Pulp friction

Ashley Ellington, MD of Softline Enterprise, discusses the paper chase of the new millennium.

When the first desktop PCs entered the mass market in the early 1980s, corporate philosophers proclaimed that the end of paper was nigh and that the paperless office would soon become a reality.

Some 20 years on, paper continues to proliferate, not because the world is filled with Luddites, but because the very technology that was meant to solve the problem of document deluge has, in fact, had a reverse effect.

A recent study by the Electronic Document Systems Foundation (EDSF) found that the amount of paper in the world has increased an average of 7% annually since the introduction of the desktop PC, and has doubled every four years since 1992. According to the report, office workers worldwide will output an average of 13 trillion sheets of paper per year by the end of the decade. The greatest culprits of this paper glut are mid-sized organisations. In fact, 72% of mid-sized companies surveyed claim to maintain `nearly all documents` on paper.

There is certainly reason to believe that critical mass is achievable: more than 40% of the current workforce were born after 1975 and have always used computers. They have learned to absorb and retain information from screen displays and, in time, they will learn to look at paper as redundant.

The largest challenge - particularly for smaller organisations - is to cut out the paper portion of document workflow. Re-engineering workflows is the key to cutting costs and reducing paper consumption. And as businesses redouble their efforts to increase productivity by automating and rethinking paper-centric processes, IT is finally gaining the upper hand.

Most research analysts agree that technology will finally triumph over the paper document towards the end of this decade, when electronic document management (EDM) systems finally reach critical mass. Until then, paper documents will continue to underlie many business processes, especially those involving transactions. Anticipating this strategic need companies are developing paperless applications as value adds for ERP solutions. These products allow users to manage documents in a variety of ways.

For example, if it has a client-server architecture that means the paperless application can be installed onto any server and can be administered by remote managers. Some systems use Crystal Reports and create the final documents, whether that is a standard invoice or a report tailored to a particular customer. Spooled documents are managed via a paperless manager. This paperless architecture allows multiple remote Managers to be used at the same time. In its most basic form, the Manager is used to control document printing and users are able to print jobs as they are spooled or schedule them for printing later. As documents are printed, they can also be held in the `DocStore` as a .PDF document. Local DocStore viewers are installed to client machines, while for larger sites, a Web-based DocStore viewer is available. The viewers enable documents to be browsed by company and date, as well as offering advanced searching facilities.

Thanks to technologies such as electronic data interchange and Web services, imaging and electronic documents, and document management systems, many workflows have been redesigned to reduce or eliminate paper-centric processes and replace them with more efficient ones.

Finance directors in mid-sized organisations consider these paperless products as critical. If they can get all document workflow integrated, mid-sized companies will be one step closer to truly realising the paperless office.

EDM systems provide a number of business benefits to organisations. Eliminating paper records offers cost savings in terms of the physical space occupied, as well as the diminished cost of printing and copying, which can account for up to 5% of a company`s annual revenue, according to research analyst group IDC. The greatest benefit, however, is that EDM can greatly reduce the time taken to retrieve documents. It`s not what you know that can affect your business, but rather, what you can`t find. EDM systems enable businesses to re-purpose information and work that other workers have already saved.

By their very nature, document management systems foster an environment of collaboration because they facilitate the ability to create, share and review electronic documents. Documents in electronic form can be much easier to protect from accidental destruction and loss, which provides business benefits in terms of corporate governance regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, Basel II and others. Document management systems are the best way to ensure compliance with strict security and information audit trails.

The challenge is to get workers to realise that EDM technology is not just for distribution of information, but for controlling and streamlining their workflow.

For more information, contact Softline Enterprise on (011) 290-2900 or visit www.softlineenterprise.co.za.