What Is Holding Back the Paperless Office? 511
Drethon writes "CNN has an article (are we up to the millionth article on this topic?) asking if the paperless office has arrived. This got me wondering, what are the main things holding back the paperless office? Just off the top of my head, the main thing keeping me printing out documents is the ability to spread a dozen pages of a document under review out on my table and marking it up by hand. PDF and Word markups are not too bad but they still lack the ability to spread many pages out to look over at the same time and could be improved to make markup a bit less restrictive. I do find myself printing out less with the use of dual monitors to have source documents and work under progress up at the same time, perhaps something like Microsoft's tabletop computer used as a desk will let me have at least a paperless desk. I know there are other reasons why offices are not becoming paperless. What are your reasons?"
Workflow (Score:3, Interesting)
My office is paperless for years (Score:4, Interesting)
I know there are other reasons why offices are not becoming paperless. What are your reasons?
I don't use paper at my home office. I have a printer for rare occasions, like when I want to print a backup set of driving directions for a long trip (the primary set being the GPS.) Some say they don't trust Windows (or any other OS, I guess) with their data. That's what backups are for. When was the last time you did a backup of all your papers, by the way? Papers are easy to lose and nearly impossible to find when you need them.
I have a scanner next to me, if I have a paper (like a manual on something I bought) I scan it and save. The paper manual may then be recycled. Less stuff to lay around and produce dust.
Even when I worked at a larger company (last year) the office was mostly paperless. All communication was done through email and IM and phone. I wasn't involved with code reviews, but meetings were done without papers - using a projector connected to presenter's notebook. The only paper I handled there was time cards, and that was only because of certain accounting regulations (it must be a physical document with a signature.)
It's half solved (Score:4, Interesting)
I've had flatbed scanners for a long time, auto-feeding, etc. Way back, scanning was very manual and OCR took a Really Long Time. That was a turnoff for many years.
These days, there are really good scanners out there (we just picked up a Fujitsu ScanSnap S1400) and the OCR isn't too painful on a modern box. The ScanSnap is color and double-sided with a large ADF - and blazing fast. I cannot picture too many improvements, except maybe a scanner that would unfold paper and remove staples... but the sticking point is still document management and access.
We're part of the way there. The largest remaining problems are software and people.
The upside? A banker's box of papers can be consolidated onto a quarter of a DVD - all searchable. I want that. :-)
We've been talking about this a lot lately (Score:3, Interesting)
What it mostly comes down to for us is screen real-estate; the ability to work from multiple documents at once is essential. We are piloting some very large monitors now (24"+), and the things we're discovering were somewhat unexpected from the IT staff's perspective. Most people, but especially older workers, intensely dislike the large screens.
Their complaints are along the lines of "it's too big" and "sensory overload". It seems that, with their previous displays, which were 15" LCDs, people could tuck their monitor away, and use the computer to augment their work. People universally liked moving from 15" CRTs to 15" LCDs because it made the computer even less obtrusive. However, a shift to a digital workflow is really quite a change, and the large screen reinforces that. It immediately confronts people with the fact that they really have to work on the computer now. Younger employees seem very eager to do this, but older employees, some of whom have worked with a paper process for 20+ years, really do not like this idea at all, and have even recently made childish proclamations like "I reserve the right to print something anytime I want!"
My sense is that this attitude will eventually pass, but it may be a generational thing. As younger employees move into more senior positions, we'll probably see paper go away. Obviously, I'm generalizing here, because some older employees, especially our graphic designers, LOVE the big screens. Their process has been entirely computer based for a long time already. Given that most of the actual work is done by younger employees, we may find ourselves giving the less senior people big screens, and let the more senior people keep what they have. They spend most of their time in meetings anyhow.
Re:A: The law. (Score:1, Interesting)
That's not technically true a lot of the time, as there are solutions that have been approved for those situations. But practically speaking this might as well be true, because those systems are so expensive and troublesome to implement.
Surface computing (Score:4, Interesting)
A whole desk computer is what you need, with easy ways of sending someone a document.
Imagine if you had a meeting room and the whole desk was a computer, but you could effectively bring your own computer display over to the desk? No need to bring your laptop, no need to bring a notepad with you.
Ok, we will need to move away from WIMP to make this possible perhaps?
You! (Score:3, Interesting)
What's holding down the paperless Office? The answer is mainly: you. I've been working at my IT job for a few years. Almost if not all of my communication is by mail, phone or coffee machine. I normally do not read anything offline, and if I write anything down it's because I do the exercise to remember. Only top priority notes are kept, and they are directly typed into a document on the server.
I've recently had to host a meeting with 20 persons and I just used a laptop and a projector, The persons hosting the meeting before gave everybody a lot of paper (which 90 percent won't even read because they are not directly involved). I just gave them one double sided page so they could scribble some notes next to the items on the agenda.
I absolutely hate paper when I'm at work. Office documents need versions, need to be able to be pushed around, deleted and changed. You must be able to search through them quickly. Novels are much better in a book, but at work, I'll would prefer digital versions every time (even though paper even there certainly has its advantages).
Of course I do have double screens at work, something every IT person should have - if only to minimize costs.
Re:Basically? (Score:4, Interesting)
Just having tons and tons of paper sitting in a warehouse was was much cheaper, I heard later.
I basically agree with your points, but there is a difference between a well managed document control system, and one implemented by bunglers. Plus electronic documents have the advantage that they can be backed up offsite somewhere: that warehouse full of paper may indeed be cheaper but it's not necessarily safer.
I've been involved in document control projects (primarily used for pulling manufacturing production prints) and you're right: paper is damned useful, for all the reasons you outlined. Consequently, I never made any attempt to develop or promote a paperless system because it a. wouldn't have served the purpose and b. would never have been accepted anyway.
All the software did was provide a convenient, searchable interface to servers full of untold thousands of engineering drawings (both Autocad DWGs and scans of paper drawings) so that they could be viewed on-screen and printed if desired. That offered the best of both worlds: quick and easy viewability for those that don't need a hardcopy, with a printout only a mouse-click away. No expensive content manager (the software didn't require any proprietary server-side component of any kind, and rendered all drawings locally), and no DBAs competent or otherwise.
The first version of that app was DOS-based and ran over dial-up, with about a dozen plants around the world using it, pulling files from a big Solaris server. That was back in the late eighties, and it ran for years without much need for maintenance (other than the occasional hardware upgrade or repair.) I eventually wrote a Windows version of the application, and they're still running it. They've gone through several major server and connectivity upgrades over the years, I've heard, but I didn't even have to be involved in that. They also have a disaster recovery plan in place, so even if the server room burns through the floor they won't lose their drawings. That's something you can't easily do with tons of paper.
Sometimes you have to think things through and realize what it is you don't need. Big-ass proprietary software vendors have a vested interest in locking you into hypercomplex, overbuilt systems that may or may not do what you want, but are virtually guaranteed to cost more than they're worth.
Re:Drawing (Score:5, Interesting)
I tried "virtual whiteboard" with pen input recently at my CS department, and I found it very difficult to use, partly because the pen input device I was looking at was not the same thing I was drawing on.
Re:Resistance Of Change (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't think it's always resistance to change. I frequently experiment with new ways of keeping my life organized and I almost always end up coming back to a system that involves paper, stickies or notecards, at least in part. Outlook tasks and calendar entries definitely have their place, especially when your whole office is using them, but it often helps me to have notes take up physical space in my life. After a long period of trying to deny it and "go paperless," I finally admitted to myself that spatial organization was incredibly effective and I needed to take advantage of it.
I tried the Hipster PDA [wikipedia.org] when I was in college and ended up ditching it because I didn't have enough actionable items to track to make it worth it, but my current job is full of little things to remember and act on, and I find it incredibly useful to have everything on cards - I can thumb through them, spread them out, sort them, organize them, etc. I can take the card for what I'm currently working on and put it next to me and help helps me focus a bit.
I love tools like Outlook and especially OneNote, but I find that when things get stressful or when I have lower-priority items, those tools become dumpsters for information that I drop things into and never sort or see again. My notecards are bite-sized pieces that I can organize how I like on a whim.
A couple of things (Score:4, Interesting)
Some of the reasons I still use paper:
Prices & UI... (Score:3, Interesting)
Paper is incredibly cheap...
At ~1 cent per page, how many reams of paper would it take to pay off a single tablet/eBook reader for a single person?
Answer: "Too many"
Tablets, so far, have been far too geared for the high end... Luxury devices. Meanwhile, the essentially free "Personal Organizers" that were flying off the shelves close to 10 years ago now, had everything needed, just in too small dimensions...
In short, once someone sells a 7" display, with decent pen-input, basic wireless, and a stupid-simple UI, for perhaps $25, then you'll see the last stronghold of paper fall away.
Until then, it will continue to be a trade-off... Is e-mailing this report okay, or will it need to be referenced in the next meeting, or by someone as they're walking around? Often, it's cost more to take the time to figure that out, than the cost of continuing to print it...
Re:In short (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:A: The law. (Score:3, Interesting)
It depends on your needs. For small companies, paperless is probably too expensive. For larger companies, especially those with multiple locations, it's a huge time & money saver. Of the four deployments of document management systems I've overseen, none were difficult to implement -- the worst cost about $60,000 including my time as lead, developer time for integration with the ERP, user training time, and documentation writeup time. And that employer is saving more than twice that in physical document storage, transportation (several offices worldwide), and staff costs.
As a user of good document management systems... well... all I can say is that they are the ultimate in making people accountable, and in CYA.
I like those systems so much that when I do job searches, lack of a document management system makes me think twice about a potential employer... YMMV, especially since I work in the fields of accounting and finance.
I think it holds true, though, that those systems are good for some situations, bad for others... and without actually doing a needs analysis, there's no way to say that those systems are not worthwhile. And as far as implementation, if you roll your own, you're in for a world of pain, in all likelihood... but there are some great systems out there that are easy to deploy and not too expensive.
Re:Old saying (Score:3, Interesting)
"A paperless office is as useful as a paperless toilet. Some things would be impractical..."
You've obviously never been to France.
Okay, haha, yeah. But seriously, there really is More Than One Way To Do It in this case. The last time I installed a printer on my machine it was to print DVDs and their covers. With the exception of a few handouts (almost never my own), I never printer anything at all. I do have more screen space than many people and I keep a scan of my signature safely stored on my PC, but it really doesn't take much imagination to avoid most (mis)uses of paper.
I find paper cumbersome, difficult to keep organised and generally useless for more than 10 minutes.
There are, of course, a few very good reasons to file paper copies of documents. Contracts and other legal documents, for example, have somewhat more value as paper than their digital counterparts.
But something we forget is that, back when everything was on paper, we had these things called secretaries and filing clerks, people whose job it was to keep the paper organised. Scoff if you like about the uselessness of hiring people to do nothing more than cart paper around, but I can tell you that the majority of organisations don't give nearly enough thought to replacing them.
It's primarily this inefficiency -assuming that computers will replace secretaries et alia without giving a thought to replicating their functionality and the processes they followed- that led to the increased consumption of paper that most offices saw as computers arrived on the scene. People would print off multiple copies of emails etc. because they didn't know how to store and manage them.
Going paperless is a process more than a product. It's an administrative challenge more than a technical one. It's possible to get there, but you have to give it some thought and effort first. Lamentably few people and organisations have ever done this.
Re:Old saying (Score:3, Interesting)
"A paperless office is as useful as a paperless toilet. Some things would be impractical..." OK, it's not that old a saying, but it's valid in a number of ways.
You should travel through places like the middle east and like Turkey .. the paperless toilet is a reality and is the main reason you don't touch food with your left hand or shake peoples left hands
Re:Basically? (Score:3, Interesting)
There is nothing magical about a signature. It is just one possible form of evidence that an agreement has been reached. Very few contracts require signatures, and all of those that do provide non-mechanical means of meeting that signature.
Even so, it's nice to have a signature than to have to provide other evidence. And it's a lot cheaper, typically.
Word Processors are holding us back... (Score:3, Interesting)
IME, word processors (such as Word) are the main impediment to the paperless office. The general problems are: they're based on the 8.5 x 11" paper paradigm, they contain unstructured data, and they're too difficult to share, search, and otherwise organize electronically. I use MS-Word at work, so my examples/complaints will be specific to Word. The issues I have with Word in how it impedes a paperless office are:
IMO, the paperless office isn't going to happen until Someone(tm) manages to replace the word processor with a database that looks and acts like a word processor. Kind of like how everyone can use a fax machine (which acts like a telephone and copier) but those same folks balk at using a computer scanner and email over tcp/ip even though the fax machine is simply a low quality scanner that uses an inflexible, low speed modem instead of a tcp/ip network connection.
Tablet + OneNote = what you need. (Score:4, Interesting)
I always have all of my notes. Always.
My notes are in color. I have a large selection of colors and sizes. (and my highlighters dont get messed up or run out)
If I didnt leave myself enough room, I can make more room.
If I want to take an idea in another direction, I can copy what I have to another page and fork off in the direction I want.
Using OneNote, I can search through my handwritten notes as if they were text. Very useful for quickly finding old notes that are buried amidst lots of notes.
I can resize diagrams.
I can print pages to OneNote and use OCR to get the text from it or write all over it.
I can quickly copy any part of my screen to it.
I can publish my notes as PDF's or print copies.
I have not found one draw back. In fact, I would like you to try to think of one (perhaps I have over looked it).
Make sure you turn on pressure sensitive ink (obviously buy a tablet that is pressure sensitive) and select an ink thick enough so you can see the changes in width with the changes in pressure. This makes it look just like a hand written diagram.
The only word of caution to teachers is if you are copying and pasting something - give your students time to recopy it in their notes.
Also, get a tablet that is convertible. Then it is your laptop when you are doing regular stuff and yet when you need to draw a diagram - you can!
The real motto for tablet computers needs to be "Use but not over use" (just like the motion stuff for wii)
Dont write a paper in tablet mode - type it, it's faster. etc.
I am a mathematician who, like yourself, "thinks on paper". The tablet is the computer you need.
Get one with a dual digitizer. Active and passive. Get a convertible. Get OneNote. Resist the urge to do everything in tablet mode. I would bet most people with your sensibilities would not be disappointed. I know I am not.
Plus, I've heard there are OneNote like apps which also do math stuff, like evaluate determinants for you, draw graphs, take derivatives etc.. I have not looked into those yet.
I have used this set up for four years.
My Paperless Office: Writing a Research Paper (Score:3, Interesting)
Recently I had an opportunity to write two research papers, and to be different I did it without printing out anything but the final drafts. All in all it was a successful experience. Here is how I did it.
First off, I used a Mac. This is important, because (a) OS X support for the PDF format is far superior to the support on Windows; and (b) because the Spaces virtual desktop and Expose window viewing make dealing with thirty open windows at once practical.
My research paper was a moderately short (4000 words), but had about twenty five source papers from various scientific journals. I downloaded the source papers in pdf form and gave them names similar to their citation name (e.g. Smith et al (2002)). I then opened the papers and distributed them around nine virtual desktops. Each virtual desktop represented a different type of paper, a different topic or a different side to the argument at hand. I then read each paper on screen and highlighted key passages (the Preview function on OS X has this feature built in, along with annotated notes). I also added notes to important passages, noting how I might use the particular passage in my essay. Again, on a Mac, annotating pdf's is very easy.
Once I finished reading and annotating, I began to write. I would drag the essay window around the desktops so I could view my essay alongside pertinent scientific papers. If I remembered a passage, but couldn't remember which paper it was in, I could just search the computer, as all pdf files are indexed word for word. Also, I was able to copy and paste full scalable vector graphics from the pdf files. If I saw a graph I wished to use, I just copied it and placed it in my document. In the final output, the graph was an exact copy, not an anti-aliased pixelated screenshot. I actually used LaTeX for this, and created new pdf versions of the graphs which I added to the source code.
The end result of this was a very nice looking final paper, with beautiful graphs and typography. I believe that not printing out the source papers was actually more efficient because it was so easy to navigate between them, and because I could search them. I have written many other papers in the past, and had previously always printed the journals out. The result was usually a sprawling and chaotic mess, where papers disappeared and where it was difficult to keep straight what was said in different papers. Using the Mac's amazing window and desktop management system made this not only possible, but advantageous. I didn't print out anything but the final version. Proof-reading the pdf files was good enough for me.
As to the topic at hand, I think one of the key factors that has prevented the paperless office is poor user interface design. With the right user interface, ditching paper becomes a possibility.
Re:Basically? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Old saying (Score:3, Interesting)
"Anyone who equates an office with a toilet should not be designing software." -- Ted Nelson
Re:Basically? (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, you aren't going to have a paperless office without a paperless workflow first. Yes, people can still print stuff out but only when there is a need to. In many of these cases, it's where the workflow is originating from or going to a non-paperless workflow in another department, or when there are problems and things need to be gathered together and at that point the workflow is already broke. I keep hearing about "people will always want to hold documents" but honestly, I don't really see it in real life. We had radiologists that swore they would always want to read films. We heard the same thing with the doctors in the ORs that need x-rays for operations. In the first case, it was the director head that ordered them to go filmless. In the second, we just installed PACS workstations but also provided the doctors with films if they wanted them. Within three weeks the most die hard resisters had not only stopped complaining but had begun to complain about how much space the (now) 'useless' film viewers were taking up in their reading rooms and ORs. The same thing is happening with paper. With just the advent of a plain old file server, no version controls or anything like that, lots of paper has disappeared from the administrative workflow. All meeting agendas and documents are now kept on the server with hyperlinks to any files they might reference. Meeting minutes are kept in the same folder once the meeting is over as they are typed up on a laptop by the administrative assistant. Sure, when they started this, everybody still got those packets of papers that were printed out for each meeting. Now they don't even bother to print them out because everybody just threw them away once the meeting was over anyway and everything is avialable to those that want to read it. Yes, it's just a paperless workflow, but once you have it, you can determine the other reasons people actually need to print paper and correct them. Once that happens, its more trouble to print it out than not so people just stop.
On the other side though, we have made significant attempts to use tablets, and frankly, they suck. They're big, expensive, typically slow, and the handwriting recognition blows. Plus, only about one out of twenty people even bother to use the tablet functions anyway and nobody wants to carry it around with them all the time. I still carry around a steno pad for taking notes and listing support issues for when I walk from computer to computer and person to person. However, I do notice that some things that used to go onto that steno pad now go onto my smart phone. After a while, I see that there will be more and more paperless workflow and people will eventually just stop using paper. Sure, we still need some tools in place and probably developed before that happens, but I think it is happening. Tablets probably aren't the answer, but cheap slate devices like the iPad might be, or foldable epaper, or something we haven't dreamed up yet because most people's workflows aren't to the point that whatever it is is needed yet.
Re:Tablet + OneNote = what you need. (Score:3, Interesting)
I use a similar setup, but I found OneNote frustrating for teaching. It's simply too cluttered for my liking. In addition, when exporting PDFs, it does a terrible job of page breaks, often breaking in the middle of a line of my writing.
So, I've switched to xournal on Linux. It doesn't do OCR, but I never used that much anyways. It just, very simply, gives you pages of lined paper to write on, and allows you to annotate PDFs. Exporting PDFs is simple. Since I switched to Linux, the author has created windows binaries for xournal, but I have no compelling reason to go back, so I haven't.
I've also set up Dropbox on my linux machine and one of my webservers, and written a script so that PDFs I've created during class automatically appear on my course webpage within a few minutes - zero hassle!
Re:Basically? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Basically? (Score:3, Interesting)