An economical argument...

There is a real cost to being paper bound that can be eliminated with planning and a little effort. Even five years ago, the idea of having a paperless, or near paperless, office was not realistic because the tools and resources were not available. We had no choice but to create vast amounts of paper-based documents and store them for extended periods of time!

Today we do have choices, but the process begins with a personal commitment to change our habits, beginning with operational policies and procedures.

The following statistics were reported from various research studies:

• 10-15% of an organization's revenues are spent creating, managing and distributing documents.
• 60% of people's time is spent working with documents.
• 75-85% of business documents are in paper form.
• The average document is copied 5 times.
• The average worker has 36 hours of work stacked up and only 90 minutes to handle it.
• The average worker spends 50-80% of his/her time looking for information.
• PC users spend 7.5% of their time seeking misplaced files.
• At $30/hr, knowledge workers waste $4,500/year.
• The average cost to recreate a document is $180.
• 80% of data stored in a PC-networked environment is stored on local hard drives, not on a local-area network.
• 90% of a business's information is in documents, not databases.
• 67% of US workers are in the Program Management sector where "knowledge" is the product.

* Not using more paper is good for everyone!

One study of office technology trends by CAP Venture Group states that there will be a continued trend toward digital equipment and toward sharing equipment in computer networks, as well as growth in the transmission of information over combined voice and data networks. They also predict that wireless communication between PCs and peripherals will begin to make an impact. How quickly this occurs depends on a number of factors. The economy has caused many businesses to cut back or to fund only areas with the greatest need. The flip side is that legislation, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Sarbanes-Oxley, is actually increasing the requirements to maintain greater degrees of documentation and a complete audit trail of all accounting transactions. This seems to be increasing the cost of reporting. These costs help justify the investment to maintain digital document libraries.

The all-in-one machine is probably the most significant piece of office equipment sold today. This machine is a printer, scanner, copier, and fax all in one unit. It saves on space inside the office, you only buy one cartridge for it, and you can link it with whatever components you have in your office. It appeals to small businesses.

One place where the trend toward digital seems clearly entrenched is the modern law office. Traditionally a paper-heavy profession, lawyers seem to have the wherewithal and willingness to go digital. Evidence of this trend includes the existence of a web site devoted exclusively to the topic. According to survey data published by Future Law Office: The Changing Face of the Legal Industry, law firms will increasingly see technology as the key difference between themselves and their competitors.