Cash-strapped Moray Council is reducing annual costs by £3million through a successful project to transform the authority into a paperless organisation.
The new programme installed at the council saw them dramatically cut the use and storage of paper files and documents.
This meant that many processes were more efficient, slashed the amount of storage space required and enabled a quicker searching of files.
The body’s digital document document management system won an award at the Public Sector Paperless Awards, beating entries from Lewisham Council and East Kent NHS.
It allows staff to electronically create, file and store the documents created every day as part of their jobs and having one shared electronic document is more efficient and takes up less room than using paper storage.
It has been claimed the saving will help the council’s cost-cutting focus, given its need to save £14million over the next two years to become financially sustainable.
They have already cut £6million in February’s budget, but the SNP minority administration still has a lot of work to do.
Leader of Moray Council, Graham Leadbitter, praised the new programme and how much money it will save in the long run.
He said: “A huge amount of work has gone on behind the scenes with ICT staff in the council working closely with individuals and departments and helping the council drastically reduce its paper usage.
“Moving to paperless working helps reduce cost, makes systems more efficient and is far better for the environment by not only reducing paper, but the use of storage systems and the space required for that storage.
“This is a prestigious award within the public sector and the many staff who have contributed to this project, whether in the implementation of it or as users of the new systems, should be proud of their achievement.”
The paperless scheme was led by the council’s Designing Better Services (DBS) team, which is in charge of developing projects with a positive influence on the organisation.