'Paper Light' strategy
Notebook, tablet, smartphone - digitalization should have replaced the "paper office" long ago. But that's not the case, as one in three CEOs confirms according to the AIIM study.
There are a variety of reasons why companies are still struggling to eliminate paper from their work environment: 56% of the companies surveyed assume that it is still mandatory to sign contracts, orders and booking forms on paper. Another 40% believe they need to archive printouts of important documents for later use. 4% of the companies do not want to abandon the use of paper, either because their employees want them to do so or because there is a lack of initiative on the part of management. In 39% of cases, however, this is also due to a lack of knowledge about paperless alternatives.
"As you can see from the results of the study of the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) can recognize and perhaps also judge from personal experience, paper has not completely disappeared from our working lives. Often the situation is bogged down due to technical barriers, lack of resources or legal requirements, so many companies still have a long way to go before digitization fully reaches them as well. The first thing companies should do on the way there is to take an approach we call 'Paper Light'," explains Hans-Günter Börgmann. He is Managing Director of Iron Mountain Deutschland GmbH, the service provider for information management solutions.
Paper Light' can be achieved by digitizing any paper files needed for business purposes and making them accessible to those who need them, as Börgmann further explains. If the original paper files cannot be destroyed or if a digital image of all files is not required, outsourcing the files to an external service provider is recommended.
'Paper Light' in three steps
Iron Mountain recommends companies take the following three steps to realize 'Paper Light':
- eLearning and other affordable training opportunities should be considered to educate employees in all locations on how to effectively manage information in all formats across the full lifecycle.
- If a company has not yet thought about digitizing paper documents, then it is particularly worthwhile to take a look at document management processes or workflows to determine which paper-based processes are suitable for scanning. This should include evaluating which documents are needed immediately, which are regular, and how many people should have access to them. Then, depending on the retention period, the original document can be destroyed or stored securely.
- In addition, you can set up a special "cleanup day" each year. On this day, the team considers the paper inventory and decides how best to remove paper documents from the office. And with the help of a manual, employees can determine whether documents should be shredded or moved to off-site storage.
