{"id":8428,"date":"2022-06-17T16:15:46","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T15:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=8428"},"modified":"2022-09-02T22:28:31","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T21:28:31","slug":"the-paperless-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2022\/06\/the-paperless-office.htm","title":{"rendered":"The paperless office"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For decades, the paperless office has been a panacea, sought out by businesses far and wide. Ever since computers became a part of our daily work, there have been those who have prophesised on how we will no longer need to use paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, I still receive so much of the stuff. Sure, I can receive most of my invoices and statements electronically – and we all know how print newspapers and magazines are in a state of decline – but paper is still used extensively. Some people just prefer to interact with analogue media – my wife likes a paper book, for example, and never got on with a Kindle. And some business models rely on shoving pieces of paper through the letter box (try opting out of Royal Mail’s “junk mail” deliveries and you’ll find it’s a lot harder than it should be).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digitising my life<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Several years ago, I started to scan important documents at home. The theory was that everything gets scanned, and only the really important papers got filed in paper form – generally those that related to the house (mortgage, building works) or to me as a person (passport, certificates, medical, etc.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trouble was, that I got behind on my scanning. Years behind. Boxes of “to be scanned” and boxes of “might have been scanned – who knows”. And my old Canon scanner was not up to the task – too slow and with an unreliable document feeder. It was also connected to an old (slow) PC, and needed two powered USB ports to drive it (which was a problem on any of the newer devices that I had access to). Added to which, there’s still all the pre-scanning regime files that were stored in the loft until we converted that to living space (4 years ago…).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, whilst I took a few days off over half term, I bought a new scanner. A 35 pages a minute super-duper Wi-Fi connected paper-eating monster from Brother… and I reworked my document scanning workflow. I’m now scanning through the backlog and thousands of pages of paper are being shredded and recycled each week. So much that I keep overheating the shredder!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s the point?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

All of this is good – it’s making me feel good about the progress I’m making and my family will be pleased to have fewer boxes of paper in the spare room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then my friend Matt Ballantine (@Ballantine70<\/a>) remarked that he didn’t understand – what did I need to scan? The only paper he gets in junk! And I started to wonder if I’m somehow unusual?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt has a point. Years of “business transformation” and “digital transformation”<\/a> has meant that most of the companies I deal with offer options for electronic bill and statements. But not all:<\/p>\n\n\n\n