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COVID-19 Health Concerns: Why Going Paperless Matters Now

Whether as an individual, a business, or an enterprise, there are already innumerable reasons to reduce or eliminate your reliance on paper. Paper can be harmful to the environment, inefficient in the office, and incompatible with the global shift toward digital business. However, despite virtually every sign indicating that the time to go paperless has arrived, another argument against the use of paper for business has materialized seemingly out of nowhere: COVID-19.

This new reality introduces serious COVID-19 health concerns around physical documentation, as the COVID virus can live on paper for extended periods—posing an invisible risk in environments still dependent on manual processes.

A Paperless Office Can Help Prevent Transmission

In a world where readily available cleaning supplies kill 99.99% of viruses and bacteria, it’s easy to grow complacent when it comes to actively managing and improving your office sanitation plan. With the threat of the coronavirus looming overhead, now is a great time to re-evaluate your strategy so you can limit transmission once the economy has reopened.

That means more than restocking your cleaning supply closet and doubling down on hand sanitizer. It means taking the necessary steps to facilitate a paperless office that all but eliminates unsanitary filing and other processes that require the direct handling of paper. By researching paperless solutions today, you can begin to deploy a manageable, cost-efficient plan when Americans return to work.

The Risk: Viruses Can Survive on Paper for Up to Five Days

Findings from the Journal of Hospital Infection

An office is one of the most susceptible environments to contagious viruses. Individuals work closely together, sharing office supplies and engaging candidly as they solve problems. Taking a direct, hands-on approach to tackling business challenges is always an effective strategy; however, it also weakens your defenses against transmission.

The Journal of Hospital Infection studied several strains of coronaviruses and tested their longevity on inanimate surfaces. On paper, viruses were found to survive for as long as five days or as little as five minutes. In other words, the COVID virus can live on paper, making even a shared document a potential carrier.

If a sick worker prints a document and passes it to other employees, the virus could spread. If the virus is able to survive for five days and the document requires several reviews or approvals, the effect on an office could be devastating for employee health and business continuity.

Other Surfaces That Pose a Threat

There are other office supplies that support paper use and pose a threat, too. Cardboard filing or shipping boxes (24 hours), hard plastic copiers and other office supplies (2–3 days), and metal cabinets or file storage (5 days) also contribute to the risk of virus transmission. There’s no need for these items in a paperless environment, which means fewer surfaces are touched by employees.

Empowering A Distributed Workforce With Secure Document Access

One of the most enduring business challenges to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic is the need for greater workforce flexibility. While many companies have resumed on-site operations, hybrid and fully remote work models are here to stay. The ability to maintain continuity, regardless of employee location, has become a key differentiator.

Unfortunately, organizations that still rely on physical paperwork are at a disadvantage. Remote workers can’t access filing cabinets. Employees can’t route paper for approval if they aren’t in the same building. And compliance teams can’t audit what they can’t see.

IntelliChief solves this with secure, role-based access to digitized documents from anywhere.

Whether you’re in Accounts Payable, Customer Service, or Human Resources, IntelliChief’s centralized digital repository ensures that authorized users can:

  • Instantly retrieve business-critical documents from any device
  • Track approvals and workflows with full transparency
  • Maintain compliance and data integrity across all work environments

This shift isn’t just about convenience, it’s about resilience. By enabling remote access to documents and automating manual routing, IntelliChief helps enterprises adapt to the demands of modern work while maintaining the governance and control required at scale.

In the context of COVID-19 health concerns, this level of digital preparedness reduces exposure risks tied to shared office infrastructure while preserving operational continuity.

The Hidden Cost and Operational Risk of Clinging to Paper

Even without a global health crisis, paper-based processes are a liability—particularly in large enterprises with complex, cross-functional operations. When information is stored in physical form, it becomes inherently siloed, hard to track, and vulnerable to both loss and misuse.

In a post-COVID climate, these risks are magnified. Document dependencies can slow decision-making, prevent timely action, and expose the organization to unnecessary compliance gaps.

For example:

  • Delayed invoice approvals can lead to late fees or missed early payment discounts.
  • Lack of real-time visibility into documents affects supply chain decisions.
  • Manual sales order processing slows fulfillment and erodes customer satisfaction.

Digital documentation powered by IntelliChief’s AI-enabled automation platform eliminates these risks. By centralizing content in a secure, searchable repository, teams across departments can act faster, with more confidence—and fewer physical touchpoints that raise COVID-19 health concerns.

Paperless Solutions For A Safe Return to Work

Americans across the country are eager to get back to work. It’s up to businesses to ensure that, when they do, they have everything they need to work safely and efficiently. In a paperless office, they can do both. A paperless office is faster, more efficient, and less error-prone. It ensures that business-critical documents are always accessible and within reach at the touch of a key while eliminating human error and redundancies that reduce your bottom line.

If you want your business to continue to grow once the COVID-19 crisis has subsided, supporting a paperless environment is the first step. Once all your documents are stored in a secure digital repository. Think of it as a centralized hub for your enterprise information where you can take advantage of several other benefits including business process automation, remote content management, and no-code workflow management.

Considering the growing list of arguments against the use of paper, it really comes down to two questions: Why do you still rely on paper? How can we help?

The Long-Term Business Case for Paperless Operations

COVID-19 may have sparked a renewed urgency around paperless environments, but the benefits extend far beyond COVID-19 health concerns.

Enterprises that transition away from paper gain long-term strategic advantages, including:

  • Faster Document Routing and Approvals
  • Lower Operational Costs
  • Improved Data Accuracy and Audit Readiness
  • Remote Accessibility
  • Scalability

These benefits aren’t just theoretical. Organizations using AI-enabled automation platforms like IntelliChief report dramatic gains in efficiency, touchless processing rates of 80%+, and higher ROI across departments such as Accounts Payable, Sales Order Management, and HR.

Industry Insight: How Regulated Industries Are Responding

Industries such as manufacturing, distribution, and financial services—many of which rely on ERPs like JD Edwards, SAP, or Infor—are leading the push toward paperless operations in response to pandemic learnings.

Regulatory pressure has also intensified. Sectors governed by SOX, FDA 21 CFR Part 11, or ISO standards are being urged to adopt more reliable, traceable documentation practices. Paper doesn’t meet that standard—not when it comes to real-time traceability or audit trails.

Enterprise leaders are realizing that COVID didn’t just expose a short-term weakness. It revealed the urgent need for digitally resilient infrastructure that can weather any disruption. IntelliChief helps companies in regulated industries achieve compliance and operational agility by automating workflows, routing approvals, and capturing data directly into their ERP systems—without ever touching paper.

AI-Enabled Automation in Action

Eliminating paper is only the first step. To fully future-proof operations, companies need to automate the processes that rely on those documents.

IntelliChief’s AI-enabled automation platform uses machine learning to robotically:

  • Capture unstructured data from incoming documents
  • Match data against ERP records
  • Flag exceptions or missing information
  • Route approvals through configurable workflows
  • Integrate validated data directly into ERP systems

This isn’t basic digitization. This is intelligent automation—designed for enterprise-class ERP environments and built to handle high volumes of mission-critical transactions without human touchpoints.

These capabilities not only eliminate administrative inefficiencies, but also directly address COVID-19 health concerns by reducing reliance on document handling and physical routing between departments.

Why Enterprise ERP Integration Matters

When evaluating paperless office strategies, ERP integration is often overlooked—but it’s critical. Without direct integration into systems like Oracle EBS, SAP S/4HANA, or Infor Global Solutions, companies are forced to rely on swivel-chair processes that reintroduce manual tasks.

But with IntelliChief:

  • Documents are indexed using ERP-native data
  • Users can retrieve and work on documents within their ERP screens
  • Business rules mirror existing ERP logic for consistency and control

ERP-integrated automation eliminates silos, ensures data integrity, and reduces risk—all while accelerating transaction speed.

How IntelliChief Helps You Get Started

Transitioning to a paperless office may sound complex, but IntelliChief’s structured implementation methodology removes the guesswork.

Our approach includes:

  • Process mapping and consultation
  • Tailored configuration based on your ERP
  • Data migration and validation
  • User training and onboarding
  • Ongoing optimization with built-in analytics

Whether your focus is AP automation, order management, or human capital management, our platform is flexible, scalable, and designed for the demands of enterprise automation.

From Crisis Reaction to Digital Strategy: What Comes Next?

Many organizations treated the pandemic as a short-term shock. They implemented temporary workarounds—emailing scanned documents, adding ad-hoc approval flows—but haven’t yet taken the next step: strategic digital transformation.

Now is the time to transition from reactive to proactive. A paperless foundation gives you the agility to pivot faster, respond to market changes, and scale operations without introducing new bottlenecks.

  • Scenario planning becomes easier with real-time analytics
  • Remote collaboration becomes seamless with centralized digital content
  • IT teams can support cross-departmental needs without over engineering manual processes

For IntelliChief customers, this transformation isn’t theoretical. It’s already underway. And for companies still burdened by paper? The question isn’t just how long the COVID virus can live on paper—it’s how long their outdated processes can survive in a digital-first economy.

Pandemic-Resilient Operations Are Now a Business Imperative

The COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyst, but the risks it revealed are still very real. Natural disasters, supply chain disruptions, and geopolitical unrest all continue to threaten business continuity. Organizations that remain dependent on physical documents, in-person workflows, or local access to critical data are exposing themselves to unnecessary risk.

Paperless operations, enabled by AI-driven automation, deliver the agility and resilience needed to survive and thrive in this new environment.

IntelliChief customers that embraced digital transformation pre-pandemic reported smoother transitions to remote work, fewer disruptions, and faster recovery timelines compared to peers still relying on paper.

The Environmental Argument: Still Valid, Still Urgent

While the immediate COVID-19 health concerns may fade from headlines, the environmental impact of paper usage remains urgent.

According to The World Counts:

  • Over 40% of global wood harvest goes to paper production
  • The average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper annually
  • Paper waste accounts for 26% of total landfill content

Adopting a digital-first approach reduces your carbon footprint and supports broader ESG goals—now a key concern for customers, investors, and regulators alike.

IntelliChief stands by businesses affected by the Coronavirus, which is why we are actively supporting those that recognize the value of a paperless office as one aspect of their plan to beat the virus and come out stronger than ever before. Please contact us today with any questions or to learn more about how we have been helping businesses maintain continuity during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.