IJMBS Vol.

4, Issue 2, April - June 2014 ISSN : 2230-9519 (Online) | ISSN : 2231-2463 (Print)

Paperless Office: A New Name to Technology

1
Ujjal Sandhu, 2Rohit Seth
1
Dept. of MGMT. and Business Administration (HR & Marketing), Dr IT Group, Banur, Punjab, India
2
Dept. of Mangement and Computer Applications, Dr IT Group, Banur, Punjab, India

Abstract computer’s documents, has increased the amount of printing done.

Going paperless can immediately affect your company’s bottom The use of e-mail in an organization causes an average 40 percent
line. We all know that “time is money”, but it is still less expensive increase in paper consumption. In The Myth of the Paperless
than real estate. An expanding business can fit more workers into Office, Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper use the study of paper
space once occupied by filing cabinets and record rooms. Plus, as a way to understand the work that people do and the reasons
electronic records are easier to search and retrieve, meaning that they do it the way they do. Using the tools of ethnography and
if you can digitize more of your paperwork, you can probably cognitive psychology, they look at paper use from the level of the
operate more efficiently. individual up to that of organizational culture. Central to Sellen
and Harper’s investigation is the concept of “affordances” -- the
Keywords activities that an object allows, or affords. The physical properties
Papeless, Technology, Bussiness, Less paper, Storage, Security, of paper (it’s being thin, light, porous, opaque, and flexible) afford
Solutions, Office the human actions of grasping, carrying, folding, writing, and
so on. The concept of affordance allows them to compare the
I. Introduction affordances of paper with those of existing digital devices. They
can then ask what kinds of devices or systems would make new
A. Green Business kinds of activities possible or better support current activities. The
The term ‘green businesses’ is defined by Smith (2003) as authors argue that paper will continue to play an important role
businesses and practices that are viewed as environmentally sound, in office life. Rather than pursue the ideal of the paperless office,
including the use of organic and natural products to build factories, we should work toward a future in which paper and electronic
tighter protection against emissions and environmentally friendly document tools work in concert and organizational processes make
sourcing of materials. Zsolnai (2002) defines a green business as a optimal use of both So, despite all of the advances and all of the
business that has adopted the concept of environmentalism across talk and promises, we’re still using a lot of paper, and the vision
the various functions of the business. Gilbert (2007) identifies a of a paperless office is looking more and more like an illusion.
green business activity as any activity that is performed in a manner The average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper each
that has either limited negative ecological impact or directly year according to Reduce.org. Multiply that by the number of
benefits the natural environment in some way. Morebusiness.com employees you have, and you can see how going paperless could
(2009) describes a green business as using less natural resources save your business money. Of course, doing business using much
to complete the tasks needed and using sustainable methods and less paper is easier said than done. Anyone working in the office
materials such as recycling (paper, plastic, electronics, glass and of a lawyer, accountant, or health care company can tell you:
aluminum) and using sustainable products (recycled, plant-based the paperless office is still for many elusive, buried under ever
or organically grown). increasing stacks of paper. But with careful planning, the dream
of the paperless office can be a reality. This step-by-step guide
B. Paperless or Less Paper? will present you with strategies for weaning your office off paper,
As long ago as the late 20th century, people began talking one step at a time.
about the possibility of a “paperless office.” The first prediction 1. Assess how likely it is that you will be able to go
of the paperless office was actually introduced in an article in paperless.
Business Week in 1975 on “The Office of the Future.” It became 2. Set a deadline.
a buzzword in the 1980s. It coincided with the advent of the 3. Hire an outside firm and buy new equipment.
personal computer, and the hope was that all documents could be 4. Replace your invoices.
processed electronically and that paper would become irrelevant. 5. Store key documents.
Since then, a number of technologies have made it seem within 6. Identify your “super-users.”
our grasp chief among them desktop publishing, the web, e-mail, 7. Pat yourself on the back.
XML, content management systems, e-books, and more. Today,
digital information flies around the world and into, through C. Reasons to Go Paperless
and out of our organizations, is managed and secured in digital • Easy storage: With a digital document management system
repositories and drives business at lightning-fast speeds. But has in place, all documents that come into your office can
paper disappeared? Not at all! Actually, paper consumption is still immediately be scanned and electronically stored, making it
increasing, soaring to extremely high levels. Paper continues to easy to send them electronically to everyone who needs it.
predominate in activities that involve knowledge work, reading • Automatic audit trail: Increasingly, businesses need to adhere
and collaboration. Paper is becoming a more temporary medium to strict guidelines on compliance and need to store records
as people print, use and discards documents rather than keeping for many years. With a digital document management system,
everything they print. Paper has become a display medium for there are no limits to the amount of documents you can store,
human collaboration. and every document will have a unique number –automatically
Over the past thirty years, many people have proclaimed the generating an audit trail. This also gives the ability to make
imminent arrival of the paperless office. Yet even the World Wide changes to documents and still keep the original, helping with
Web, which allows almost any computer to read and display another compliance and audit guidelines.

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ISSN : 2230-9519 (Online) | ISSN : 2231-2463 (Print) IJMBS Vol. 4, Issue 2, April - June 2014

• Time savings: It is no longer necessary to waste time looking that the brokerage is paperless, should we have a copier
for documents. Document searches can be done quickly and available to our agents? We decided that having a copier was
gives results in seconds. All the documents are stored in the necessary, because even though we decided to avoid paper,
same organized manner, and are easy to retrieve. that doesn’t mean we should force our ways on the client.
• Simplicity: With a digital document management system, you • Agents and clients. Another consideration was whether our
can simplify many business processes. Users can action or less tech-savvy agents or clients would be willing to embrace a
authorize tasks and transfer data with the touch of a button. paperless transaction. The truth is that not every homebuyer or
Ordering goods and authorizing invoices, are just two of home seller has a computer, and not everyone is comfortable
the best examples of daily tasks that become more efficient signing an important official document through an electronic
when done digitally. signature platform. We are a client-centered brokerage, and
• Accessibility: Digital document management lets you create we planned to retain electronic copies for our records, yet we
security settings and give all authorized users the ability to would provide our clients with original documentation — if
view the same document. This makes it easy when more than that’s what they wanted.
one user needs access to a single document or in cases when • Paperless platforms. Given the fact that not all agents are tech-
the company is on multiple sites. savvy, we needed to make a decision as to whether we would
• Business development: With time saved, executives can spend require our agents to embrace our new platform, which could
their time more productively, on developing the business. include uploading their own paperwork. In our evaluation, we
According to the YouGov survey, 30% of business managers found that some platforms are agent-centered, and brokerages
and directors would spend the time they save on business provide each agent with their own login. Other platforms are
development. brokerage-centered, and office staff can do the uploading
• Security: A digital document management system stores the while providing the agent with viewing and downloading
documents on secure servers. This means that only authorized capabilities. We opted for the latter option. Our philosophy
users are able to retrieve the documents, making it more secure is that any time an agent spends uploading paperwork is time
than paper, which could fall in the wrong hands. spent away from lead generation activities. Since we are vested
• Better customer service: A digital document management in seeing our agents close as many transactions as possible,
system allows you to access all customer data, retrieving it stands to reason that it would be best for administrative
information such as customer orders and documents, allowing staff to complete the time-consuming tasks that might detract
your business to proactively provide customer service, and from lead generation.
respond to enquiries faster.
• Email efficiency: A digital document management system D. Some Useful Solutions Out of Making an Office
that communicates with your server-based email system Paperless
will allow you to save emails into the system just like any There have been talks for over forty years about achieving
other document, making it easy for you to search your email paperless offices – the holy grail of the business world – and
history. though companies have reduced their consumption of paper in
• ROI: Businesses do not need to spend a lot of capital in order the office, thanks to the increasing rate of conversion to electronic
to have a digital document management system. There are tools (tablets, smart phones, wireless, broadband, laptops...) –
cost effective choices that will allow you to see a return on the paperless office is still to be achieved. Going from a classic
investment in as little as 6 months. office environment with trays, filing cabinets, archive rooms, fax
machines, printers and photocopiers at every floor to a digital
1. Challenges for making an office Paperless working environment can be a challenging experience in which
Having a review about what are the various issues that hinders an everybody in the company needs to join the cause and buy in
organization for going paperless are as follows: the new process. For older generations of employees, it may be
• Online security. Once we decided to go paperless, we then harder to get rid of their ocean of hard copies to embrace the
needed to be certain that our data was backed up at a few on-screen filling in, reading and filing – whereas younger , tech-
off-site locations. What if the building burned down? What savvy staff will take it in their stride. The question is not to get
if the off-site server went corrupt? While highly unlikely that rid of any paper – some people do prefer holding a hard copy
these things would happen, we felt the need to develop a plan and who would deny a customer’s request? – Other services still
to address that possibility. Thank goodness for cloud-based need to use paper especially where staff design, proofread or
technology, this resolved this problem very efficiently. edit. At a time of budget reduction and lesser outlets, it is worth
• Storage of paper files. In evaluating our options, we were considering converting your work area to a paperless place and
excited about the prospect of not having to store boxes and reap the multiple benefits: economical, environmental, efficiency
boxes of paper files. At the time we embraced the paperless and security –not mentioning the pleasure of looking at neat work
world, we had more than 200 file boxes in storage. Upon spaces, rid of paper trays and overflowing bins.
evaluating state laws with regard to file retention, we then
developed an “exit strategy” for destruction of existing paper 1. Economical Solutions
files, and I’m pleased to report that in one more year, we will • Savings on paper costs (obviously!) but also on all related
be able to give up our storage space for good. (Of course, stationery costs such as folders, furniture (e.g. filing cabinets),
another option would be to hire someone to scan all of your pens and pencils, staples, envelopes.
paper files, but for us it was more cost effective to wait it • Savings on office/storage space thanks to electronic storage – at
out.) a time where office space costs can become astronomical!
• Office printers. We had to make important decisions about • Savings on time: Studies also show that administrative staff
whether office copiers were actually needed any longer. Now can spend up to 30% of their time organizing and filing.

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IJMBS Vol. 4, Issue 2, April - June 2014 ISSN : 2230-9519 (Online) | ISSN : 2231-2463 (Print)

2. Environmental Solutions consultants who, thanks to their knowledge and experience, will
• Save the forests! Though 80% of paper now used is now recommend bespoke solutions, encompassing if needed software
recycled paper, reducing one’s consumption would greatly and organizational processes for the company.
benefit the environment.
• Whatever paper and ink you use can be recycled; you can try References
and bring together other local businesses to save on waste [1] Gilbert, A.J. (2007),"The value of green marketing
disposal costs. education at the University of Wisconsin-La
Crosse. [Online] Available: http: //www.uwlax.edu/URC/
3. Efficiency Solutions JUR-online/PDF/2007/ gilbert.pdf.
• Electronic documents are often far easier to retrieve and [2] [Online] Available: http://www.xerox.com/.../TL_
share. whitepaper_less_paper_office-Francois_Ragnet....
• Handling time is dramatically cut: Staff does not need to print, [3] [Online] Available: http://www.mobar.org/course_materials/
stuff, stamp and post daily dozens of documents, whether family/advanced/paperless office rosen.pdf
letters, pay slips or invoices – all are sent and filed directly [4] [Online] Available: http://www.expensereduction.eu/en/
from the computer – with shorter and more reliable delivery node/2185…
times. [5] Smith, S.E. (2003). What is green business? [Online]
• Bespoke forms: adopting digital documents makes it easier Available: http://www.wisegeek.com/ what-is-green-
to standardize forms and work habits throughout the different business.htm.
services or subsidiaries, whether local or international. [6] Zsolnai, L.,"Green business or community
• Planning is easier: deliveries, chasing, correspondence, etc. – economy?", International Journal of Social
all can be automated to be sent or archived at a given date. Economics, 29(8): pp. 652–662, 2002.
[7] Morebusiness.com. 2009. How your small
4. Security Solutions business can become a green business. [Online]
• Password protection and dedicated server areas for services Available at: http://www.morebusienss.com/green_
keep things private wherever needed. business.
• A daily back-up grants peace of mind in case there is computer
or network failure – there will only be 24 hours of work to
catch-up with in case of a digital disaster – far better than Ms Ujjal Sandhu received her Bachelor
years of catching up in case the office burns or the wrong ofArts with elective English from Panjab
papers are disposed of. University, Chandigarh, in year 2007,
Master of Business Administration
II. Conclusion from Punjab Technical University,
Converting to a paperless office requires a long-term preparation Jalandhar, in year 2009 and Master
both internally and externally. Businesses will need to engage of Philosophy in Management with
staff and external partners (suppliers, clients...) and to prepare research title “Relationship Between
the organisation: arranging and password protecting your server Employee Engagement, Employee
into relevant areas, finding a good back-up system, scanning Empowerment, Performance Appraisal
of documents and digital archiving, find a process to name and and Job Satisfaction: A Comparative
store documents so that they can be easily retrieved in the future, Study of Telecommunication and
group databases and train employees and managers. Managers Insurance Industry” from Lovely Professional University,
may need to invest in a document managing system to help the Phagwara, Jalandhar in 2010. She is Assistant Professor in
company with the transition and facilitate the capture, indexing, department of management, Dr It Group , Banur, Zirakpur-Patiala
storage, retrieval, search and access to documents. Centralizing Highway, Distt-Patiala, India, since August 2011. Her area of
the printing to one powerful copier/printer/scanner (set by default research expertise is HRM conceptual, Labour Laws, International
on using both sides of a sheet of paper) instead of using different and Cross – Cultural HRM, Organization Behavior.
printers in each service will help reduce costs and the use of
paper; it will also generate data on how much is printed, wasted, Mr. Rohit Seth earned his Bachelor
and who are the biggest paper users. And on a lighter note, when in Computer Application from Panjab
employees need to get up and walk to retrieve their printed University, Chandigarh, in 2008, the
documents, they think twice before pressing the “print” button. Master of Computer Application from
Businesses will need to think about how and when to dispose of Department of Computer Science
old documents – Make sure they find the right partners to help and Application, Panjab University,
with recycling or shredding in big quantities and in compliance Chandigarh, in 2011. He is Assistant
with the local regulations. Communication with external partners Professor in department of computer
(customers, suppliers and other service providers) will be crucial science, Dr It Group, Banur, Dist-
to control the amount of incoming paper – this can be achieved by Patiala, India, since August 2011. His
getting taken off mailing lists and opting for electronic delivery research expertise include Wireless
of invoices, bank statements, and utility bills, pay slips etc. This technological updated areas, digital signal processing, networking,
methodological planning and organisation may at first glance seem Smart phones with latest technological enhancements.
overwhelming and time-consuming, especially when staff must
first dedicate themselves to their daily activities and core business;
however there is always the option to delegate the task to external

36 International Journal of Management & Business Studies w w w. i j m b s. c o m