What paperless office concept promises for Singapore

The use of paper in business for records and correspondence will start declining within five years, and become entirely redundant in 10. This was the bold claim that appeared in the 1975 edition of BusinessWeek where the paperless office concept was first introduced.

Since then, the conversation has moved on. The focus on cloud computing, enterprise mobility, and collaboration tools have done much to educate the market on what a digital world is, and some of the business benefits that it can bring. Despite these technological improvements, studies have shown that the use of office paper is at an all-time high with the worldwide use of office paper doubling between 1980 and 2000.

For me, all these data and points of view throw up an interesting point – how close are we to the promise of the paperless office and will it ever become a reality?

The Technologies

According to a recent study by IDC, enterprise mobility spend in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, is set to hit $6.8 billion in 2013, one of the highest in the world. In addition, the enterprise mobility market has been attracting attention from companies, such as IBM, which has pledged to double its investment in mobile in 2013 compared to 2012. Another key trend, cloud computing, is projected to grow 18.5 percent in 2013 to reach a total of $131 billion worldwide by Gartner. In addition to these trends, collaboration tools, such as Google Documents, Dropbox and other file-sharing sites are gaining inroads into the enterprise space.

Companies are now relying on cloud apps like Google Docs, Microsoft SharePoint to store content. Whilst the take up is not as strongly or quickly received by businesses, it is becoming a growing preference to engage in technologies to collaborate on information. The promise of a paperless office has long since been re-prioritised to cater to real needs and preference of businesses.

With the momentum and advent of these technologies, the immediate assumption is that printing documents or sending messages on paper should be on the verge of extinction.  However, the paperless office has seen little or no significant traction which begs the question of where the disconnect between the advancements in technologies and the promise of the paperless office lies.

Perhaps the real reason businesses are not rushing into the paperless office is good old-fashioned common sense. If one considers the downtime, manpower, and expenses involved in migrating and archiving all existing hardcopy documents, it is not that businesses are not embracing the paperless concept; rather their priority is to adopt and integrate key technologies with the aim of streamlining business processes and reduce operational costs.

More importantly, the key to the success of the paperless office is through the critical mass of businesses who share the same mindset and goal. If not, there will be compatibility issues between businesses who operate online and those who operate offline.

The Paper

Despite today’s constant push toward tech-enabled-everything, few offices have been able to convert to a completely paper-free way of doing business. Many companies today, especially the legal, banking and logistics industries, continue to rely on paper to complete customer business transactions. Contracts and legal documents have to be reviewed and endorsed on paper. A study by Nitrorevealed that 99 percent of employees still review printed documents. So how relevant is the paper in today’s mobile generation?

The reassuring answer is that the paper still holds several business benefits including the flexibility to be integrated into a digital system. For example, using paper for specific tasks and then digitizing them using Canon’s flatbed scanners could save businesses time and money in some instances. Another key consideration is that purchasing and integrating digital document creation tools and storage solutions, critical tools in migrating to a paperless office, could be both costly and time consuming.

Is the Paper Truly Dead?

Paper is often associated with being old fashioned, wasteful, expensive, irrelevant, and a dead end. However, it would appear that the discussion isn’t a battle between going paperless or not. Instead, I believe the reality is that technology is helping the paper to evolve.

For example, Canon’s PIXMA All-In-One printers are Google Cloud Print enabled, allowing users to print from any web-connected device, anywhere in the world. With the number of mobile workers on the rise, this capability will enable users to securely share printers with clients, streamlining the business process and increasing business efficiency.

Another example of how technology is changing the stereotype of paper is Managed Document Services where the entire document output process from archiving, business workflows, environmental impact, and data security is outsourced and optimised. This reflects the changing nature of the office technology market and the increasing importance placed on effective design and management of critical business processes.

Canon recently launched its Canon Business Services by enabling organisations to outsource information intensive processes, communications and administrative functions. Through this end-to-end service, businesses will find value through labour productivity, compliance and quality management, material economies of scale, and cost savings through process change.

Beyond the technology, Canon is also an advocate for businesses to empower and engage employees to help them “Do More Work Less”, through up-skilling of employees to expand their versatility and allow a better work life balance. Companies can also help create a conducive environment to encourage higher performance so that employees are committed, believing that their productivity improvement makes a different, both for the company and their personal lives.

The Magic Bullet

A final interesting point to note is that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. The paperless office may work for some while printing may work for others. Ultimately, businesses should adopt the right technologies in a way that will help them achieve their overall business objectives rather than be pressured into any particular trend or technology.