Remembering Dick and Myra Larkin - National Association of ...

technology tipsHas your Agency Missed the“Paperless Office” Boat?For years now, all types of technologyvendors have been selling the “concept”of the “paperless office” to businessinstead of selling the technology thatactually solves their specific businessproblems. By misappropriating the termpaperless office and rolling into it otherterminology, such as document managementand enterprise content management,the term has become dilutedand confusing. As a result, businesseshave continued to be sold on “concepts”instead of actual approaches to reducepaper in their organization. The driverfor reducing paper should be to attaingreater efficiencies and reduce costs, notto keep up with the Joneses of the businessworld. After all, what large businesswould adopt technology simply becauseit is cool or advanced?Imagine how long a meeting wouldlast between a document managementvendor and a Fortune 500 company. Themeeting would start with the vendor tryingto sell the company on the “concepts”of a paperless office and the “miracle” ofthe proposed technology that would effortlesslymanage company documents.The meeting would likely last all of about10 minutes before the vendor was shownthe door. The term “paperless office” hasbeen misused, diluted and therefore itsvalue diminished.Here are some incorrect uses of theterm paperless office found on the Web:“A personal scanner on your desk cancreate a successful paperless office. Youwant the user/office personnel to be ableto scan the document ...”“...Using your MFP to create the PaperlessOffice...”“...Document Management Softwareand Paperless Office Software can helpyour organization run more efficiently ...”“A scanner and OCR software are thekey components of a “paperless office.”Mr. George Pake, the former directorof Xerox Advanced Technologies Lab,was the person who coined the phrasepaperless office in a 1975 Business Weekarticle titled “The Office of the Future.”This forward-looking article states that,“…because the labor-intensive officedesperately needs the help of technology,nearly every company with largeoffices is trying to determine how thisonrushing wave of new hardware andprocedures can help to improve its officeproductivity.”While the following have not beensold under the term “paperless,” theyclearly are “paperless” office technologies:• Quick Books: has replaced ledgertypewritten accounting systems;• ACT and Outlook: have replacedthe rolodex and other forms ofwritten contact management;• Document Scanners: convert paperrecords to Adobe PDF, especiallythe Fujitsu Scan Snap;• Adobe PDF is now a standard documenttype;• Standard transfer of documents viaemail electronically; and• Computer-based faxing solutions.All of the above are paperless officetechnologies that have replaced paper-intensivebusiness processes with more efficientcomputer-based processes. Thesetechnologies have been adopted by small44 — Exclusivefocus Summer 2009