What does your current system cost?

This is a question we ask a lot when people want to know how much it would cost to "go paperless". We usually get a blank stare back with a response like "not much at all" or "it’s not costing us anything". This is when the meeting gets interesting. So let me help you out. This is how we can help you figure out if the “cure” will cost more than the “pain” to go paperless. I know, I know, you don’t want us to show you what it’s really costing you, so here is some free consulting so you can make your own calculations.

Go to the people that are actually in the trenches, the people who handle all of the paper-flow each day. Get them to stop for a minute, and have them think of how many times in a day, week, or month they spend getting up to retrieve a file or piece of paper. Make them calculate a real number. Don’t let them off the hook with an answer like; "I don’t know" or "a bunch". Calculate how many minutes or hours per week and multiply that by 52 weeks. Then take the total number of hours and multiply that by their average wage with benefits. If you don’t know the benefits multiplier, a good rule of thumb is around 40%. So a $15.00 per hour worker is costing the company around $21.00 per hour – pushing paper.

Okay, so now you know what the labor costs are. How about the amount of floor space required and it’s cost? If you’re in one of the offices where you walk around cabinets to get to the cubicle, you have a lot of real estate and cost. What about the retrieval time from offsite storage or warehouses? Are those deliveries starting to add up? Are there any fuel up-charges getting added to your invoice each month? Add it all up. My guess is that your total system cost for people filing and retrieving paper is more than you thought.

But here is the hardest question to answer. In light of Hurricane Katrina, what would you do if your business had a disaster? Could you get started again? Your current cost may not make any difference if you have no backup for your paper information. Most businesses can tell us about how their computer network is backed-up and protected, but very few can answer the same question about their paper records.

Before investing time or money in any new document management system or process change, calculate the real cost of your current methods. Only then can you find the true savings.

Is your business situation slightly different, or are there other factors that may be contributing to the cost of paper filing? Give us a call and we’ll be happy to help you calculate the actual cost of managing paper records for your specific situation.

Email us at contact@americanmicrokc.com and in the subject line, ask for our Analyzer.