All aboard! Transport and Logistics Paper’s last trip

Culture

There has been a lot of talk about replacing paper with digital. Sectors such as transport and logistics have bet on this change, for its benefits.

Words by
Array
Published
in 08.06.2021

There has been a lot of talk about replacing paper with digital. Some sectors in particular, such as transport and logistics, have invested in this change because they have realized the benefits. The ROI is visible and rewarding.

The perfect combination!

In the Digital Age, where technological advance is combined with growing environmental concern, companies that literally had pallets of paper files, decided to take the step forward, towards green technology associated with competitiveness.

Paper archives no longer fit into today's standards of security and accessibility.

The investment in digitalizing a company's document history is a one-time and profitable thing. There are companies that have real paper file warehouses, which makes it difficult to search for a document, not to mention the space taken up and paid for to maintain something that no longer conforms to today's market requirements or optimal security standards. 

After all, that information has been properly classified and organized in digital format, you simply follow the newly adopted system and all the paper becomes unnecessary and undesirable. For all the reasons! 

There is the ecological question, the ease and speed of searching, the security of the data with the proper backups made, and the saving of time, space and human resources in accessing and handling records from any time in the life of an organization.

Trackability, Transparency, and Speeding Up Workflows

In tailor-made platforms, digital documents follow a path from the moment they enter the system to their processing, validations and digital archive.

With permissions given to each employee or department, waiting times are eliminated, notifications and automated actions are generated; everyone knows where a certain invoice or order is, and who is performing their task on time or with some delay. 

All of this dynamic allows internal processes to be accelerated and even the performance evaluation to be done more accurately according to the KPI's of each company, generating an optimization of processes that translates into fast liquidity, an image of quality, and trust for clients and suppliers.

Enhanced Security, GDPR, Client and Supplier Restricted Access

The topic of data security is becoming increasingly important. It is easy to see that the paper archive proves to be vulnerable and meaningless when compared to the digital one. 

There is the possibility of making multiple security backups of all company information, either on-premise, in the cloud or both. This option safeguards document history from eventual disasters raises the level of data protection (whether from employees or third parties), allows the treatment of information with greater confidentiality - following the standards of the RGPD, and creates a more solid connection between suppliers, customers and company with reserved areas of access where each partner can consult their respective documents. Who says consult, says edit, share, track.

Transversal Benefits for the Company and Employees

All departments are leveraged and their work is made easier. The Human Resources department, for example, now receives employees' expenses in real time, with no loss of data, and their work times are reported from anywhere in the world; they can generate salary receipts without having to distribute them manually or via email; the employees themselves can have their own access area where all information is gathered (sick leave, vacations, receipts, contracts, and so on). 

The same principle applies to the sales department, orders, logistics, quality, accounting and management.

The Versatility between Live and Remote Working

In a context where companies and employees have suddenly been forced to adapt, it has become imperative to ensure the conditions to maintain "normal" operation if this has to be done remotely.

With the digitalization of processes and the elimination of paper, everything is easier. All that is needed is the Internet.

In conclusion, the transition from paper to digital is inevitable. A question of time. Everyone knows it. Although some business owners remain more hesitant about this investment, they will realize that they cannot get around it. After seeing it in action, they will be happy with the many advantages, mainly the cost reduction, the profitability of resources, and the speeding up of all processes, giving the company a muscle mass that is reflected in the quality and quantity of its business. 

And, in the end, we all are grateful. It's a global cause: To preserve the environment!