I love reading success stories about businesses going paperless. This morning, my Google news feed was filled with such headlines as “Move Toward Paperless Filing Improves Efficiency in Minn. Judicial System,” “Hattiesburg to Implement Paperless System,” and “At Social Security, A Paperless Wave.”

One of my favorites, though, was a piece by PC World’s Michelle Mastin about her move to a paperless operation in her private viola and violin lesson business. In “How to Make Your Small Business Paperless: A Success Story,” Mastin offers several practical tidbits based on her own experience. Hop over there for the full read – it’s a good one.

Ask around in your professional organizations to see if someone [in your industry] has already found a good tool. Try Google with terms like “(your industry) online management” or “(your industry) Web tools.” Also try variations on how you describe your industry. For example, I get many more useful results when searching for “music teaching” as opposed to “music teacher.”

Mastin also links to an older PC World story by Doug Smith, “Paperless Office Solution Rescues Ambulance Service.” Smith, the owner and proprietor of the IT firm Computer Troubleshoorts NRD, explains the particular solution he and his staff developed for National EMS, an ambulance service that was in dire need of a document management system.

Until they called us, National EMS had been working out of file boxes and large file cabinets. A file room with six vertical file cabinets was used to store files, and every couple of months those cabinets would fill up. At that point, the files would be moved to long-term warehouse storage, where they would sit for seven years. Meanwhile, the company hires couriers to retrieve documents and deliver them between the office and the warehouse.

Also, since the company works with Medicare and Medicaid, they have to make multiple copies of documents for use in multiple files. A few dozen times a day, employees have to pull existing files from storage, which takes about 15 minutes to get up, go to the file room, find the file, pull it, and return to their desk. We calculate that they were wasting the equivalent of two full-time employees pulling files every day.

What strikes me most about these stories is the variety of options available for a document management solution. Mastin’s suggestion on doing your homework is a particularly good one, and it’s been useful for the customers who have found us by word of mouth. Our insurance client base grew by referral. Our adoption by 16 environmental health departments in the state of Florida, as well as one (so far) entire county, also came about through professionals talking to one another about the solutions they’d tried that had been successful. It’s important to choose a company that understands the specific challenges you’re having, and that’s worked with others in your field.

Moving to an online document management system isn’t so hard, after all – take it from Mastin and the folks at National EMS. Or, even better, check out our archive of case studies from customers in a range of industries who have found eBridge to be a solid solution for them.