Technologies that remove the paperwork burden from businesses can drastically improve agility and efficiency, while creating significant savings. This may be particularly true for small businesses, where the time taken to manage document-heavy processes can create problems. Recent research by AIIM shows that while 74 per cent of companies surveyed admitted they had business improvement campaigns underway that would benefit from paper-free functionality, only 24 per cent had a policy in place. President of the organisation John Mancini said the idea of removing this paper burden is gaining more momentum as firms increase their use of mobile technology. "Our research confirms that companies that adopt paper-free business processes benefit by reducing costs, improving customer service, and raising worker productivity," he explained. Technologies that encourage paperless environments will be a focus for corporate spending over the next 12 months, AIIM added. According to the organisation's figures, around two-thirds of businesses that adopt such software tend to report return on investment within 18 months, while 50 per cent enjoyed payback within a year. Investing in Accomplish's CashManager small business accounting software range is one way in which companies can streamline their processes and promote a paperless environment. This frees up staff from labour-intensive roles such as manual accounting and the filing of reports, so they can perform tasks that have more direct business value. While the productivity gains can be enormous from these technologies, AIIM admits companies are slow to take action. In fact, of the 562 organisations it surveyed, 19 per cent claimed they had actually increased their use of paper in the office. Nearly half said they had only made five per cent progress towards paper-free processes. Mr Mancini claims that the biggest area of concern for most companies is the use of electronic signatures and documents, which many managers often mistakenly believe are not admissible in court should legal issues arise.