The paperless office
in the 21st century
i
By Dave McClure
It began in 1975, in a Business Week article that attempted
to describe “The Of;ce of the Future.” Based on the
promise of the quiet revolution taking place in computing,
it foretold a future of computer terminals on every desk,
and so many options to store and view documents as ;les
that paper would become a thing of the past.
George E. Pake, who headed up Xerox Corp.’s Palo
Alto, Calif., Research Center at the time, said: “There is
absolutely no question that there will be a revolution in
the of;ce over the next 20 years. What we are doing will
change the of;ce like the jet plane revolutionized travel and
the way that TV has altered family life.”
Pake said that in 1995 his of;ce would be completely
different, with a TV-display terminal and keyboard sitting
on his desk. “I’ll be able to call up documents from my ;les
on the screen, or by pressing a button, I can get my mail
or any messages,” he said. “I don’t know how much hard
copy [printed paper] I’ll want in this world.”
As it turns out, quite a bit, because people weren’t
ready to give up their paper documents altogether. New
processes for printing, the advent of word processing, and
the ability to send messages via electronic mail not only
failed to eliminate paper, they actually drove a new boom
in paper production and use for of;ces.
Between 1980 and 2000, worldwide of;ce use of
paper more than doubled.
And while the use of paper has been declining since
2000, it is still strong enough that most vendors in the ;eld
are cautious to predict its demise any time soon.
“The real issue is what technology can be deployed,
to work less and make more money. How a solution can
help your ;rm to be more compliant, more productive, and
better able to serve its clients,” said Eric Pulaski, founder
and chief executive of SmartVault. “Whether or not there
will ever be a paperless of;ce is not the question. So long as
your people are more effective, the amount of paper they
use is less important than what they do with it.”
“The whole concept of paper is changing as paper
itself changes,” he noted. “With the advent of ‘digital ink,’
we have a paper-like medium that can be used over and
over, and paper in forms like the Kindle book reader that
look nothing like the paper we used just a few years ago.”
In the accounting profession, the compact disk
quickly replaced massive libraries of the Tax Code and
accounting standards. Advances in software did away with
the paper ledger books, which followed green eyeshades
into decline. And collaborating on a project like an audit
no longer required administrative staff to make endless
copies of revisions to distribute.
And then, of course, there was the environment.
A 2009 white paper from QuikForms noted that
every tree chopped down for paper mills will yield some
8,333 sheets of paper. This means that a typical of;ce of 10
employees, if they use just ;ve fewer pages per day, could
save 1.5 trees each year. Moreover, less printing means
less ink and toner, less transportation, fewer chemical
by-products, less material in land;lls, and less shipping to
clients and others.
For a world interested in saving the environment,
those savings are an important contribution to their
lifestyles, even if converting to a completely paperless of;ce
may not yield the savings that were once touted as the
primary reason for making the switch.
The problem with calculating the savings from going
paperless is that they are based not on ;xed savings, but
rather calculated on the revenue generated by productivity
gains. But that assumes that the ;rm has other work that
can be done to ;ll the void, or that the existing work load
will not simply expand to ;ll the void.
“You can’t think of it just in terms of dollar
savings,” said Kim Hogan, business development manager
— accounting, at Fujitsu Computer Products of America
Inc. “There are far more critical reasons for moving
toward of;ce automation. Document management and
of;ce automation tools mean that paper does not get
lost or misdirected. It means that fewer data entry errors
are made. It means that you can reduce the work;ow
bottlenecks that paper processes can create.”
“That translates into better customer service, and the
ability to exceed client expectations,” Hogan says. “At the
end of the day, an accounting ;rm wants to be perceived
as being ef;cient — not as being a ;rm that does things
cheaply at the expense of their clients.”
The goal is not a paperless of;ce, but rather a less-
paper of;ce. Each successive generation of technology
brings with it new advances that can further reduce the
amount of paper used, stored, indexed and retrieved.
In fact, there have been ;ve distinct “ages” of of;ce
automation.
AGES OF OFFICE AUTOMATION
In terms of the less-paper of;ce, the ;rst age was the dawn
of the personal computer, lasting from about 1975, with
the introduction of the MITS Altair 8800, to the dawn of
the Software Age in 1988.
But for all of the advances in hardware and software,
of greater import was the emergence of new concepts in
how documents themselves were managed.
“The document scanner emerged as a kind of
‘on-ramp’ for the paperless of;ce,” said Fujitsu’s Hogan.
“Beyond that, however, was a combination of hardware,
software and practices that deliver the rest of the client
solution — the ability of software and hardware to work
See 21ST CENTURY on 32
Spotlighton
CPA2Biz
1. What are the biggest
advantages for CPAs in creating a
paperless office?
Technology has become a key competitive
differentiator for accounting firms. Leading
cloud-based solutions enable firms to dramatically change how
they provide client services, providing opportunities to improve
client loyalty, realization rates, employee satisfaction, creation of
new services, succession planning capabilities, and more. With
real-time online access to the latest information, CPAs are in a
better position to collaborate with clients, optimize staff time and
resources, and offer higher-margin strategic consultative services.
2. What are the biggest obstacles?
The single biggest obstacle for driving the adoption of any new
technology or workflow is commitment to the change process.
Successful firms have already figured this out. Once a firm
understands the benefits of implementing a new technology or
workflow, they commit to it and dedicate the resources to drive
adoption. For example, they often appoint internal champions
whose compensation is directly tied to firm-wide adoption of a
new initiative.
3. How are you helping
your customers overcome
the obstacles and reap the
advantages?
CPA2Biz has developed a platform of
best-of-breed cloud solutions to make
the management of an accounting
practice more efficient, and at the
same time transform how firms deliver
services to clients. CPA2Biz provides
a broad range of educational
resources, including a free webinar
series on cloud computing, white
papers, firm case studies, and more.
CPA2Biz has also recently launched a
new Practice Development Center to aid firms in their transition to
a cloud-based service delivery platform. Find a host of resources
and tools for firms to position themselves for success in the future
at www.cpa2biz.com/BusinessSolutions.
Erik Asgeirsson
President and CEO
CPA2Biz
CPA2Biz enables accounting firms nationwide with its
Trusted Business Advisor Solutions program — integrating
best-of-breed cloud-based solutions to transform how firms
deliver core accounting services. Today, more than half the
CPA firms in the U.S. are leveraging one or more of these
solutions or programs.
CPA2Biz Trusted Business Advisor Solutions include:
• Paperless Bill Management through Bill.com
• Financial Management and Accounting Applications
through Intacct
• Firm-Wide Workflow Solutions through XCM
• Paperless Tax Workflow Products through Copanion
• Online Audit Confirmations through Confirmation.com
• Payroll, Retirement Planning and HR Services through Paychex
All supported by Firm-Branded
Client Marketing Tools, White
Papers, and Case Studies.
For more, please visit
www.cpa2biz.com/BusinessSolutions.
