Check out just about any science fiction movie or television show and you’re likely to see a few things. 
Flying cars. Check.
Digital communicators. Check.
Teleportation. Check.
Paper documents. Not so fast.
I’ve never seen Captain Kirk with a paper document. Or Captains Picard, Sisko, Janeway or Archer, either, for that matter.
Companies also have the goal of utilizing paperless solutions – 79% say business-at-the-speed-of-paper will be unacceptable in a few years’ time – and yet … and yet …
According to AIIM, for 19% of organizations, the amount of paper flowing through their business processes is still increasing.
There are a lot of reasons for the continued popularity of paper. These include:
|
Why do you think there is still paper in so many of your business processes? |
|
|
Staff prefer paper for handling/reading/notes |
47% |
|
Lack of management initiatives or mandates to reduce it |
47% |
|
Lack of understanding of paper-free options |
39% |
|
We need physical signatures on paper |
30% |
|
Suppliers and customers continue to send us paper |
23% |
|
Long term records keeping |
16% |
|
Legal admissibility will be compromised |
15% |
|
Our regulators still insist on it |
11% |
|
We are required to maintain a hybrid paper/digital environment |
11% |
One thing is clear, with or without science fiction to clue us in: leading organizations will not use paper as a form of record or documentation, but rather a temporary viewing convenience.
It’s time to step into the future – a future of digital documents and digitized processes. Sound far-fetched? It’s not. The capability is here now, and cloud solutions make it easier than ever before.
