Is the paperless office concept possible?

Technology is often associated with efficiency. It facilitates easier access to information, enables employees to work smarter and empowers companies to make better decisions. 

A business that can do more with less will always surpass its rivals, make more money, and serve its customers better. 

The manual information management processes, often dubbed “analogue” are associated with ponderous processes where information is stored and often exchanged by paper. Paper can be misfiled, making important documents hard to find. 

Even if the document is put in the right place, it takes time to manually search through warrens of cabinets to find the correct file. It is a system fraught with errors and it can be easily compromised. 

Trash paper

For four decades, society has aspired to get to the day when most institutions and businesses would trash paper and embrace digital in totality. It is also the right thing to do as it helps keep a cleaner and greener environment because trees, which would otherwise be cut to make paper are saved.  

But even as technology prospered, the paper has continued to rule our lives. We are not much closer to the paperless office as it was prophesied four decades ago when computer technology started gaining root. We have not reduced the use of paper in tandem with the growth of technology. Why is that so?

Most organisations will not be paperless any time soon — most certainly not in our lifetime. This is why.

Some of our old habits are to blame. Whereas technology is getting better, many of our office management behaviours remain in the past. How we organise electronic files and folders makes it hard to find a document buried in a chaotic mess of folders on a tiny smartphone screen.

'Paper-light office'

Even when people can access important documents in digital format, they still want them printed. For example, even those endowed with powerful digital devices and have unfettered internet access ask for the BBI booklets yet, many can download and read them on their devices. They have an almost visceral attachment to paper documents. 

Many offices spend millions on printing and photocopying documents that could easily be shared in electronic format, but the pressure to print is too much. Other factors keep paper thriving. Going digital now doesn’t make all our previous paperwork magically fly away. Businesses and individuals could have years, or even decades, of information stored on paper.

Laws regarding document retention, especially for crucial legal documents, have not changed to allow for shorter-term retention or conversion to digital. 

Given that we are so enamoured to paper, it’s about time we shred the lofty idea of a paperless office. We are better off thinking about a “paper-light office,” a situation where most processes are digital but a few paper documents flying around to satisfy the itch to keep paper.

Wambugu is an informatician. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @Samwambugu2