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Declare War on
Paper
by Jane Cage,
COO, HTS
 Here at the office I refer to myself as the
“Anti-Paper” . . . It drives me crazy when I see the amount
of information everyone sends to the printer when that same
information is available on the screen. While being “green”
seems to be the issue of the day, it seems like the right
time to talk about the vast number of trees we kill each
year because we can’t get past the perception that we have
to hold paper in our hand to be certain an item is real – or
on the chance we will ever need it again.
There are three
problems with relying on paper. First, there is no fault
tolerance for paper, except another piece of paper – ironic,
isn’t it? Second – paper can only be in one physical
location. Both of us can’t look at the client invoice at the
same time. How many times have you looked for information to
find out it was on someone else's desk? Third – paper can
only be filed one way, and therefore only retrieved in the
way it was filed. That kind of limitation has real effects
on how well a company can function – should invoices be
filed by number or by client? Should they be filed by date
for easier removal to an off-site location?
Technology today
has given us many great alternatives to printing to paper –
some of which you probably have right on your own computer.
Microsoft One Note 2007 has a built-in printer driver
installed that allows you to send anything you would send to
a printer into One-Note for future retrieval and use. I’ve
found it to be invaluable for copies of contracts,
statements, even order confirmations that before I would
have sent to the printer. SharePoint is another great
alternative you may already have on your network. Rather
than printing copies for every member of your team, why not
post the document to SharePoint for everyone to access? We
stopped printing phone lists for distribution long ago. It
was so much easier to post changes and find the latest copy
on the SharePoint site. If you own a copy of a Adobe Acrobat
writer, why not use it to file away information you may need
to recall at a later date?
The most efficient
way to deal with the deluge of paper is through the use of a
document management system. A document management system is
really a database of images. You can decide what index
fields are important to you and then find the image based on
any or all of the characteristics you choose. More capable
systems include the ability to automatically read portions
of an image so that the index data you need is filled in
automatically.
My advice – think
before you print – not only could you save a tree – you
might actually be able to find the information you need
again if you become “tech-smart” about what you do!
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