Reducing Paper in Today’s Digital World

In today’s digital world, there have been enormous strides to reducing the paper we work with on a daily basis and all the paper that represent the accumula on of paper over the last 20 to 40 years. That is the good news. The bad news is there is s ll tons of paper that makes up the “backfi le” that is typically stored in facili es were access is diffi cult. There is s ll an enormous amount of paper used daily in opera ng most companies around the globe. Some have taken the technology and process steps to reduce the amount of paper and streamline the opera ons that previously processed the paper. Other are s cking with paper and paying the price of not doing anything. What can be done with technology and what is the payback stepping into the digital world where there is signifi cantly less paper. This paper addresses this technology and points out the associated benefi t over and above the elimina on of the physical paper.

Day Forward ScanningThe best way to make sure you are making progress in reducing paper is to scan all the paper that will be used in the company as it comes into the company. You will need to address the past accumula on of paper but day forward scanning will make sure that you are “stopping the bleeding.” You can accomplish this with an inexpensive but heavy-duty scanner that costs less than $1,000 and a cost eff ec ve and easy to use document storage and retrieval system. If you get a system that is accessed over the internet, you can access the scanned documents from anywhere. This is an ideal capability for companies that have mul ple facility loca ons or sales people in the fi eld. With this simple a ack at reducing paper, you get all the advantages of processing electronic informa on in addi on to elimina ng all the physical drawbacks of paper. Based on the amount of paper coming into your company, you can use your scanner and electronic document storage system to chip away at the big paper accumula on from previous years, called “the backfi le.”

Backfi le ScanningAs indicated above you can chip away at the backfi le using available day-forward resources but if you are serious about ge ng it completed in a reasonable me, you are probably talking about some kind of outsourced eff ort. Because the size of the back fi le that could be several million pages coupled with your desired me to get in completed quickly points in the direc on of outsource. In most cases, you can have an outsource scanning company come on site with their people and scanning equipment or you can send the paper, typically in some type of banker boxes or equivalent, to the outsource scanning company. The author of this paper wrote an informa ve piece en tled “Key Factors for Selec ng a Scanning Vendor.” You can access this document on the ICM Document Solu ons web site at www.icmdocs.com/resources/white-papers/.

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Collabora on with Annota onThe remainder of this paper will address how you can avoid going to paper when the source document is already electronic, like an MS Word fi le. Many people are s ll not comfortable with e-reading and using the tools that are available to provide feedback to an author or other team members. Most document management tool sets provide the tools needed to annotate electronic documents to provide a “review” func on with annota on to refl ect that review on the document under review. This is a ma er of having a simple to use system with simple annota on tools and having the “right” training. With the review and annotate func on being part of an automated workfl ow, the user probably does not have a choice other than learning how to use the tools.

Electronic SignatureThis is another good example of the need to print the whole document or at least the signature page for a contract, proposal or similar document and then scanning the document or the signed signature page back into the system. Today there are electronic signature features baked into document management systems that address this and make sure you do not need to print and scan. This also eliminates the possibility of having an electronic fi le (MS Word) and an image page for the signature page.

Marke ng and Sales Documenta onMarke ng Automa on (MA), e-mail marke ng and content marke ng ini a ves have all had an extremely posi ve impact on reducing the prin ng and delivery of paper to the market and to poten al buyers by salespeople. The days of salespeople stopping by and dropping off paper brochures is all but over for B - B sales. Therefore, if you have not embraced the new paperless marke ng ini a ves, you should defi nitely look into it. You not only get all the advantage of “paperless” but you can benefi t from all the features including lead nurturing with electronic content, e-mail marke ng with electronic content and the sales team having electronic content to reinforce what takes place in sales mee ngs.

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Records and Reten onOne of the largest sources of paper documents is records. Records are documents that indicate what was done in some form of manufacturing or repair opera on. Records must be retained so the history informa on can be accessed for future opera ons and for legal reten on, typically 5 years. Records can start with an elec-tronic form that is updated electronically as steps are performed or the form can be paper and is updated manually as the steps are performed. For the la er case, the paper form with updates and operator ini als can be scanned for future business and legal reten on reasons. In either case electronic reten on will provide an alert when the reten on period is realized so disposi on can be selected.

ConclusionAs every day passes, we see new technology and new ideas that will help us Reduce Paper in Today’s Digital World we all live in. It is hoped the high-level overview on reducing paper gave you some ideas to think about.

About ICM Document Solu onsICM Conversions, Inc. (ICM), d.b.a. ICM Document Solu ons, is a na onal provider and leader in scanning and conversion services, engineering services, and Web-based document management solu ons. For over 23 years, ICM has grown to provide a suite of products and services to create, convert, manage, and effi ciently distribute documents.

With over 800 customers, including Fortune 500 companies and government organiza ons, ICM off ers document scanning, CAD services, technical publica ons, so ware development, and forms-processing services. In 2009, ICM Document Solu ons was named one of “Inc. 5000’s” Fastest Growing Private Companies.

For more informa on email info@icmdocs.com, visit www.icmdocs.com, or call 602.678.1978.

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