Security, risk management and corporate governance are issues organisations have had to embrace and entrench as corporate culture. In a business world run on technology, these have been addressed to a great degree; but often to the detriment of the paper assets that still fill businesses today.
The best illustration of this: the chances are remote that you will simply hand over a company notebook to another person. It is a business asset and it is your responsibility to protect it. Yet, almost without a second thought we neglect the business information contained in paper records, either by leaving them lying unattended or by mismanaging them.
This skewing of perceived value of electronic versus paper assets is dangerous; particularly as the presence of paper in any given organisation is on the increase. Statistics published by the US Department of Commerce indicate that the consumption of paper in the US alone has increased six-fold over the last 50 years, with the average worker using over 10 000 sheets of printing and copying paper per year.
In SA, research conducted by the publication Independent Education in 2004 highlighted that the average school used 30 reams of A4 paper per week, every term, totalling 1.4 million reams per year. Continued research indicates this figure has increased by more than 8% to date.
Research firm IDC predicts that 4.5 trillion pages will be printed by businesses across the globe by 2007.
Despite technology, the principal form of communication between organisations and customers is still paper-based. Most organisations still mail statements and advertising material to their clients; many applications for service still require the completion of forms, accompanied by copies of identity documents and proof of residence.
Paper will continue to fulfil the communications role while computer literacy remains low and only a select citizenry has access to technologies such as e-mail and the Internet.
Reluctance to embrace electronic documents is further rooted in the lack of confidence in the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act. While this Act attempts to provide legal security around digital communication, organisations still doubt the validity of an electronic document in a court of law. The result is that original documents are clung to, sometimes way beyond the appropriate destruction dates, in an attempt to guarantee legal protection and corporate compliance.
Embrace paper
With paper playing an invaluable role in business, organisations must embrace effective document management and storage. Defined policies must be developed and implemented. These policies must take into account the reasons why organisations believe they need to retain and store their documents. They must also embrace the legislative environment; stipulate the varying document management responsibilities of people in the organisation; and clearly define records retention and destruction programmes. Document management policies, procedures and systems must be auditable and audited; training must take place to ensure effective document management; and all of this must actually be enforced.
Paper will continue to fulfil the communications role while computer literacy remains low.
Paul Mullon, Metrofile's information governance executive
Documents must be appropriately managed throughout their lifecycle. For example, an active document has a higher retrieval frequency than an archived document and therefore has different accessibility and storage needs.
Technology must be used to maximise any document management project. However, it should only be used when appropriate. Scanning active documents and storing the original could stand an organisation in good stead if those documents are retrieved many times daily. However, scanning documents simply for technology's sake would do nothing but add expense to the business.
Senior management must be committed and involved in the document management process because without high-level support, entrenchment of document management as a corporate culture is negated.
Organisations must realise that while they strive to maximise their technology environment, they are not alone in needing to better manage their paper environment. They must understand that the paperless office is nothing more than a myth; ensure their documents are managed as effectively in terms of security, risk management and corporate governance; appreciate that technology should only be used to improve the document environment when it benefits the business; and appreciate their physical documents as equal assets to those embodied in computers as bits and bytes.
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