Throw out the paper! In a world where people are looking at ways to conserve and reduce environmental impact – paper usage has always been one of the key items that individuals and businesses looked to reduce usage of.

Obviously with the evolution of the computer hard-drive, data which was once stored in a filing system (or in most cases on your office desk) is now able to fit onto a hard drive that is capable of storing tens of thousands of documents measuring no more than the size of a DVD case.

From the evolution of paper forms, home computing took off in the early 90’s and with that came Word Processors. Gone was the necessity to handwrite a document, or even typewrite… information could be drafted up on a document and edited at will, without the use of paper.

Further to Word Processors, came the PDF file which was invented by Adobe in the early 90’s, meaning essentially ‘static’ documents could be sent to a recipient in which they could print and fill-in before scanning it back to the sender.

This allowed businesses to collect forms easily without having to post printed copies in the mail.

However, one key disadvantage to the PDF and the Word processor documents was the complexities in filling or modifying these documents. One could not simply open the file, make a few changes and then fire it back to the intended recipient, instead it was a laborious, convoluted process that left those less computer savvy in the lurch.

With the growth of smart cloud based apps for businesses, the likes of Zulu Systems has developed online ‘paper forms’ which is essentially is a new, modern way to collect information in an online format, versus a paper one.

The key benefits to this process is obviously one being the reduction in paper usage, but notably the ability for people to easily fill in a form, and with one click – the sender receives the completed form in seconds. No scanning, no printing, no emailing… A simple button press and the rest is done for you.

With the growth of online cloud based systems, its important that Kiwi businesses adapt tools like Zulu to ensure they leverage technology to better grow and run their businesses.