Paperless - a sustainable transformation trend for traditional businesses

In many years, paper documents have been an indispensable part of traditional business operations—from contracts, invoices, warehouse receipts, to internal approval processes. However, this model is increasingly showing many limitations: high operating costs, susceptibility to errors, slow processing, and difficulty in meeting requirements for transparency, data traceability, or ESG standards.

The change in user behavior, the pressure for digital transformation, and the need for internal optimization have all driven the paperless trend to become a crucial part of a company's sustainable development strategy. This blog post will help you understand why going paperless is not just a technology solution, but a foundation that helps businesses save costs, improve operations, and enhance competitiveness in the digital age.

1. Factors making paperless the top choice

Pressure from ESG & Sustainability Standards

• Reduce Paper Waste → Lower Carbon Footprint: Traditional businesses consume a large amount of paper for printing documents, contracts, invoices, and archived records. Cutting down on paper not only helps limit the exploitation of forest resources but also reduces the carbon emissions generated from printing, transportation, and document storage. In the context where ESG standards are becoming mandatory requirements, the "paperless" direction helps businesses move closer to their Net Zero goals and sustainable development.
• Promote Transparency and Data Traceability: Paper documents are easily lost, modified, and difficult to track. Conversely, digitized documents create a digital trace, which helps control editing history, access rights, and the approval process. This allows businesses to better meet requirements for transparency, internal audit, and legal compliance.

Global digital transformation trend

• Businesses Optimize Costs, Increase Processing Speed: As the world enters the 4.0 digital transformation phase, the speed of information processing is a key competitive factor. Paperless significantly reduces the costs of printing, storage, transportation, and manpower related to manual documentation. Simultaneously, the use of digitalized processes speeds up the handling of orders, contracts, and invoices many times over.
• Limit Reliance on Manual Staff: Traditional businesses are exposed to risks when they depend too heavily on the manual actions of individual employees. Paperless promotes automation—from data entry, data transfer, reconciliation, to storage—reducing the risk of errors and increasing process stability, even when personnel changes.

Need for internal process automation

• Electronic Signing, Document Management, and Online Approval: Paper-based signing processes often take days to move from person to person, especially when multiple levels of approval are needed. With a paperless system, digital signatures and online approval help businesses shorten waiting times from several days to just a few minutes. Documents are also stored on a common platform, making them easy to search and track.

Customers increasingly prioritize "Green" businesses

• Enhance Brand Reputation: Consumer behavior shows that consumers increasingly prioritize environmentally friendly brands. Adopting paperless is the clearest way for a business to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability without making too many declarations. This helps businesses improve their image and score points with international partners.
• Elevate User Experience: Today’s customers do not want to sign 10 pages of paper or wait for documents to be printed, signed, and stamped. They want fast operations: electronic signing, online contract tracking, and document retrieval anytime. Paperless delivers this, making the experience smoother and more modern.

2. How does a business implement a paperless system?

• Digitizing records and documents: Businesses can convert paper documents into digital format by scanning, taking photos, or using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to extract data. This makes documents easier to access, search, and reduces the risk of loss.
• Applying digital signatures and online approval workflows: Instead of waiting for multi-level manual signatures, a digital signature allows for quick, secure, and easily controllable approvals. Online approval workflows also enable real-time progress tracking.
• Using ERP/CRM systems for centralized document management:
  • ERP/CRM creates a single source of truth for all documents: contracts, orders, delivery notes, quotations, etc. Documents are automatically pushed to relevant departments, stored centrally, and quickly retrieved.
  • ERP can automatically generate quotations, contracts, invoices, delivery notes, and inventory slips thanks to pre-existing templates. This reduces 70-90% of employees' repetitive tasks.
• Applying AI and OCR in document processing: AI-OCR helps read, classify, and extract data from PDF files, photos, or emails in just a few seconds. This completely replaces manual data entry, reduces errors, and increases processing speed.

3. Specific benefits when businesses switch to paperless

• Saving 20–40% on printing and storage costs:
  • Traditional businesses incur significant costs for paper, printer ink, printing/photocopy equipment, maintenance fees, and physical document storage space. When switching to a paperless model, most of these costs are cut. In addition to reducing supply costs, businesses also save on labor costs for sorting, transporting, and searching for documents. This is a clear and long-term saving, especially for businesses handling a large volume of documents such as logistics, trade, retail, or manufacturing.
• Increasing document processing speed by 3–5 times:
  • Digitized documents allow businesses to process documents much faster than traditional paper workflows: no need to print, manually sign, transfer files between departments, or wait for approval. Automating the signing, reconciliation, and storage processes eliminates the time employees spend on repetitive tasks, shortening the process from several days to a few minutes. This is especially critical in departments that require quick processing, such as Sales, Operations, and Accounting.
• Reducing manual errors, increasing data accuracy:
  • Manual data entry is the primary cause of errors in reports, contracts, or operational documents. Paperless minimizes human error through:
    • OCR automatically reading and extracting data,
    • Document management systems allowing form standardization,
    • Reducing the need for multiple data entries across different departments.
  • When documents are digitized and updated directly on the system, businesses can maintain high accuracy and ensure data consistency.
• Convenience in access, audit, and risk management:
  • Paper records are easily lost, damaged, or time-consuming to find. Conversely, digitized documents are stored centrally and can be searched in seconds via keywords, document codes, or filters. In auditing, a paperless system helps track revision history, access rights, and approval workflows clearly, reducing the risk of internal fraud and ensuring regulatory compliance.
• Contributing to ESG/Net Zero goals:
  • Paperless directly reduces paper consumption, which translates to reduced forest resource extraction and lower CO₂ emissions related to printing and transportation. This is a vital criterion in ESG commitments, especially for exporting businesses or those seeking to raise their operational standards to meet the requirements of international partners. Switching to paperless is a practical, easy-to-implement step that creates a tangible impact on the journey toward sustainability.
• Improving employee efficiency and customer experience:
  • When no longer "bottlenecked" by paper processes, employees can focus on high-value tasks such as customer care, data analysis, and service quality improvement. At the same time, customers also benefit from the modern process: signing contracts online, receiving electronic invoices, and real-time document status tracking. This increases satisfaction, enhances professionalism, and improves brand image in the eyes of the customer.

4. Challenges in implementing paperless & how to overcome them

Personnel resistance to change: Requires clear training & transition roadmap.

The shift from paper-based procedures to a digital system can create a psychological barrier for many employees, especially in traditional businesses accustomed to old ways of working. Personnel might worry that the technology is difficult to use, that they will lose control, or that it will affect their work habits.

Solutions:

• Organize training based on functional groups.
• Provide guidance through documentation, videos, and sample procedures.
• Build a paperless roadmap that proceeds in phases instead of an aggressive, all-at-once transition.
• Conduct internal communication to help personnel clearly understand the benefits and their role in the transformation process.

Difficulty integrating legacy systems: Requires choosing suitable digitalization solutions.

Businesses may be using multiple disparate software programs or old technology, which makes the transition to a unified digital platform difficult. If data cannot be synchronized, the implementation of paperless initiatives can be easily disrupted or result in overlapping processes.

Solutions:

• Choose an ERP/CRM solution that supports open APIs and provides flexible customization capabilities.
• Evaluate the current system status before digitalization.
• Implement a pilot program to test integration capabilities.

Information security: Apply access control, encryption, and backup.

When documents are digitized and stored on a system, the risks associated with unauthorized access or data loss can increase if the business does not have the proper standard security mechanisms in place.

Solutions:

• Establish role-based access control.
• Encrypt data and use digital certificates for important documents.
• Utilize an automatic backup system and secure cloud storage.
• Monitor system logs to promptly detect unusual access attempts.

5. Conclusion

Going paperless is not just a solution for reducing paper; it is a critical shift that helps traditional businesses optimize operations, increase transparency, and enhance competitiveness in the context of digital transformation. When processes are digitized, documents are easier to access, and internal operations become more seamless. Businesses not only save costs but also improve staff efficiency and the customer experience.

In the growing trend of prioritizing ESG and Net Zero, adopting a paperless approach also helps businesses demonstrate their commitment to sustainable development and meet international standards. For effective transformation, businesses need to approach it with a clear roadmap, choose the right technology solutions, and invest in internal training. Paperless is no longer an option—it has become the inevitable direction for traditional businesses to adapt, innovate, and achieve long-term growth in the digital era.