Is the "Paperless Office" a Myth? - Part 2

Question:

Is the “Paperless Office” a Myth? (Part 2)

Question asked by a participant on the Records Management Internet ListServ.

Response:

This is the second article in the series from a 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.

In this part of the series we will examine some of the issues that you may face if you decide to continue your quest for the “paperless office”. Let’s assume that your company is still interested in developing a system to manage records in electronic format. What are some of the steps that you should take in developing a system? We will also assume that you have a management sponsor high level within your organization, some money for research, and you have established a core team consisting of, at the minimum, a representative from the department that wants to develop the system, an information technology department representative, plus a records information management specialist.

The next step would be to develop a needs analysis of the department to determine:
. Overview of the existing records management practices.
. Vision of the future
. Detail of the current documents and workflow

Needs discussion:
. Immediate goals
. Long term goals
. Timeframes
. Challenges or constraints
. Technology available within the organization that can be incorporated or use in the new
system.
. Integration with other system
. Next Steps and Expectations
. Prepare an Executive Summary of the project for Management review and approval.

On completion of the needs analysis you should have a better understanding of the requirements of the department and whether or not to proceed. If management approves your recommendations and funding is available, you should be able to then develop the next stage of the process by being able to:
. Research to determine what vendors are qualified to accomplish the project.
. Do a pre-request for proposal (RFP) evaluation of vendors and reduce to only those that
appear to have the qualifications to accomplish the project.
. Visit and/or call other like organizations that have adopted an electronic document
management system and collect the pros/cons or lessons learned in the implementation of
their system.
. Attend seminars, annual conferences (AIIM and ARMA), to increase your knowledge on the
subject.
. Check the ARMA and AIIM Bookstore for publications that will increase your knowledge on
the subject.
. Considering hiring an outside consultant in document management to evaluate and/or manage
the project.
. Prepare a Request for Proposal (RFP), if required by the organization, using the information
collected in analysis phase of the project.
. Submit the RFP to the vendors.

In the next article in this series we will explore the evaluation stage of the received Request for Proposals.