Elysia, I saw your question posted to the List Serve and wanted to share 
with you a great deal of information about a major study by IBM on your 
very question.  If you will go to the link below you will find out about 
the heavy burden paper records place on organizations from a cost, risk, 
business intelligence and environmental prospective.  In the study a large 
commercial bank was still using a lot of paper in nine of their business 
units, and a potential cost savings in those units was estimated to be a 
$36 Million ROI in three years.  Most of the costs savings were from 
productivity gains and resource savings.  Some were from real estate 
savings, but that was not the most significant by any means.  The real key 
to the savings is to stop printing the paper to begin with.  Studies show 
that 80% or more of the paper that companies use come from a "born 
digital" source, such as Word files, web pages, reports, emails, etc.  By 
using tools to automate the collection, analysis, searching and records 
management of the digital content it is often possible to no longer print 
a lot of the paper, though clearly there are occasions when some will be 
printed so you won't stop it all. 

http://www.informationmanagementrequest.com/campaigns/compliance_warehouse/site/nopaperweight.html?sor=red

Known as the "No Paper Weight" study, at the link you can find:

White papers describing the study, 
An independent validation of the results from Cohasset Associates 
Another white paper from them on the legal admissibility of digital copies 
of paper.
Tools that can help you estimate your potential savings
And more

If you wish to discuss this live feel free to contact me off list.
Bill Neale
Product Marketing Manager
IBM Records Management Products
[log in to unmask]



________________________________________________________________
Date:    Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:57:32 -0400
From:    Elysia Guzik <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Real Estate Costs for Paper Records

Hello collective wisdom=2C

=20

My organization is currently considering moving to a paperless approach to 
=
managing records. As part of our research for this project=2C I've been 
ask=
ed to calculate cost estimates for maintaining paper records (compared to 
e=
lectronic)=2C from both a resourcing and real estate perspective. If you 
ha=
ve used tools/ tip sheets/ publications/ websites/ blogs that have proved 
t=
o be helpful for similar estimates=2C I'd be happy to hear from you.

=20

Thanks in advance=2C



Elysia Guzik




William E. (Bill) Neale 
Program Manager, Compliance Product Marketing 
IBM Software Group 
Enterprise Content Management
Tel: O 804-789-0076; C 804-647-0206
Email: [log in to unmask]




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