Paperless Office/Document Imaging

[Katie G]

My organization is gearing up for the move to our new digs.  I've seen the floor plans -- it's going to be a cube farm with office around the perimeter for the directors.  I don't mind the cube concept (well, I don't think I do, I've never actually worked in one), but the PTB (Powers That Be) have made no room for filing cabinets, save for a room back in a corner of the building for "essential files".

So, the push is on to get as much of our paper files scanned into the computer system as possible before the move.  The "ideal" situation is that you'd walk into the new building with "your family photos and your coffee mug" and that everything else you'd need would be on the computer.  (This from the IT folks.)

I'm on board with this -- in theory.  I understand the need to eliminate the amount of paper we store.  I understand how having everything computerized would be more efficient.  My concern is that the overriding tone of the meetings related to this (and kudos to upper managment, for once, for including the support staff in these meetings!) there's little concern for the "what ifs".

As I make my plans for scanning (I'm actually being given a scanner and they're supposed to give me the proper software next week), I'm wondering if any of my colleagues out there have "really" gone to the paperless office.  Does it really work?  What are the pitfalls?  What should I watch out for?

[adminbydesign]

The biggest problem with going "paperless" is changing the mindset of everyone who has to buy-in to the concept.  Even with documents that reside on a server, there will always be the die-hards who have to have a hard copy in their hands in order to use the information.

A set of guidelines for changing gears, in your case, should be a priority to the powers-that-be.  Without direction and encouragement from the top level managers, staff members will continue to do what they have always done, and print out documents whenever they need to work with them.  

Hopefully, your executive level of managers has thought this through and has developed an action plan to get everyone (well, as many as possible) to go paperless.  

[misslynn]

We're semi-paperless, I like to keep hard copies of essential documents (HR related, payroll, etc.) and keep soft copies of other things.  Servers crash, computers mal-function, things happen and there are just some things I wouldn't want lost in the event that "what if" does happen.  I have a small filing cabinet at my desk, when that gets overloaded I put the old documents into a file box and store it in our storage room.

[bluefire21]

All I have to say is "BACK UP, BACK UP, BACK UP!".  There is nothing worse than the server crashing and all that wonderful data lost.


Ellen (it's happend to me) in TX

[dettu]

Best of luck. We scan everything AND we have hard copies of everything. This place is just hip-deep in paper all the time and it never gets better.

[officeguru]

Due to our industry... any attempt to go paperless would never work.  In general, there are a number of people here who (it seems anyways) takes great delight in killing yet another tree with all the copies that are request for meetings and/or distribution.  Just simply senseless!!

[Katie G]

Yep, I think it's going to take some serious re-training of bossie to get out of the old-school  "make a copy for our (paper) files" thinking.  He's already a bit copy-mad -- wants TWO copies if something's important.  Ugh.  And he's still not entirely up to speed on the the concept of a shared drive:

Bossie:  Can you email me a copy of the ABC Proposal?
Me:  Sure, but you can retrieve it just by going into the Z drive and opening up the "Proposals" folder.  You'll see it in there.
Bossie:  Oh, okay.  But email me a copy anyway so I have the updated version on my computer.
Me:  *SIGH*  

He's trying, but it's taking a bit...

[linzfoody]

We do not subscribe to the theory of the paperless office.  Certain information needs to be kept in hard copy for legal / evidential reasons.  

However, effective records management (including use of retention schedules) mean that fewer paper records are kept (ie  the right ones), but it will not remove them completely.

[tinkerbell]

Didface, are you familiar with the Insert as Hyperlink facility on e-mail (Office 2003)?

You may find you need to use Rich Text format but:

Insert File, highlight the document, click on the arrow next to Open to Insert as Hyperlink

Hopefully that's a bit of a compromise for you and your bossie - you send him the link and he opens it on the server.

[Katie G]

I wasn't familiar with that -- Thanks!  I'll give it a try!