is about saving energy and being more efficient with the energy we are using. By adopting these systems to reduce your paper, travel, and energy needs, your business can become something that will stand the test of time.

Layla Cockburn is operations director at document management specialist Filestream