A paperless Koch Capital Management saves around $20,000 per year

It took 18 months for investment manager Jim Koch's company to go paperless, but now that it has, he estimates that Koch Capital Management is saving $20,000 annually. 

Koch's business switched over to document manager software years ago and since then he says his firm has stayed better organized, saved money and improved client relationships, according to Investment News. He stated that with the savings his company has realized since going paperless, he is able to give clients better deals. Factors such as lower postage costs and less paper used on a day-to-day basis were significant in lessening the business' annual costs.

Labor costs related to paper alone can appear notably prohibitive when broken down. On average it will cost an organization $20 to file a document, according to consulting, accounting and tax services firm Larson Allen. If that document is misfiled, it will cost $120 to find it again, or $220 to replace it. Of all documents filed 7.5 percent get lost, and 3 percent of the remaining papers are misfiled.

Even as paper use has been drastically reduced over the years, Koch still intends to further his company's dedication to paperless business. He communicates with clients via Google hangouts and will soon introduce the Google Chromebook into the office in order to better share reports through the internet. 

There are many different reasons why companies go paperless. Time-efficiency, cost-savings and going green are a few of the most common reasons that a business rids itself of paper. Simply going green is a reason that could actually mean a number of things depending on who you ask.

While Koch didn't make his decision for environmental reasons, many companies do tout the environment as one factor in their decision to switch to a content management service. Cutting costs is an obvious reason to do so, and saving the environment is the idealistic factor in making the decision. Some find that the environmentally conscious niche demographic can be more easily captured by a company that publicizes its contributions to the environment. 

"The next generation, who is going to be inheriting a lot of wealth from baby boomers, their values are definitely more along these lines; it's almost automatic," said Michael Kramer, managing partner and director of social research at Natural Investments, according to Investment News. 

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