Reducing Paper in Today’s Digital World

In today’s digital world, there have been enormous strides to reducing the paper
we work with on a daily basis and all the paper that represent the accumula on of
paper over the last 20 to 40 years. That is the good news. The bad news is there is
s ll tons of paper that makes up the “backfile” that is typically stored in facili es
were access is difficult. There is s ll an enormous amount of paper used daily in
opera ng most companies around the globe. Some have taken the technology and
process steps to reduce the amount of paper and streamline the opera ons that
previously processed the paper. Other are s cking with paper and paying the price
of not doing anything. What can be done with technology and what is the payback
stepping into the digital world where there is significantly less paper. This paper
addresses this technology and points out the associated benefit over and above the
elimina on of the physical paper.

Day Forward Scanning

The best way to make sure you are making progress in reducing paper is to scan
all the paper that will be used in the company as it comes into the company. You
will need to address the past accumula on of paper but day forward scanning will
make sure that you are “stopping the bleeding.” You can accomplish this with an
inexpensive but heavy-duty scanner that costs less than $1,000 and a cost
effec ve and easy to use document storage and retrieval system. If you get a
system that is accessed over the internet, you can access the scanned documents from
anywhere. This is an ideal capability for companies that have mul ple facility loca ons
or sales people in the field. With this simple a ack at reducing paper, you get all the
advantages of processing electronic informa on in addi on to elimina ng all
the physical drawbacks of paper. Based on the amount of paper coming into your
company, you can use your scanner and electronic document storage system to chip
away at the big paper accumula on from previous years, called “the backfile.”

Backfile Scanning
As indicated above you can chip away at the backfile using available day-forward
resources but if you are serious about ge ng it completed in a reasonable me,
you are probably talking about some kind of outsourced effort. Because the size
of the back file that could be several million pages coupled with your desired me
to get in completed quickly points in the direc on of outsource. In most cases,
you can have an outsource scanning company come on site with their people and
scanning equipment or you can send the paper, typically in some type of banker
boxes or equivalent, to the outsource scanning company. The author of this paper wrote
an informa ve piece en tled “Key Factors for Selec ng a Scanning Vendor.” You can
access this document on the ICM Document Solu ons web site at www.icmdocs.
com/resources/white-papers/.

4320 E. Cotton Center Blvd, Suite 106 | Phoenix, AZ 85040 | TF. 800.676.4261 • P. 602.678.1978 • F. 602.678.1985 | www.icmdocs.com
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 CollaboraƟon with AnnotaƟon
The remainder of this paper will address how you can avoid going to paper when
the source document is already electronic, like an MS Word file. Many people are
s ll not comfortable with e-reading and using the tools that are available to provide
feedback to an author or other team members. Most document management tool sets
provide the tools needed to annotate electronic documents to provide a “review”
func on with annota on to reflect that review on the document under review.
This is a ma er of having a simple to use system with simple annota on tools and
having the “right” training. With the review and annotate func on being part of an
automated workflow, the user probably does not have a choice other than learning
how to use the tools.

Electronic Signature
This is another good example of the need to print the whole document or at
least the signature page for a contract, proposal or similar document and then
scanning the document or the signed signature page back into the system. Today there
are electronic signature features baked into document management systems that
address this and make sure you do not need to print and scan. This also eliminates
the possibility of having an electronic file (MS Word) and an image page for the
signature page.

MarkeƟng and Sales DocumentaƟon

Marke ng Automa on (MA), e-mail marke ng and content marke ng
ini a ves have all had an extremely posi ve impact on reducing the prin ng and
delivery of paper to the market and to poten al buyers by salespeople. The days of
salespeople stopping by and dropping off paper brochures is all but over for B - B sales.
Therefore, if you have not embraced the new paperless marke ng ini a ves, you
should definitely look into it. You not only get all the advantage of “paperless”
but you can benefit from all the features including lead nurturing with electronic
content, e-mail marke ng with electronic content and the sales team having
electronic content to reinforce what takes place in sales mee ngs.

4320 E. Cotton Center Blvd, Suite 106 | Phoenix, AZ 85040 | TF. 800.676.4261 • P. 602.678.1978 • F. 602.678.1985 | www.icmdocs.com
Page 2 All rights reserved, 2011
 Records and RetenƟon
One of the largest sources of paper documents is records. Records are documents
that indicate what was done in some form of manufacturing or repair opera on.
Records must be retained so the history informa on can be accessed for future
opera ons and for legal reten on, typically 5 years. Records can start with an elec-
tronic form that is updated electronically as steps are performed or the form can be
paper and is updated manually as the steps are performed. For the la er case, the
paper form with updates and operator ini als can be scanned for future business and
legal reten on reasons. In either case electronic reten on will provide an alert when
the reten on period is realized so disposi on can be selected.

Conclusion
As every day passes, we see new technology and new ideas that will help us Reduce
Paper in Today’s Digital World we all live in. It is hoped the high-level overview on
reducing paper gave you some ideas to think about.

About ICM Document SoluƟons

ICM Conversions, Inc. (ICM), d.b.a. ICM Document Solu ons, is a na onal provider
and leader in scanning and conversion services, engineering services, and Web-based
document management solu ons. For over 23 years, ICM has grown to provide a
suite of products and services to create, convert, manage, and efficiently distribute
documents.

With over 800 customers, including Fortune 500 companies and government
organiza ons, ICM offers document scanning, CAD services, technical publica ons,
so ware development, and forms-processing services. In 2009, ICM Document
Solu ons was named one of “Inc. 5000’s” Fastest Growing Private Companies.

For more informa on email info@icmdocs.com, visit www.icmdocs.com, or call

602.678.1978.

4320 E. Cotton Center Blvd, Suite 106 | Phoenix, AZ 85040 | TF. 800.676.4261 • P. 602.678.1978 • F. 602.678.1985 | www.icmdocs.com
Page 3 All rights reserved, 2011