Go paperless with CMMS software

Searching for and recreating lost paper documents costs organizations mightily. Those with 1,000 employees spend approximately $2.5 million to $3.5 million per year on such tasks, according to the research firm International Data Corp.

Computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software not only helps you standardize and automate maintenance activities but also provides you with a digital platform to jumpstart your move to a paperless workplace.

With CMMS, you can begin the process of eliminating or drastically reducing paperwork and storing and accessing digital documents in one place.

Here are 10 benefits of going paperless.

	BEFORE	AFTER
1.	Locating paperwork is difficult, and documents become siloed, outdated, and redundant.	Organize, store, update, and access documents in one system from anywhere.
2.	With paper forms,  handwritten work order documentation is often illegible and error-prone.	Automate maintenance activity and workflow tasks to save time and reduce manual entry mistakes.
3.	Lost, misplaced, and misfiled paperwork hampers the ability to achieve operational excellence.	Locate critical documents with ease, including OEM manuals, PMs, and asset work request and repair histories.
4.	A laborious, multi-level routing process is often needed for attaining required handwritten approvals.	Automatically route documents to acquire fast electronic signature sign-offs and easily check progress.
5.	Communicating and changing PM processes can be inadequate and disruptive.	Instantly revise and improve PM instructions before, during, and after work-order requests and completions.
6.	Constantly removing old compliance regulations and manually updating with new compliance documents is slow and cumbersome.	Remove outdated regulations and upload and store revised documents seamlessly to ensure proper compliance.
7.	Finding and organizing multiple documents required by auditors is time-consuming.	Generate custom reports in seconds and supply planned and unplanned auditor requests instantly during an audit.
8.	Methods for collecting, viewing, and analyzing detailed metrics to measure continuous improvement are inefficient at best.	Swiftly and easily create multiple types of reports to compare varying metrics. Use data to drive operational excellence and improve equipment reliability.
9.	Trying to share and collaborate on hard copies of documents is slow and painful.	Automatically share documents with ease and increase opportunities to collaborate.
10.	Your business-to-business transactions get clunky and complicated because more and more businesses are geared to accept only digital versions.	Align your business with others making the move to digitalization and simplify your transactions.

Tips for making the move to paperless

• Raise the awareness and obtain buy-in: Invite a discussion with colleagues and executives. Explain how paperless processes will make jobs easier by eliminating cumbersome paper-based work documentation activities.
• Document cost savings to offset technology costs: Provide data showing the estimated savings achieved by reducing the costs of storage space, printing, paper disposal, document searches, administrative filing, and more.
• Produce evidence showing the labor costs associated with paper usage: Provide links to websites containing relevant and surprising statistics, including the overlooked costs associated with the time it takes to manage and distribute paper documents.
• Put document rules into practice: Help organize a unified document management system for retaining, purging, storing, categorizing, and dating documents from the start at your company.
• Avoid attempts to revert to paper: Train colleagues to skillfully optimize eMaint CMMS functionality. Monitor their ability to adjust to and sustain the paperless process well into the future.

Stop the paper trail

As paper mills disappear, the cost of paper continues to rise. CMMS software grows with you and can be customized to fit your organization’s unique needs, including achieving and sustaining a paperless environment.

Thinking of going paperless? It’s easy being green with eMaint CMMS software.