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The paperless office is one of the most discussed topics in the technology industry. Some businesses are well on the way to a paperless working environment, whereas others are yet to even consider it. Enterprise Content Management (ECM) began life as localised document management and paper-imaging systems but now includes managing and storing a broad variety of content that simply did not exist a decade ago - plans, proposals, videos, tweets, emails, white papers, articles and more.

The main aim of most ECM implementations remains to manage, share and process electronic content across the enterprise, but used properly it can undoubtedly reduce the amount of paper in the workplace.

PAPERLESS PAYBACK
The recent AIIM report 'Winning the Paper Wars' surveyed nearly 600 AIIM members on how their organisations deal with paper and content management. The biggest benefit of ECM appears to be compliance and better records for the audit trail. Faster customer response was the second main benefit, followed by the greater ability to monitor workflow status and workloads, which is part of reducing staff resources.

When we asked users to prioritise these issues, paper handling was top - re-keying of data, searching for copies and filing. Next was the problem of storage space, and then the inability to readily monitor workflow progress.

What would you say are the biggest issues caused by paper-based processes in your organisation?

Other issues highlighted included the difficulty of version control, lack of disaster recovery, cost of paper supplies, and the endless chase for "wet-ink" signatures on an "original" document.

Lack of a physical signature and legal admissibility were the most widespread objections to going paper-free, although legislation on this has been standardised in most jurisdictions for at least ten years; the cost of equipment, inflexible workflows, ease of mark-up, and potentially disruptive business change were also ranked as significant.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, more than a quarter of legal respondents admitted they were against paper-free processes, as were finance managers and general admin staff, but C-level executives were four times more likely to be in favour of paper-free processes than against.

SLOW PACE
Even though companies have identified the benefits of automation, around half of the respondents report that they have made just five per cent progress towards going paper-free, and nineteen per cent said they have actually seen an increase in paper flowing through their organisation.

Almost three-quarters (74 per cent) already have business improvement projects underway that would benefit from paper-free processes, but less than one quarter (24 per cent) have a specific policy designed to reduce paper use. So what are the most effective methods for creating a paper-free environment and what are the levels of capture maturity?

PLANNING FOR SCANNING
The highest level of capture maturity (in paper-input terms) is the 'dream scenario' in which forms or invoices are scanned at-the-door, the document type is automatically recognised and routed, the data is captured, it is verified against transactional content in the ERP or finance system, and the invoice or, say, loan application is passed for payment in a 'hands-free' or light-touch way.

The reality is that although 70% or so of businesses are scanning as part of the process, only 13% are using OCR to extract data and use it within the process. Fifteen percent extract some data from the form, but use it only for routing or indexing, and 18% scan the form but then manually route it as a 'flat image' through the process. The remainder only scan for archive and this is mostly done at the end of the process. As might be expected, the bigger organisations are more likely to invest in more sophisticated capture and OCR equipment, but even in those bigger firms, the level of full data capture only rises to 16% (from 11% of the smallest) and automated routing or indexing rises from 12% to 19%.

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