The paperless office is a buzzword that’s been around for quite a while. I believe the prediction was that by now all our files would be electronic and there’d be no need to keep paper copies of everything. Obviously the reality has been far different. But I wonder if we are getting closer to the goal, and I’m interested in your experiences.
In my experience there is a definite increase in electronic documents for works in progress or sending information to people, much of it due to the use of email. You can email a spreadsheet to somebody, they can add their bit and email it back. Likewise if you need to advise people of developments or any info or general bulletins, you can email rather than post it. And I think we’re getting more comfortable with reading things on the screen rather than saving it online but printing out a hard copy to read. I find myself writing less notes by hand, and will often open a word document or just stick something in my outlook calendar with what needs to be done and when, and all pertinent info.
However in terms of sharing information in person, paper still rules. If you need documents for a meeting then you need to take them in hard copy, and lots of copies for everybody. I haven’t yet seen a big advance in the use of data projectors onto screens or that sort of thing. Even when someone uses a powerpoint presentation, everyone still gets a hard copy. Is there likely to be a future when everyone has their laptops (or something smaller) with them and they can plug in and download the presentation while in the meeting?
Data storage is one are in which I find there is still a massive reliance on paper. Especially because the information needs to be in one place that everyone can access. I save my emails on my computer, but if it’s something important then I often have to print it out to put in the file so that if anyone else wants to check the correspondence then they can. I wonder if other offices have a means of saving email correspondence into electronic files on the server so that anyone can access it.
It is still common for people to fill out a form online then print it out, or the person receiving the online form will print it out for their files. How much of the problem is simply an issue of trust? Are you worried that a server crash will delete everything?
And from a personal perspective, what would you do if you lost all your photos because of a computer crash? How religiously do you back up your files?
So, how about you? How paperless is your office? And how can you see it improving in the future? |
