Not Your Typical IT Guys

I was reading a recent post from Dave McClure at CPATechViews titled, “The Hardware Side of Document Management.”  In it he accurately discusses many of the overlooked aspects of becoming a “paperless office.”  In addition, I think it important to note that while the hardware is very important it really doesn’t make a bit of a difference if the paperless initiative is not properly adopted organization wide. 

Oh and before I continue; Dave, I was fortunate enough in the past to work with GoFileRoom, who of all vendors I have worked with, walk their clients through the paperless project all the way down to the scanners.  Moving on…

I’ll give you an example of the misalignment related to going paperless.  How many businesses say they want to go paperless to save trees, go green??  Noble thought right?!  The reality… if not don’t right plan to spend twice as much on paper, printers and shred service than you do right now.  Here’s the scenario,

Client,  “I have a question on page 4 of my corp tax return”Â
Accountant, “OK, let me pull it up and please excuse me for a moment while I pull all 85 pages off the printer”

Those 85 pages then go to the shred box.  I know, hard to believe, right?  NOT!  I see and live it every day.  People go paperless with the best of intentions and while they eventually see the fruits of its investment they frequently don’t save many trees in the process nor realize all of the benefits.

How many people do you know that print emails they want to keep?  Or even better, print an email, to then scan it so that they can save it?  Or, print a document so they can fax it?  Please share your observations, its impossible to predict all the ways people will or will not use technology!

Paperless can be everything everyone wants it to be, but only IF executed properly.  Otherwise, I can refer you to a great paper and shred company  :)