Feature

From Document Manager Magazine Vol 18 No 01 - January/February 2010

For organisations that can't kick the paper habit altogether, there is a middle path which may be more palatable. Deirdre O'Neill, Head of ECM at Kainos, sets out some best practices for covering the middle ground, which can have transformative results

There was a time, and many die-hard environmentalists still cling to it, when the vision of a paperless office seemed an easy and not-too-outlandish one to fulfil. And in some ways, we have come close. Many invoices are now sent and settled electronically, printing out emails is now socially frowned upon, and all of the major service providers, from banks and travel companies to the utilities and phone companies, are enthusiastically encouraging consumers to manage their accounts online, switching off the option of paper statements. In this sense, office and home life is gradually becoming much greener in the way it consumes paper.

But will the original goal of the paperless office ever be practical or achievable? The statistics suggest not. As much as staff and customers may try to cut back on unnecessary paper use, there lies the rub: 'unnecessary' doesn't and can't always apply - just as there are always going to be people (young as well as older) who prefer to handle a proper newspaper or a paperback book on the train than an electronic gadget or laptop computer.

The inconvenient truth
Indeed, the harsh reality is that, despite companies' best efforts, the rise in email has led to a 30-40% increase in paper consumption, while a staggering 80% of documentation within an organisation remains paper based, or stored in an unstructured form that a basic electronic management system can't process.

There are other gloomy numbers too. These include:

• 22 - the average number of documents created per information worker employee on any given day
• 6 - the number of weeks per year a manager spends looking for documents
• £25 - the annual cost of storing a single document
• £85 - the cost of tracing an incorrectly filed document
• 64 - the percentage of knowledge workers who keep their notes for years, and
• 44 - the percentage of people who rarely, if ever, refer to them.

The problems with paper are well documented (pardon the pun). Not only is it hugely expensive to store, taking up huge tracts of floor space that would be better used for people and their workstations, it is not at all efficient for storage and quick retrieval - or for remote collaboration. As remote working, and electronically sharing and passing around documents, becomes the norm, those organisations still relying heavily on paper originals will find themselves at a distinct disadvantage.

There's also an alarming rate of loss of documents associated with traditional paper-based systems, through human error as well as through incidents such as fires, floods and break-ins. Paper is hard to back up, or to security-protect. This means the compliance 'police' don't like it much either.

The paper/agility trade-off
But the biggest and most strategic concern for organisations going forward, especially as they prepare for post-recession growth, is that mountains of paper do not deliver the depth or the detail of customer information, nor the speed of retrieval, that are critical to the delivery of a high standard of customer service and efficiency.

In the new digital age, information delivery and management, and customer responsiveness are the foundations of an organisation's ability to impress and compete. Yet, paper is deeply ingrained in our psyche as something you can rely on. Writing is a physical representation of the thought process, and this needs paper. It is a temporary holding pattern for ideas that cannot immediately be categorised. It's much harder to jot spontaneously if you have to switch on a gadget - especially if it's in the middle of the night, at a restaurant or standing up on the train home.

The electronic equivalent of the 'back of a cigarette packet' isn't quite here yet. Perhaps the transition to the utopian ideal may never happen, then. If it does, it is likely to be much more gradual - in pace with human habit.

The middle ground
How then can organisations solve the problem, practically? The good news is that there are plenty of examples of organisations that have successfully taken the middle ground, blending 'essential' paper with the best of electronic document management, to achieve a substantial transformation to their general efficiency, in terms of both physical asset management and protection, but also in freeing up valuable information to be exploited quickly and flexibly to improve business results and customer service.

From such examples, we are able to distil some valuable best practices for practical, hybrid approaches to paper and electronic content management which tick all of the boxes, and really work.

Take the case of a major bank. Unable to distance itself from paper completely, but requiring much greater efficiencies in the way it stored, managed and shared its content, the organisation found a way to harness the dual advantages of both physical storage solutions and electronic document and records management (EDRM), by implementing two complementary solutions in tandem.

Because the strategy had been well thought through, the resulting systems delivered significant cost and time efficiencies. Not only that, but the bank's 450 staff embraced and even enjoyed the transformation.

A blank canvas
The document management overhaul at the bank was triggered by an imminent move to new, modern premises, which would bring all of the bank's activities together under one roof. This presented both a challenge (how to fit everything in), and an opportunity (a fresh start for document management).

The space challenge was considerable - the original premises comprised large, high ceilinged Victorian buildings, with ample height for squirreling documents into capacious nooks and crannies. But here, suddenly, was a chance to dramatically reduce the paper that was choking the workplace and slowing down workflow.

A successful outcome depended on getting everything right at the design stage, so physical and electronic storage systems had to be conceptualised, that would reflect the reality of paper management at the bank. The starting point was an information audit - delving into each of 16 departments, with a designated individual, to analyse the level of paper generated, used and stored. The bank's chosen document management consultancy and systems integrator applied a proven information management formula to this process.

This so-called '3LM' methodology employs a series of distinct stages or strategies for paper and cost reduction (see box). The bank was advised to allocate a maximum of 3 linear metres of paper per person. (The initial audit showed it had accumulated 6.5 linear metres of paper per person!).

Lightening the load
The next step was an organisation-wide 'disposal day' - an activity which the bank creatively turned into both a dress-down day for staff and a great PR exercise. Sorting sacks were issued to all departments for disposal of unused and redundant CDs, electronics and paper. Each sack earned a £1 donation to a nominated charity and prizes were awarded to staff that surpassed their targets.

Empty cupboards were taped up, crime-scene style, with 'Do Not Enter' tape, while senior managers walked the office floors, dispensing spot prizes and ballot tickets. The result? An immediate 15% reduction in paper, a significant sum raised for charity, and positive buy-in to the idea of de-cluttering from all the bank staff.

The next stage was to sort the reams of documents, filtering out the non-urgent/non-immediate. These were then archived off site with a single storage supplier (in contrast to using several disparate suppliers acquired in an ad hoc manner over time). This activity alone resulted in a reduction in costs from £34,000 per year for onsite storage to just £2,000 per year. The more immediate, regularly-used documents, meanwhile, were moved to the new premises, to be stored in a more efficient, rapid-access system.

To cater for both paper content as well as electronic documentation, in such a way that the two could work in harmony, the bank commissioned a physical system that would complement the proposed EDRM solution. Here, simple measures were implemented - for example, a move from suspension storage to a fixed lateral storage system; introduction of domed top cabinets that would deter any piles of paper sprouting up; and a new clear desk policy to encourage end-of-day filing of paperwork.

In parallel, an EDRM solution was designed, which would transfer the storage of many documents to be scanned and stored electronically. This system was implemented some months after the move, allowing the bank to first settle into its new premises. The benefits of the audit, disposal day and subsequent storage rationalisation were by then very obvious. The organisation had become much more focused on which paper was critical; the excess had been stripped out; and the staff had felt the benefits of the paper 'de-tox'. This meant that they were both keen and able to proactively embrace the EDRM process - a crucial requirement if real results were to materialise.

Learning to let go
Equally importantly, and thanks to the initial consultation process, the new EDRM solution had been designed to address many of the 'softer' issues people have with relinquishing paper systems. Provisions here included larger screens to allow easier reading of documents; simple navigation to make finding and storing effortless; and the allocation of a dedicated room for scanning - into which paper goes but doesn't return - providing a gentler, but no less firm, way of letting go of paper documents.

This bank's success with its transformative document management project, as with any successful technology implementation, was directly related to the willingness of its staff to get behind it, emphasising how important it is to communicate with and involve staff in the process, right from the earliest stages.

Such an approach, coupled with the decision to ease the transition away from 'hard copies' of documents, rather than leaping feet first into an alien 'paperless office' scenario, has been shown time and again to give organisations their best chance of achieving measurable success as they attempt to get their house in order.

More info: www.kainos.com

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