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Contact UsEnough is enough though, I have made the strategic decision to go paperless. I do not take this decision lightly but I think there are many good reasons to follow through. Mobile devices, like the iPad, are excellent enabling tools. The idea of not having to carry around the extra weight is also a huge positive. My kids like the fact that I am helping to save the rain forests and environment. My biggest reason to go paperless though is to add value to my organization and my customers through greater collaboration.
So here is my NEW process: All notes are taken on the iPad, which, through the App Store, offers a variety of excellent note taking applications. Use a wireless keyboard or a touch stylus to take your notes. The applications are great because they allow to have different note books (just like in my prior life) and you can email these notebooks or individual pages to yourself or others. Once the email arrives in my inbox it is simple to upload the PDF notes to our operating system of record, Salesforce CRM.
An important tool in the Salesforce CRM system is Chatter. Chatter is a collaboration tool where individuals in a company can share information, ideas and documents. Back in my ‘paper days’ it was very time consuming to replicate notes into the system. Having these various notes, documents and presentations in the system is critical for collaboration with members of the sales team and other colleagues. Chatter is an exceptional tool for managing and tracking this collaboration as well as storing the documents.
Another value of Chatter is it’s ability for audit purposes and indefinite search capabilities for these pieces of company intelligence. Documents do not get lost in personal folder systems, they do not get misplaced on someones desk and they are accessible to everyone who needs the access. The searching capability of Salesforce CRM is intuitive and efficient. The fact that these documents ‘live’ indefinitely in the system is key for some industries and a great feature. Everything you want in an Enterprise Collaboration tool is offered to you with Chatter. Salesforce.com even offers free versions of the tool for organizations who are not Salesforce CRM customers.
So there it is, some great reasons to go paperless. Save yourself time, save yourself frustration and by all means necessary, collaborate with your colleagues. You will quickly understand the power of this collaboration by being able to better serve your customers. Your personal knowledge will grow. Your customer response time will improve and your value add to your customers will go up. And let’s not forget that you will be helping our planet with your ‘Green’ approach to business and collaboration.