Stephen Cohen asked about those companies that have pursued a "paperless" initiative:

"I am looking for info on reducing paper usage/going paperless in the office. Has anyone's company/division/library done this?
If so, could you share:

1. Why did your office choose to go paperless?  Was there an overarching strategy? (e.g. going green, workers in diverse locations) 2. What are your processes for this  (i.e., for mail, legal/financial/administrative documents, records, books, digital signatures, etc.)?
3. Are these processes handled internally or by an outside vendor?
4. Are there any portable device technologies that your team uses  (i.e. iPads, Samsung Notes)."

Stephen, I think the term "paperless", while a popular buzz word, misstates the real goal.  I'm in a law firm, and using that "P" word raises the blood pressure of many lawyers.

I think that the real intention is to minimize wasteful use of resources, including paper.  To do it meaningfully requires an evaluation of what business AND utility purposes the paper is serving.  If there's a way to meet those needs without using paper, it's better for everyone (and for the environment) to make that change.  It can also provide a great opportunity to look at (and, perhaps, reengineer) the business processes that are involved.

Our firm started a "paperless" initiative a few years ago.  Originally, our senior partners believed that if incoming mail could be scanned, the paper would magically disappear.  Not so much.

What our firm has done is invest in technology that makes it easier to file electronic content (unstructured "stuff", including email) into our document management system directly, without creating any paper at all.  We've got a great application (pdfDocs) that allows us to print directly to PDF, and manipulate the results to meet specific needs, again without ever using paper.  We're also developing internal workflows that preclude the need for any paper.

The young, tech-savvy lawyers are trying to use their mobile devices (including iPads) to do work traditionally done with paper, and our firm is trying to keep pace with them by providing mobility applications that allow them to work, while maintaining the necessary security controls to protect our clients' information.

But, there are still a large proportion of our attorneys who can't operate without the paper.

Progress is slow, but our File Rooms are seeing a reduction in workload.

Hope this helps.


Pilar C. McAdam, CRM
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Los Angeles, CA




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