Here we go again on the paperless office. Something everyone can related to!
I think we just need to remember that Paper-Less will never mean Paper-Free.
Here are some reasons:

1. Despite being an advocate of paperless e-records use as a primary means
of records management and communication  I am surrounded by paper - because
not all of my business and social contacts will stop sending me paper! Some
of it I scan and some of it I add to a few remaining paper files, because
(as in so many business cases) it is not worth the ROI to scan an entire
file of paper into images. 

2. The vast majority of medical records and many business today are still in
paper format and always will be because of the cost of conversion - too
little ROI. Ask any small office physician. Or any attorney of any size
firm. And a lot of issues remain about digital preservation vs long term
information retention. Let's not get started on that one! I did a
presentation last year for the IIMC on "the Successful Use of Microfilm
Today." Physical media has advantages.

3. Why do you get paper receipts everywhere - restaurants, airlines, the dry
cleaners, etc.?  Because paper is often the most cost effective means of low
tech and personal business communication . You do not have to worry about
transferring data to an incompatible operating system, application or
hardware port. Retail outlets, hotels, restaurants, gas stations, etc. etc.
It simply works. Paper will be around a long time for small businesses which
comprise the vast majority of business in the world. Paper has no worries
about IT infrastructure, data exchange formats, technology obsolescence,
etc.

4. Doing business with foreign countries? Check out the Records Storage
companies making huge bucks storing paper in foreign countries. India is a
good example where they are self-described as being swamped in paper. It's
cultural. It requires no electricity. Are we going to insist that other
countries and cultures adopt a high tech business model when they do not
have the infrastructure?

5. Disasters. What if your directions for starting your emergency generator
are in a flash drive taped to the side of the unit, and the battery in your
laptop is dead? You will wish you had left paper records to read. Think
about hurricanes, tornados, or storms. How many people went for a week or
more without any power recently during a snowstorm? The combination to the
lock on the basement door where the emergency food and supplies are stored
had better not be in a computer.

6. Outside of the urban infrastructure? Try hiking the Appalachian Trail or
anywhere else outdoors and depending Google Maps where there are no cell
phone towers within sight. You need batteries and a working device, both of
which you will have long ago left behind due to their weight and fragility.
Paper maps are much better along with a compass. Your GPS may be dead.
Satellite phones go dead.

In many cases - paper is better for communication, stores better locally, is
more rugged, can more easily be made available, and is accepted without
question as a useful authentic record. We just don't want to be swamped by
it or enslaved to using it when it does not add value to what we are doing.

***************************
John Phillips
Information Technology Decisions
www.infotechdecisions.net

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