Summary

This article explains what a paperless office is, how to create a paperless office, and its advantages and disadvantages.

Definition of the Paperless Office

The paperless office is one that uses minimal amounts of paper and converts all forms of documentation into digital forms.  This is referred to as “going green in the office.”

How to Create a Paperless Office: Techniques

To create a paperless office, start with changing how you think about paper.  Before printing anything, ask yourself if it is absolutely necessary.  If you have digital copies, you don’t need paper ones.  This is especially true for email. (3)

Preview all documents before printing.  Most employees print many useless pages each day, including blank pages.  Use your software’s print preview feature before printing.
GreenPrint is a software package that automates this process. You can download a free version from www.printgreener.com.  GreenPrint Technologies states that an average user will save about $90 a year in paper and ink costs. (3)

Print to PDF.  PDF is a universal, digitized, portable document format that can be attached to a Microsoft Word document or an email. (3)

To go green in the office, use computers with lots of memory and high speed scanners for scanning large volumes of paper documents.  Use book copiers to take photos of books and manuscripts.  Wide format scanners can be used for scanning engineering drawings.  Photo scanners, negative scanners, and microfiche scanners will convert pictures and microfiche to digital documents.  The digitization of postal mail allows online access to its contents.  Patient and customer records should be input into and stored in databases. (1)

The paperless office needs to label and catalog scanned documents in order to search for and locate them.  This involves human cataloging or automated indexing of OCR (optical card reader) documents. (1)  Documents should be stored on hard drives, zip drives, or on various types of computer discs. Regular and consistent backup of files is vitally important in case of computer failure. (2)

Use electronic faxes in place of memorandums and messages.

Advantages of the Paperless Office

• The paperless office saves businesses money by improving productivity and reducing paper and storage costs, as well as the costs of printing, mailing, and shipping. (1)
• The paperless office needs less physical storage space for files. (1)
• The paperless office reduces negative impact on the environment by reducing the amount of paper in landfills and using fewer trees to produce paper. (1)
• The paperless office allows access to documents and databases from locations other than the main business locale. (2)
• The paperless office speeds up access to documents, data, and electronic billing and bill paying. (2)

Facts About the Paperless Office

The paperless office produces productivity gains, costs savings, space saving, ease in sharing information, and a reduced impact on the environment. (1)

An issue has been copyright laws. These laws restrict the transfer of copyrighted documents protected from one medium to another. (1)

Disadvantages of the Paperless Office

Some disadvantages of the paperless office include:
• changing traditional business procedures and government regulations which resist the use of electronic documents;
• greater costs for equipment;
• the ease of word processing which encourages the proliferation of paper;
• the readers' ability to receive and read digital formats; and
• the longevity of digital documents.  How long will they last?                (1)

Paperless Office Software

There are numerous software packages that help create a paperless office.  Type “paperless office software” into your computer browser to find them.  You can also use your regular wordprocessor, database, etc. to begin the process.

Studies/Reports/Research

In the book The Myth of the Paperless Office, Sellen and Harper ask, “...why, when we have all the latest technology to allow us to work in the digital world, do we depend on paper so heavily? Indeed, why are most workplaces so dependent on paper? It seems that the promised ‘paperless office’ is as much a mythical ideal today as it was thirty years ago.”  In this book, the authors answered this question and concluded that: “...there were complex reasons for the persistence of paper, the most significant of which is that paper serves the IMF's knowledge workers well for the tasks they have to hand. These individuals use paper at certain stages in their work not because they are unwilling to change, but because the technology they are provided with as an alternative to paper does not offer all they need.”

Anyone interested in how paper facilitates organizational functions and digital technologies interact with paper, will find this a helpful book.  Every one who believes that the paperless office will work seamlessly and be universally adopted should be required to read it. (4)

References

• (1) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paperless_office
• (2) http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/technology/communications/6-tips-for-a-paperless-office.aspx
• (3) http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2279360,00.asp
• (4) http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/2234/01/revs051.html
• Sellen, Abigail J. & Harper, Richard H.R. The Myth of the Paperless Office. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. ISBN 0-262-19464-3.