7 Mistakes Made When Going Paperless
Going paperless is one of the smartest moves a business can make today. It cuts costs, improves efficiency, and supports sustainability - all while helping your organization stay competitive in a digital-first world. But despite the benefits, many companies still struggle to make the transition smoothly. At Conclude, we’ve worked with businesses of all sizes through their digital transformation journey, and we’ve seen common patterns emerge - missteps that lead to lost time, poor adoption, or compliance headaches.
Here are the top 7 mistakes companies make when going paperless, and how to avoid them.
1. Failing to Plan the Process
The number one mistake? Jumping in without a clear roadmap. Too often, businesses start scanning documents or buying digital tools without assessing their current workflows, identifying key needs, or setting measurable goals. A successful transition requires more than replacing paper with screens - it requires process design, user training, and defined outcomes.
Solution: Start with a digital transformation strategy. Evaluate your current workflow, set priorities, and involve key departments from the beginning.
2. Overlooking Legal and Compliance Requirements
Just because you can go paperless doesn’t mean you can skip the legal requirements - especially when it comes to contracts, signatures, and records retention. In South Africa, the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECTA) sets guidelines for how electronic signatures must be used to remain legally valid.
Solution: Use certified electronic signature solutions that comply with ECTA and any industry-specific regulations. Conclude offers tools and guidance to ensure compliance from day one.
3. Using Generic or Unsecured Tools
Relying on basic PDF editors or scanned images of signatures might seem cost-effective - but it creates serious security, audit, and fraud risks. Scanned signatures are easy to replicate and don’t offer traceability, encryption, or authentication.
Solution: Invest in secure hardware like Wacom signature pads and pair them with trusted electronic signature platforms that offer full audit trails and user verification.
4. Not Getting Team Buy-In
Employees often resist change - especially if new systems feel unfamiliar or disruptive. If your team doesn’t understand the “why” behind going paperless, adoption will stall.
Solution: Communicate the benefits clearly, provide proper training, and choose intuitive tools that make the digital workflow easier - not harder.
5. Digitizing Without Optimizing
Simply scanning paper documents and storing them digitally is not transformation - it’s digital clutter. You might be moving away from physical paper, but you’re still stuck with inefficient processes.
Solution: Rethink your workflows. Use digital signing, automated routing, and cloud storage integrations to truly modernize the way documents flow through your business.
6. Neglecting Integration with Existing Systems
New paperless solutions should work with your existing tools, not replace them entirely. If your digital signature platform doesn’t integrate with your CRM, ERP, or cloud storage, it slows you down instead of speeding things up.
Solution: Choose flexible and scalable solutions that integrate with your current stack - or work with providers like Conclude who can help you build those bridges.
7. Not Preparing for Scaling
A lot of businesses start with small pilot projects but fail to plan for future growth. What works for one department may not support an entire organization.
Solution: Choose solutions that are scalable - both in terms of licenses, user access, and technical capacity. Build your paperless workflow to grow with you.
Go Paperless the Right Way—with Conclude
At Conclude, we make digital transformation simple, secure, and scalable. From Wacom signature pads to compliant electronic workflows, our solutions help businesses modernize with confidence. Ready to leave the paper trail behind? Let us guide you every step of the way.
Talk to our team today!
