MESOTHELIOMA

Like anything else, making the change from a paper-oriented office environment to a paperless office has both advantages and disadvantages (please see the first part of this series So, You're Considering a Paperless Office?). However, if armed with a thorough understanding of its operations and a solid implementation plan, an organization can make the switch to a paperless office less painful.

I once read an article on the Internet that said to have a paperless office is about as realistic as having paperless toilet paper. Obviously, this person doesn't understand the power of water. Having a paperless office is possible provided an organization's expectations are realistic. But before we jump into that, let me clear up one common misconception about the term “paperless office.” Having a paperless office does not mean a company will never have or use paper. Rather, it means a leveraging of technology to reduce a company's dependency on paper; it does not to eliminate the use of paper altogether.

A wise person once said, “It is possible to change without improving—it is impossible to improve without change.” Most (if not all) organizations constantly strive to better serve both their internal clients (that is, its employees) and external clients. Without a doubt, going paperless requires change, and for some organizations, making this change is a daunting, if not impossible, task. As with any change, organizations should prepare themselves by reviewing the various possible outcomes (both positive and negative) that could result from going paperless.

In other words, organizations should ask the question: will this change have a profound effect on the way we do business?

Knowing Your Operations

An organization's first step when implementing a paperless office is to know its operations—not just its physical processes (although this is very important too, and must be taken into account), but its clients' and staff's attitudes toward this type of change as well. Are clients prepared for a paperless system? Will it change the way the organization interacts with them? Will office personnel now receive those 100-page reports electronically instead of as hard copies? Do they have the technological means to support this change, and are they willing to accept this new way of working?

Here's an example to illustrate my point. My wife has led change management programs for several large organizations, including a Fortune 500 company. Her work involved guiding companies through the process of changing the way they do business and interact with new technology. In the majority of cases, she would inevitably find herself “cleaning up” (correcting) management's errors caused by having made changes without analyzing the effects those changes would have on internal and external clients. Too often, management's focus was exclusively on physical processes. This single-mindedness proved to be very costly for these organizations.

Furthermore, an organization must be aware of the types of documents it is required by law to keep in hard copy. I emphasize “by law” because you would be surprised at the difference between what people believe, based on their personal experience, is meant by this, and what is actually meant by the stipulation “by law.”

To understand how to transform itself into a paperless office, an organization must first recognize the several hurdles that it will need to deal with, and then take the appropriate steps to overcome them. For a smooth transition to a paperless office, an organization should take the following measures:

* Know its external customers. Will the change to a paperless office be transparent to them? If so, will they feel the change immediately?
* Know its internal customers. Are employees aware of the intended changes? What training will they receive?
* Identify the physical processes that will change. Remember, it is not necessary—or even realistic—to be 100 percent paperless.

Once an organization has answered these questions and addressed these issues, it will have successfully cleared the hurdles to moving toward a paperless office, with a clear set of realistic goals. The next big step is to find the right paperless office system for the organization's particular situation.

So what should you expect from your new system? Of course, the price should be right, but apart from that, there are some other extremely important factors to consider.

How Easy Is the New System to Learn?

Implementing a system that is low-cost but harder to learn than advanced quantum physics is useless. After all, a new system needs to be picked up quickly (learned within a couple of hours) by all office personnel. Generally speaking, a system that builds upon the current knowledge of basic Windows functions is one that is easy to learn.

If the vendor of the paperless office system offers a free trial, take it and see if everyone can understand the system without a training session. A training session should supplement everybody's understanding. In other words, the system should be easy enough to learn so that office staff can easily understand how it works; a training session should simply be a reinforcement of that understanding.

How Strong Is Customer Support?

Incorporating a paperless office system is a big decision that will have a major impact on an organization's operations. Therefore, it is crucial that the company selling the system offers a well-defined support plan included in the purchasing price of the system. With so many choices of systems, an organization shouldn't have to pay extra for premium customer support. Questions organizations should ask include

* How does the provider offer this support?
* Is support accessible by e-mail only, or can a number be called to speak to a person?
* How fast does customer support respond to a call?
* Will the organization have a designated trainer? If so, is this trainer the one who sold the system, or are questions passed on to another department?

Many organizations separate their sales and the training departments. The problem with doing this is that these two departments have different motives. A salesperson separates himself from the client once the client's money is received, leaving the training and support department to defend any discrepancies between what the salesperson said the system can do and what the system actually does. However, if the salesperson is also the trainer, this problem is eliminated because of the continued contact between the seller and buyer.

What Happens When You Find System Errors?

Don't be fooled. No system is 100 percent error proof, and that includes a paperless office system. Don't let a salesperson try to convince you otherwise. Even Microsoft, with all its resources, still experiences problems with its Office products, so why would your paperless office system be any different? Be sure to ask the following two questions: How quickly will the vendor correct a problem once one is discovered? Will you have to wait until other clients find issues, or will these problems be fixed quickly and re-sent to you?

Know Your Office's Core Needs and Your Vendor

It is important to understand your company's needs. One way of doing this is to create what is known as a decision matrix. A decision matrix is a fast and easy tool commonly used by consulting companies and the US military to add up values in order to quantify a particular decision.

For example, let's say your organization is considering a paperless office system, and the two core reasons for wanting one are a) to have the ability to protect the organization's information from unauthorized users, and b) to be able to quickly search for data. A decision matrix allows you to quantify each paperless office system option in order to determine which is the best fit for your organization. Table 1 is a sample decision matrix for an organization wanting a paperless office system that has strong security and search capabilities.


SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/what-does-having-a-paperless-office-really-mean-19153/