Why are We Still Keeping Paper?

In the ’90s, talk was of how we would all have a paperless office. When I started working for an information management company in 2001, my mother would routinely ask me if I was worried that I might not have a job in a few years. I have never been worried. People are addicted to paper. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Keeping the paper makes us feel safe. That we will have what we need in the future. The challenge is that paper takes up space and if you do need something, there will be a great deal of effort to find what you need. So why are we still keeping paper?

In the past, organizations have tried to digitize the paper. Often times, the implementation of software went south. If not, the technology was not available to extract and analyze the data. That is no longer true today. There are many options available from file analysis software to IBM Watson. Businesses have many options with on-premises, cloud, SaaS, and managed services so that they may not have a large initial investment. So why are we still keeping paper?

In recent years as we have seen the volume, velocity, and variety of information increase ant an exponential rate. And while all present challenges, the one that seems to be the greatest obstacle and the one that can be quickly addressed is the volume of information.

Every organization that I have worked with the in the past 17 years has a legacy paper records issue. Yes. Every. One. Some of it is so old that no one in the organization knows what it is. We now have the technology to find out what is in all of those boxes. Today, digitizing the paper is more accurate, more intelligent and even, dare I say, easier to implement.

So, ask yourself, why are you still keeping the paper?

#informationgovernance #efficiency #informationmanagement #time #administration