When it comes to saving on paper use, Vancouver's QuickMobile is quickly making an impact.
"We can reduce the amount of paper at virtually any event," said Patrick Payne, co-founder and CEO of the company that now counts more than 30 Fortune 500 corporations as clients and projects 100% growth this year.
QuickMobile builds interactive mobile applications and websites for audiences' smartphones and tablets at conferences, film festivals and other events.
"When you go to a conference, trade show or meeting, we take what is typically handed out to all the attendees in terms of an agenda or a conference program and we replace that, making it interactive and dynamic, and a lot of fun," Payne told Business in Vancouver.
From its beginnings just over three years ago, QuickMobile was named No. 12 on BIV's list of B.C.'s fastest-growing companies this past April when it had 55 employees. In August, it topped 100 staff.
Payne said one of the first meetings the company handled was the PhoCusWright conference, the leading global event for the travel industry, and they saved 90,000 sheets of paper.
Then a conference for Accenture, the U.S.-based consulting giant, went totally paperless when the 175 chief information officers attending were handed iPads.
"It was completely interactive with the iPads being used by people to ask questions of speakers, for surveys and polling; all of the documentation they would normally hand out – case studies and things like that – was on the iPad," Payne said.
Recombo CEO Mike Gardner knows very well the advantage of paperless communication.
Recombo works on transactional documents that begin a business process, such as starting a new life insurance policy, opening up a new brokerage account, opening an RRSP, licensing agreements, etc.
"There's nothing more frustrating than to fill in documents, send it in and then get a message back saying it's incomplete," said Gardner. "That whole process side is very expensive and wasteful."
Many of these types of documents require a lot of back and forth, "scratching out different clauses," according to Gardner.
"You do that until you agree," he said, "and file it away in a filing cabinet hoping you don't have to pull it out again because it means somebody's going to have to go to court.
"The power of what we do is to maintain all that data in a digital form so people can reuse the data rather than rekeying data over and over again as would be the case if you are scanning documents and emailing them."
Gardner is adamant that the reduction of paper use needs to hit all business levels.
"It's absolutely irresponsible for CFOs to say they're not going after paperless processes in order to save money and make customers happier."
Vancouver consultant Sara Blenkhorn, principal of Future Strategies, also pointed to the value of software, citing PaperCut, which helps control printing.
But first, she said, "the single most effective thing a company can do to reduce its paper use is to make a company-wide commitment to be paper-free.
"What that does is really bake the commitment into the DNA of the company, and it helps employees and customers be on the same page about what their goals are."
She said businesses can save money and increase their profit margins by going paperless and thus reducing the cost of paper and ink.
"Employee morale will increase and productivity rates will as well; attrition costs will decrease as existing employees see their company efforts in line with their values."
Blenkhorn offered several paper-saving tips:
- make doubled-sided printing the default for printers;
- on the bottom of emails, add a line that says "Print only if necessary";
- for signing contracts and other documents, use electronic signatures that can be scanned and attached to the digital file;
- in company kitchens and bathrooms, replace paper towels with cloths;
- instead of Post-Its, use online or phone note apps; or use a dry-erase marker on a window or chalkboard; or cut up scrap paper for notes;
- replace subscriptions to paper newsletters and other periodicals with e-subscriptions; and
- do the same with e-billing to replace paper statements;
Some companies offer incentives for choosing e-bills. Walmart Canada, for example, gives $10 in bonus Walmart Rewards to its MasterCard clients who go paperless.
Last year, Dartmouth, N.S.-based Bluewave Energy, which has a Langley office, offered customers signing up for e-billing the chance to win Air Miles.
E-billing is available from hundreds of organizations and government agencies to make payments for credit cards, cable, phone, utilities and taxes.
Keeping it all straight can be challenging. Canada Post offers ePost, a way to receive, pay and manage bills in one place. •
