How to Go Paperless with Digital Forms Software for Deskless Workers

Paper based processes are dated.

They are also time intensive and expensive, not to mention their adverse environmental impact.

Paper based checklists come with more disadvantages than just time and costs.

Undocumented processes make tracking and management very difficult.

Mobile phones can reinvigorate deskless workers and free up time to focus on work that really matters.

Industry 4.0 comprises a wide range of technologies.

These technologies, aimed at the deskless worker, use mobile phones and consistent connectivity to improve peer-to-peer communications and create a paperless workforce.

What does “Going Paperless”mean?

In simple terms, “going paperless at work” means shifting from using paper to digital tools for various functions and processes.

In a paperless process, information is stored and transferred through digital media rather than in paper based files or registers.

An example of a paperless process is a digital receipt.

A lot of retailers mail digital bills or receipts to customers rather than printing out hard copies.

This saves time, space and paper.

For deskless workers, going paperless includes converting checklists, forms, data collection and training into digital modes.

Essentially, in a paperless workplace, the use of paper is significantly reduced if not eliminated.

Going Paperless: Benefits

Increased Efficiency

This is the primary driving force for going paperless.

At the moment, everything is a matter of economics.

Hotels, manufacturing, retail and all frontline industries are looking at cutting costs.

Improving efficiency is the means to cost savings.

Technology that uses existing devices like mobile phones and tablets, is helping bridge the communication gap between companies and deskless workedigirs.

Approvals are a good example. Leave, travel or other requests by employees need approvals from managers.

In a normal scenario, forms have to be printed out and sent to their managers.

Who have to sign them and submit them to complete a tedious and time consuming approval process.

A paperless approval process is faster. Here the worker can submit the forms and get them approved instantly, since everything happens digitally.

Increased Savings

Paper based processes are expensive, requiring a lot of materials like pens (pencils) and of course, paper!

These documents occupy space and can be difficult to find in case of large volumes.

Reduced use of paper also saves trees and reduces your carbon footprint.

Going paperless saves not only ink but also toner and electricity used to run a printer.

Energy savings again equates to environmental benefits.

Money is also saved not only in paper, ink and storage space, but also shipping and mailing costs are saved through going digital.

The biggest saving, however, is in terms of time.

Shifting to electronic media for forms and approvals saves time since documents can be sent across in seconds.

This is a huge benefit as it frees up time for the employee to focus on bigger more gainful tasks.

Paper based processes are expensive, requiring a lot of materials like pens (pencils) and of course, paper!

These documents occupy space and can be difficult to find in case of large volumes.

Reduced use of paper also saves trees and reduces your carbon footprint.

Going paperless at work saves not only ink but also toner and electricity used to run a printer.

Energy savings again equates to environmental benefits.

Money is also saved not only in paper, ink and storage space, but also shipping and mailing costs are saved through going digital.

The biggest saving, however, is in terms of time.

Shifting to electronic media for forms and approvals saves time since documents can be sent across in seconds.

This is a huge benefit as it frees up time for the employee to focus on bigger more gainful tasks.

Increased Productivity

Productivity is just a subtle way of saying “profitability.”

Businesses need forms and data to run operations.

Time invested in paper based form filling, invoices, inventory and more just eats into productivity of a workforce.

This time, if saved, can be used to perform core tasks that directly yield profits.

Automating form filling and other routine workflows leads to tremendous savings in terms of time.

Time is not only saved in filling forms and invoices, but in finding them.

Digitally stored documents can be accessed through a simple search command.

The same process when performed manually takes ages, not to mention the risk of losing a file or paper form.

How to Go Paperless in a Frontline Workforce

Going paperless helps offices, especially those with a large number of frontline workers.

Frontline, distributed and deskless workers need to be pulled into the digital bandwagon.

These workers, especially in industries like retail, manufacturing, logistics and construction, are constantly filling forms and checklists as part of their jobs.

Housekeeping staff need to fill in daily checklists.

Retail staff are constantly creating invoices and performing inventory checks.

Manufacturing line workers need to perform daily and weekly safety inspections.

Construction workers need to update project status, and the list goes on.

Going paperless is more relevant, useful and necessary for deskless workers and frontline staff.

It helps streamline operations, cut costs and increase productivity, as stated earlier.

It is more secure as digitally stored forms, documents and data are protected by multiple layers of electronic security protocols.

Following are a few pointers to take your business on the paperless route:

Adopt online digital forms.

If you’ve decided to take to paperless processes start by adopting digital forms software.

Online digital forms help you overcome the drudgery of manual data entry.

This also reduces human error.

Once you’ve made up your mind to go for paperless processes it’s time to choose a fitting software.

There are various vendors that provide customized solutions for digitizing forms.

Groupe.io is an employee app with a digital form creator feature wherein you can create customized forms for your frontline workers.

Other ways to shift from paper-based to digital processes are to adopt e-signatures, cloud based applications, paperless workflows, AI and ML based analytics, and so on.

Groupe.io – Mobile Form Builder for Deskless Workers

Groupe’s data collection and mobile form builder feature helps you go paperless easily.

Groupe.io’s mobile based digital form builder helps you reduce manual errors, operating costs and turnaround times.

The digital form creator feature helps you build and design mobile forms for various applications.

Forms can be created using a drag and drop feature and doesn’t require any coding.

The app also has a provision for e-signatures, helping you sign off on approvals and other documents with ease.

Groupe’s OR code and barcode scanner also helps you capture product data for inventory checks, ticket information and so on.

Field data collection can be enhanced with photos and documents directly on the platform.

If you’d like to understand how Groupe.io can help you automate your processes schedule a demo today! You can also write to us at [email protected]!