The changing life of paper in an electronic world
Posted by Tristam Wallace on Thu, Jul 07, 2011 @ 10:43 AM
The lifecycle of a paper document used to be pretty simple. A document originated on paper (like a form) or was printed out. That document than lived in a labeled file folder and was stored in a drawer, filing cabinet or even offsite storage -- depending on how often it needed to be accessed. When information from the document was needed, it was retrieved from storage -- copied if necessary -- interacted with, then returned to storage when completed. This was a repeatable, known process and worked fine...although using paper as the permanent record often led to very slow, inefficient processing of information and is prone to errors and loss.
A number of years ago, electronic document management changed the nature of paper from a permanent record to a medium for short-term interaction. Paper storage isn't completely a thing of the past -- particularly in regulated industries and government -- but many of the permanent records of information are now kept electronically.
While you would expect that this change in workflows would reduce the amount of paper that is generated, this isn't occurring. Instead, the evolution of paper from a permanent record to a medium for short-term interaction with information has just changed how paper is used -- not how much.
In fact, this shift has resulted in a document being printed far more times from its electronic master, compared with legacy paper filing systems. Why? There is a preference by many people to use paper to interact with information. So, when a document is needed, there is no existing paper record to hold. Instead, users print the document, use it, then most of the time discard it. The next time it is needed...you guessed it, it is printed again...and discarded again.
This may evolve over time as tablets and mobile devices make people more comfortable working with information on screen vs. paper...but we aren't there yet. So, with most business processes still reliant on paper output for records, transactions or simply for better readability (Gartner, 2011), the best approach to is to help users print smarter with print management. Apply print policies to ensure that when a document is printed it is printed securely and to the most cost effective device. Track print usage and let users know how much they are printing and how much it costs...they'll be surprised at how many times they print and we've seen dramatic decreases just from that awareness. And give them the tools to make better printing decisions...like pop-up alerts that recommend a re-direct of print jobs to more efficient printers.
Even as its use as a permanent record is declining, paper isn't going anywhere...but the use of paper can be managed with significant cost, security and workflow improvement results.