Innovation

RE/MAX is the leading real estate company in North America with numerous branches across the country. RE/MAX New Millennium group, located in Hillside, New Jersey, is a growing company that provides new innovations to its clientele. Focusing on paperless contracts allows RE/MAX to help make a better environmental change. Many times without knowing we use paper to our advantage and don't realize how much waste it accumulates to overtime. With the paperless contract, RE/MAX is able to send documents across the company and to its clients without the burden of wasting paper. Also, files can be more organized and stored into one database, easier to find with a click of a button. This is a technological innovation as it helps send documents faster and more efficiently, rather than waiting for days to be signed.

This technological innovation emerged when the founder of the company realized the increase in computer and mobile use in today's society. Also, with clients and as a real estate company, paper is frequently used among the office—with this paperless documents nothing is lost and everything is organized in one place. A central database keeps everything filed so it can be found in one spot without having to look through boxes and cabinets. The motivation for doing this was to become an eco-friendly company and help with global causes, such as global warming. The paper making process is not easy and high levels of CO2, carbon dioxide, is really bad for the air and can cause pollution, by having electronic paper files, we eliminate the CO2 being produced when the paper is being made.

The main advocate for paperless signature was Rosmena. Rosmena saw the opportunity of making the office's database more organized and eco-friendly. She then presented this idea to the six other partners, they were all on board. After the program was set up training sessions on how to utilize paperless signatures and how to educate clients on how to use it was provided. Since paper, ink and printer usage went down. RE/MAX New Millennium Group was able to invest in the software for paperless signatures.

Inspiration

The need to be more efficient and make a difference to the environment RE/MAX New Millennium Group found paperless signature as an opportunity to make a slight difference to save our planet. As Rosmena De Sa, Broker of Records explained, “paper was being wasted by the tons per year at our office since these contracts are multiple pages long and most the times requires various different copies until a deal is closed on.” Paperless signatures allow for waste reduction which decreases expenses on paper. Also with a cut of about 65% of the paper using the company was being environmentally friendly and helping their surrounding environments. Broker/ Owner Mauricio Pereria an avid “nature lover” supported the idea and said, “going paperless is like giving the animals their homes, it's the same as finding a client their new house.” The purpose of integrating paperless signatures into the business was mainly to help the environment by reducing the amount of paper being used. This will reduce the number of trees being cut and prevent deforestation. Another cause for paperless signatures is that it reduces expenses. No longer will the company need to spend tons of money on paper, ink, and printer but they can do everything via email and the internet.

Overall impact

RE/MAX impact of switching everything to paperless office operations was cost effective for the company, efficiency improvement and the procedure became convenient to customers. It reduces trash and by scanning paper documents, employees can create electronic copies of documents and reduce the need for paper storage too. As Rosmena De Sa said, “After going paperless we increased our environmental responsibility and our effort is really going to make a difference towards the betterment of society.” According to Reduce.org, the normal office representative uses 10,000 sheets of paper every year. Small companies are probably going to utilize lesser amounts of paper, however, may even now want to utilize a paperless technique to find savings. So far RE/MAX is getting very positive feedback from the customers.

Overall, RE/MAX New Millennium group is able to strategically create eco-friendly goals that would have both short and long lasting effects that would positively affect their business and environment. For instance, in the interview with Rosmena, she speaks passionately about creating both short term goals and long terms goals in order to leave a good impact on society and their business. In reference to the goals, Rosmena mentions that it is very vital to creating short term goals because it in turns help their company achieve their long term goals financially whilst having a good brand image. One of the short term goals was to make use of the paperless method by helping them become more efficient. This allows them to store and find documents and files much easier and faster as opposed to paper filled offices. Their long term goals are to stop the waste of papers, especially when it doesn’t have to be physical, and help gives back to the community by planting trees in local communities. This also allows the company to gain positive exposure overtime that would help bring them more clients. According to Rosmena, “All employees are utilizing the move of going paperless because of the positive impact it brings to our society and environment along with the ease it brings for their work life.” Thus, all employees are contributing to new innovation as it benefits them and their business.

Business benefit

RE/MAX New Millennium group confirmed that going paperless has allowed the business to save a lot of money in business costs and showed a growth in sales. Speaking to Rosmena, we learned that eliminating paper usage in the company allowed them to “save more than seven percent of expenses and allocate it to different needs that help the company accomplish even more in the long run.” Other than helping the brand image of their company, going paperless allows RE/MAX to save a large sum of money and relocate it to a different department or expense that would help them grow. Also, in regards to having an impact on the environment, Rosmena also mentioned that their company was able to save “fifteen hundred pounds of paper waste in the past year alone.” This change of implementing a new innovation allows them to create an impact on the environment by helping save trees in the long run. Along with saving over a thousand pounds of paper waste and saving a large portion of their budget for other expenses, they were also able to see growth in their sales. Rosmena mentioned that a good portion of their clientele that was new mentioned the fact of their positive change to paperless format because they felt it impacted their local communities very positively. All in all, RE/MAX changing over to a paperless format allows them to create a very good brand image, save money in business costs, and help their sales grow.

Social and environmental benefit

Before implementing paperless contracts an average agent would use 20,000 sheets of paper per year. That is nearly two trees worth of paper. When the paperless contracts innovation was introduced to the company, paper usage reduced by more than 65%. Ms. Rosmena De Sa saw that many animals were becoming endangered and global warming a problem. Therefore, she began to think about ideas to make a change and came up with the concept of using paperless contracts. She saw this innovation as a brilliant idea, not only would it save the company on paper and printer expenses, it made a huge impact on the environment around him. Paperless contracts benefit society in various ways, mainly by saving these clients time. No longer will these clients need to meet in person to read and sign documents, they can just create an account, verify their identity and then sign away. Also, going paperless stimulates eco-friendly practices of protecting the planet we live on by giving it more life and to those species that inhabit it. As we spoke to Rosmena De Sa, we asked her what was the reaction of different clients to the paperless contracts. She noticed that the older generation of clients was finding it a bit strange and was having a harder time adapting to this change as they are more inclined to pen and paper. The younger generation have no problems with electronic contracts, they even prefer it as it is more convenient and at the tip of their fingers, literally. Every sales associate is more than happy to assist any client that has difficulties in signing the contract and they are proud to say that the decrease in paper usage is positively affecting their environment.

Interview

Rosmena De Sa, Broker/Owner