Is the "Paperless Office" a Myth? - Part 1

Question:

Is the “Paperless Office” a Myth? (Part 1)

Question asked by a participant on the Records Management ListServ.

Response:

This is an excellent question that arose from an article written in 2002 : “The Social Life of Paper” by Malcolm Gladwell, reflecting on how computer technology was supposed to replace paper and it did not.

One of the comments in a reply on the listserv from one of my respected professional colleagues was; “A sad commentary about our profession is that a lot of RM folks don’t want to change; they like paper and are very resistant”.

I believe I have been a consistent advocate for the use of responsible electronic document systems to clients, friends, or anyone who has the patience to listen my reasoning for a system. I still do not agree with the blanket statement that we, as records and information managers, do not want to change.

Although I have advocated use of responsible electronic document management systems to clients, I do not totally agree with this blanket statement about records and information managers’ resistance to change. I still like paper when working for the ease of putting them in order for my article or project work. I find it much easier to put all my reference information in one location. I find hard to review documents in electronic format and work with paper at the same time. For example: While working on most of my articles I collect the reference material from many sources, both in paper and electronic, but working with 2 separate formats is difficult. Yes, I could scan the paper documents into PDF or TIF for reference, but that’s another added step in the process of developing the article. It’s a distraction . Once the article is finished, one copy is printed and filed with the reference documents for future use. The electronic version is retained and filed chronologically in an electronic folder under “Ask the CRM”. My intentions are to download the electronic version to a CD for storage when I finish writing my article.

I’m always surprised when I read earlier articles I have written, not because they are works of literature, but that I had the nerve to do it in the first place.

For my clients, I provide a printed copy of processes and procedures with an electronic version for their use in maintaining and updating the document. I also provide an extra copy on CD for security backup.

Although I do have reservations on managing records in an electronic document management system I do not think this makes me one who does not want to change, but rather one who recognizes the limitations of computer technology.
I still get a chill running up and down my spine when I hear vendors or read articles in the technology magazines that still advocate “scan it all”. I was pleased when visiting the vendor booths at the ARMA International Conference in Long Beach that they were not pushing the “scan it all” theme. Most of the major players seemed to stress the notion that you should conduct a thorough evaluation of what should and should not be scanned. Do a Cost analysis and/or a Return on Investment (ROI). Wow, what a concept! That is good news for the records management professional.

However, not everyone prescribes to these concepts. For an example, I was recently approached as a CRM to review records of a company and tell them what to keep, not to keep and what to scan and not to scan. The funny part, they had already committed to scanning, and now they wanted an evaluation of what to scan. For some reason it seems backward to me.

Are there Record Manager’s who are reluctant to change. Absolutely! But consider that are there other reasons for the reluctance to embrace the “paperless office”. I contend that one of the major hurdles for the establishment of the “paperless office” is cost. A few years ago you could purchase a fairly good stand-alone electronic document management system for about $10,000. Now I doubt that you could purchase a system from one of the major vendors for less than $30,000. That figure probably does not include equipment, training or conversion costs. Plus, you will need to toss in the annual maintenance costs and software upgrades. It is not an inexpensive method of managing information.

I urge anyone who is considering the development of an electronic document management system to spend time in seminars on the subject and talk with peers who have implemented a system to discover how they are using it, the pros and cons of the system. This background research will help you to develop knowledge of the subject and make the right decisions when establishing and implementing an electronic document management system.