IJMBS Vo l . 4, Iss u e 2, Ap r i l - Ju n e 2014 ISSN : 2230-9519 (Online) | ISSN : 2231-2463 (Print) Paperless : A New Name to Technology 1Ujjal Sandhu, 2Rohit Seth 1Dept. of MGMT. and Business Administration (HR & Marketing), Dr IT Group, Banur, Punjab, India 2Dept. of Mangement and Computer Applications, Dr IT Group, Banur, Punjab, India

Abstract computer’s documents, has increased the amount of printing done. Going paperless can immediately affect your company’s bottom The use of e-mail in an organization causes an average 40 percent line. We all know that “time is money”, but it is still less expensive increase in consumption. In The Myth of the Paperless than real estate. An expanding business can fit more workers into Office, Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper use the study of paper space once occupied by filing cabinets and record rooms. Plus, as a way to understand the work that people do and the reasons electronic records are easier to search and retrieve, meaning that they do it the way they do. Using the tools of ethnography and if you can digitize more of your paperwork, you can probably cognitive psychology, they look at paper use from the level of the operate more efficiently. individual up to that of organizational culture. Central to Sellen and Harper’s investigation is the concept of “affordances” -- the Keywords activities that an object allows, or affords. The physical properties Papeless, Technology, Bussiness, Less paper, Storage, Security, of paper (it’s being thin, light, porous, opaque, and flexible) afford Solutions, Office the human actions of grasping, carrying, folding, writing, and so on. The concept of affordance allows them to compare the I. Introduction affordances of paper with those of existing digital devices. They can then ask what kinds of devices or systems would make new A. Green Business kinds of activities possible or better support current activities. The The term ‘green businesses’ is defined by Smith (2003) as authors argue that paper will continue to play an important role businesses and practices that are viewed as environmentally sound, in office life. Rather than pursue the ideal of the paperless office, including the use of organic and natural products to build factories, we should work toward a future in which paper and electronic tighter protection against emissions and environmentally friendly document tools work in concert and organizational processes make sourcing of materials. Zsolnai (2002) defines a green business as a optimal use of both So, despite all of the advances and all of the business that has adopted the concept of environmentalism across talk and promises, we’re still using a lot of paper, and the vision the various functions of the business. Gilbert (2007) identifies a of a paperless office is looking more and more like an illusion. green business activity as any activity that is performed in a manner The average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper each that has either limited negative ecological impact or directly year according to Reduce.org. Multiply that by the number of benefits the natural environment in some way. Morebusiness.com employees you have, and you can see how going paperless could (2009) describes a green business as using less natural resources save your business money. Of course, doing business using much to complete the tasks needed and using sustainable methods and less paper is easier said than done. Anyone working in the office materials such as recycling (paper, , electronics, glass and of a lawyer, accountant, or health care company can tell you: aluminum) and using sustainable products (recycled, plant-based the paperless office is still for many elusive, buried under ever or organically grown). increasing stacks of paper. But with careful planning, the dream of the paperless office can be a reality. This step-by-step guide B. Paperless or Less Paper? will present you with strategies for weaning your office off paper, As long ago as the late 20th century, people began talking one step at a time. about the possibility of a “paperless office.” The first prediction 1. Assess how likely it is that you will be able to go of the paperless office was actually introduced in an article in paperless. Business Week in 1975 on “The Office of the Future.” It became 2. Set a deadline. a buzzword in the 1980s. It coincided with the advent of the 3. Hire an outside firm and buy new equipment. , and the hope was that all documents could be 4. Replace your invoices. processed electronically and that paper would become irrelevant. 5. Store key documents. Since then, a number of technologies have made it seem within 6. Identify your “super-users.” our grasp chief among them desktop publishing, the web, e-mail, 7. Pat yourself on the back. XML, content management systems, e-books, and more. Today, digital information flies around the world and into, through C. Reasons to Go Paperless and out of our organizations, is managed and secured in digital • Easy storage: With a digital document management system repositories and drives business at lightning-fast speeds. But has in place, all documents that come into your office can paper disappeared? Not at all! Actually, paper consumption is still immediately be scanned and electronically stored, making it increasing, soaring to extremely high levels. Paper continues to easy to send them electronically to everyone who needs it. predominate in activities that involve knowledge work, reading • Automatic audit trail: Increasingly, businesses need to adhere and collaboration. Paper is becoming a more temporary medium to strict guidelines on compliance and need to store records as people print, use and discards documents rather than keeping for many years. With a digital document management system, everything they print. Paper has become a display medium for there are no limits to the amount of documents you can store, human collaboration. and every document will have a unique number –automatically Over the past thirty years, many people have proclaimed the generating an audit trail. This also gives the ability to make imminent arrival of the paperless office. Yet even the World Wide changes to documents and still keep the original, helping with Web, which allows almost any computer to read and display another compliance and audit guidelines.

34 International Journal of Management & Business Studies www.ijmbs.com ISSN : 2230-9519 (Online) | ISSN : 2231-2463 (Print) IJMBS Vo l . 4, Iss u e 2, Ap r i l - Ju n e 2014

• Time savings: It is no longer necessary to waste time looking that the brokerage is paperless, should we have a copier for documents. Document searches can be done quickly and available to our agents? We decided that having a copier was gives results in seconds. All the documents are stored in the necessary, because even though we decided to avoid paper, same organized manner, and are easy to retrieve. that doesn’t mean we should force our ways on the client. • Simplicity: With a digital document management system, you • Agents and clients. Another consideration was whether our can simplify many business processes. Users can action or less tech-savvy agents or clients would be willing to embrace a authorize tasks and transfer data with the touch of a button. paperless transaction. The truth is that not every homebuyer or Ordering goods and authorizing invoices, are just two of home seller has a computer, and not everyone is comfortable the best examples of daily tasks that become more efficient signing an important official document through an electronic when done digitally. signature platform. We are a client-centered brokerage, and • Accessibility: Digital document management lets you create we planned to retain electronic copies for our records, yet we security settings and give all authorized users the ability to would provide our clients with original documentation — if view the same document. This makes it easy when more than that’s what they wanted. one user needs access to a single document or in cases when • Paperless platforms. Given the fact that not all agents are tech- the company is on multiple sites. savvy, we needed to make a decision as to whether we would • Business development: With time saved, executives can spend require our agents to embrace our new platform, which could their time more productively, on developing the business. include uploading their own paperwork. In our evaluation, we According to the YouGov survey, 30% of business managers found that some platforms are agent-centered, and brokerages and directors would spend the time they save on business provide each agent with their own login. Other platforms are development. brokerage-centered, and office staff can do the uploading • Security: A digital document management system stores the while providing the agent with viewing and downloading documents on secure servers. This means that only authorized capabilities. We opted for the latter option. Our philosophy users are able to retrieve the documents, making it more secure is that any time an agent spends uploading paperwork is time than paper, which could fall in the wrong hands. spent away from lead generation activities. Since we are vested • Better customer service: A digital document management in seeing our agents close as many transactions as possible, system allows you to access all customer data, retrieving it stands to reason that it would be best for administrative information such as customer orders and documents, allowing staff to complete the time-consuming tasks that might detract your business to proactively provide customer service, and from lead generation. respond to enquiries faster. • Email efficiency: A digital document management system D. Some Useful Solutions Out of Making an Office that communicates with your server-based email system Paperless will allow you to save emails into the system just like any There have been talks for over forty years about achieving other document, making it easy for you to search your email paperless – the holy grail of the business world – and history. though companies have reduced their consumption of paper in • ROI: Businesses do not need to spend a lot of capital in order the office, thanks to the increasing rate of conversion to electronic to have a digital document management system. There are tools (tablets, smart phones, wireless, broadband, laptops...) – cost effective choices that will allow you to see a return on the paperless office is still to be achieved. Going from a classic investment in as little as 6 months. office environment with trays, filing cabinets, archive rooms, fax machines, printers and at every floor to a digital 1. Challenges for making an office Paperless working environment can be a challenging experience in which Having a review about what are the various issues that hinders an everybody in the company needs to join the cause and buy in organization for going paperless are as follows: the new process. For older generations of employees, it may be • Online security. Once we decided to go paperless, we then harder to get rid of their ocean of hard copies to embrace the needed to be certain that our data was backed up at a few on-screen filling in, reading and filing – whereas younger , tech- off-site locations. What if the building burned down? What savvy staff will take it in their stride. The question is not to get if the off-site server went corrupt? While highly unlikely that rid of any paper – some people do prefer holding a hard copy these things would happen, we felt the need to develop a plan and who would deny a customer’s request? – Other services still to address that possibility. Thank goodness for cloud-based need to use paper especially where staff design, proofread or technology, this reso