Effective Ways to Implement a 'Less Paper' Office

The Value of Less Paper

There is a substantial return on investment from reducing paper throughout the firm. Most firms today are looking to decrease their footprint by approximately 20%, and storing paper on-site makes that nearly impossible. Next, off-site storage can be even more expensive, especially when one adds in retrieval costs. Finally, paper-based documents are much harder to organize and find; there is value in scanning and applying optical character recognition (OCR) to documents for quick search and retrieval.

As such, ROI from implementing a less paper program is delivered in three main areas: reduction in office space; reduction in offsite storage costs; and better productivity through access to information.

In order to illustrate, let's consider a scenario using a 50-attorney firm. (You can apply this math to the number of attorneys in your firm.)

• Office space. Assume that each attorney keeps approximately 100 boxes of paper on-site, which would fill a 50-square-foot area (depending on how high they can be piled). At office rental rates of $35/square foot, the cost to store all those boxes for every attorney totals $87,500 per year.
• Off-site storage. Files that need not be accessed instantly are often kept at an off-site storage facility. Assuming a storage cost of $0.45 per month, per box, and 250 boxes stored by each attorney, the firm is paying $67,500 each year for off-site storage. This does not include separate entering, retrieval and returning fees, which can double the bill in some instances.
• Productivity. Finding paper documents can be time consuming. It takes time to find the right file folder (sometimes hours, depending on the level of organization) and then more time to find the document in the file. Scanning to a document management system makes search and retrieval almost instantaneous.

Even assuming below-market attorney salaries of only $150,000 per year and support staff salaries of $40,000 per year, just a 1% increase in productivity is worth $95,000.

The total ROI for this fictional 50-attorney firm: $250,000.

This analysis, however, assumes that all is well. Relying solely on paper also creates risks that may result in much higher expenses.

Unseen Paper Risks

Paper files are left in airplane seatbacks and taxis all the time, and as they are not password protected or encrypted, once they are found they can be read. Physical facilities may not provide the security one might think, despite access cards and ID checks. And once guests gain entry to the office suite, any papers left out are fair game. I know very few firms with a “clean desk” policy.

Unfortunately, paper files are also at more risk in time of disaster. Files lost in fires, hurricanes and earthquakes are gone forever. Electronic files backed up off-site or “in the cloud” can easily be restored and provide quick access, even if entry to the firm is impeded.

Finally, there is an even simpler way that paper documents end up getting lost: simple misplacement. While there is often a manual process built around file retrieval, some files do get misfiled or otherwise misplaced, resulting in time wasted searching for them, and sometimes the loss of the information anyway.

The Less Paper Strategy

While it may be functionally impossible to get rid of all the paper within a firm, it is possible to set a zero tolerance policy on additional paper. Start with a retention policy that ensures the scanning and destruction of the hard copy of any new paper document that makes its way to the firm (excepting any documents that must be kept on paper by law or regulation). Require that no new documents may be sent to off-site storage. These few steps will stop the problem from getting worse.

Also, make sure that any document that is retrieved from off-site storage does not go back. While some boxes remain off-site forever, many return to the firm as part of a related or reinvigorated matter. These documents should be scanned, stored electronically, and then shredded.

The key to success, however, is to not attempt to immediately digitize every sheet of paper that is stored on- and off-site. Scanning new paper stems the tide. Scanning other paper as it is touched reduces the problem. And not scanning pages that happily remain stored reduces the budget and staffing required. Suddenly, the “impossible project” becomes simply an “ongoing workflow.” Again, a true paperless environment is probably not achievable, but less paper is.

Creating a new workflow does require changing behavior, and in order to do that it must be easy to scan and route documents from any device in the firm or through a facilities management team. The firm needs to support both “bulk” and “walk-up” scanning in order to make it easy to scan and organize all the firms' incoming paper. Bulk scanning is typically done using bar code cover pages and then scanned by facilities management and involves large quantities all at once, such as a box that has been retrieved from off-site storage. Walk-up scanning tends to focus on active matters and usually is handled in small quantities by attorneys or support staff.

Getting Adoption

While there are numerous impediments to the adoption of a less paper strategy, they can be overcome by educating firm leaders about the “three R's”: Risk, ROI and Recalcitrance.

• Risk. There is really no rational reason to be afraid to scan and shred most documents. Those who feel this way are probably overestimating the security of paper. Electronic files can be encrypted, backed up and are easier to find. However, retention policies and quality assurance programs are a must.
• ROI. It is not too common for a technology initiative to have such a clear and easily achieved ROI as the one defined above. A succinct argument that a less paper strategy should save even a small firm hundreds of thousands of dollars should help carry the day.
• Recalcitrance. If the risk/reward scenario outlined above is not enough to convince firm leaders, it is likely because new policies, technology and workflow can seem complicated. So it is critical to make the scanning and storing process as simple as possible.

Whenever an attorney walks up to any device, there should be a single common workflow and interface so that it acts the same way as all other devices. It should be easy to route the newly scanned document ' in fact that process should be automated with the scanning technology anticipating selections to allow for routing with a single button. And the same workflow should be in place for both “bulk” and “walk-up” scanning, so that scanned documents can, in fact, be easily found when needed.

Conclusion

Law firms worldwide struggle with managing paper, but a truly paperless office is probably beyond their reach. Taking an iterative approach that immediately stops the influx of paper and gradually reduces the amount being stored will make the firm more efficient and profitable. Such a program is achievable if the program is set up so that the easiest thing to do is to follow the policy of scanning and shredding. The key is to build the rational cost/benefit argument, develop a strategy and set up processes and technology in a way that makes it truly easy which will allow the firm to achieve a significant ROI.

John Gilbert is senior vice president at nQueue, a provider of cost recovery and document scanning and routing solutions worldwide. He can be reached at [email protected].

“Going paperless” is something that many law firms claim they desire. There is exceptional value to be gained from a totally paperless environment and storing documents electronically, both in terms of cost savings and efficiency. Risk is reduced as well. However, going completely paperless is a frustrating task that is akin to slamming your head in a door over and over again: It only feels better when you stop.

Few firms have actually succeeded in going paperless. In fact, the amount of paper at most firms has actually increased. There are many reasons for this, including: the lack of a clear direction on where to begin; the lack of a budget to implement a scanning program; attorneys who do not understand the value of scanning; and not enough collective support throughout the firm. For most firms, going paperless is just too daunting, and therefore the project remains forever in the future.

A better approach is to not attempt a totally paperless environment. A more manageable goal is to simply achieve “less paper.” The solution consists of a multi-pronged approach that includes scanning as many paper documents as is practical ' which experience has shown is not necessarily every paper document in the firm ' and storing them electronically.

The Value of Less Paper

There is a substantial return on investment from reducing paper throughout the firm. Most firms today are looking to decrease their footprint by approximately 20%, and storing paper on-site makes that nearly impossible. Next, off-site storage can be even more expensive, especially when one adds in retrieval costs. Finally, paper-based documents are much harder to organize and find; there is value in scanning and applying optical character recognition (OCR) to documents for quick search and retrieval.

As such, ROI from implementing a less paper program is delivered in three main areas: reduction in office space; reduction in offsite storage costs; and better productivity through access to information.

In order to illustrate, let's consider a scenario using a 50-attorney firm. (You can apply this math to the number of attorneys in your firm.)

• Office space. Assume that each attorney keeps approximately 100 boxes of paper on-site, which would fill a 50-square-foot area (depending on how high they can be piled). At office rental rates of $35/square foot, the cost to store all those boxes for every attorney totals $87,500 per year.
• Off-site storage. Files that need not be accessed instantly are often kept at an off-site storage facility. Assuming a storage cost of $0.45 per month, per box, and 250 boxes stored by each attorney, the firm is paying $67,500 each year for off-site storage. This does not include separate entering, retrieval and returning fees, which can double the bill in some instances.
• Productivity. Finding paper documents can be time consuming. It takes time to find the right file folder (sometimes hours, depending on the level of organization) and then more time to find the document in the file. Scanning to a document management system makes search and retrieval almost instantaneous.

Even assuming below-market attorney salaries of only $150,000 per year and support staff salaries of $40,000 per year, just a 1% increase in productivity is worth $95,000.

The total ROI for this fictional 50-attorney firm: $250,000.

This analysis, however, assumes that all is well. Relying solely on paper also creates risks that may result in much higher expenses.

Unseen Paper Risks

Paper files are left in airplane seatbacks and taxis all the time, and as they are not password protected or encrypted, once they are found they can be read. Physical facilities may not provide the security one might think, despite access cards and ID checks. And once guests gain entry to the office suite, any papers left out are fair game. I know very few firms with a “clean desk” policy.

Unfortunately, paper files are also at more risk in time of disaster. Files lost in fires, hurricanes and earthquakes are gone forever. Electronic files backed up off-site or “in the cloud” can easily be restored and provide quick access, even if entry to the firm is impeded.

Finally, there is an even simpler way that paper documents end up getting lost: simple misplacement. While there is often a manual process built around file retrieval, some files do get misfiled or otherwise misplaced, resulting in time wasted searching for them, and sometimes the loss of the information anyway.

The Less Paper Strategy

While it may be functionally impossible to get rid of all the paper within a firm, it is possible to set a zero tolerance policy on additional paper. Start with a retention policy that ensures the scanning and destruction of the hard copy of any new paper document that makes its way to the firm (excepting any documents that must be kept on paper by law or regulation). Require that no new documents may be sent to off-site storage. These few steps will stop the problem from getting worse.

Also, make sure that any document that is retrieved from off-site storage does not go back. While some boxes remain off-site forever, many return to the firm as part of a related or reinvigorated matter. These documents should be scanned, stored electronically, and then shredded.

The key to success, however, is to not attempt to immediately digitize every sheet of paper that is stored on- and off-site. Scanning new paper stems the tide. Scanning other paper as it is touched reduces the problem. And not scanning pages that happily remain stored reduces the budget and staffing required. Suddenly, the “impossible project” becomes simply an “ongoing workflow.” Again, a true paperless environment is probably not achievable, but less paper is.

Creating a new workflow does require changing behavior, and in order to do that it must be easy to scan and route documents from any device in the firm or through a facilities management team. The firm needs to support both “bulk” and “walk-up” scanning in order to make it easy to scan and organize all the firms' incoming paper. Bulk scanning is typically done using bar code cover pages and then scanned by facilities management and involves large quantities all at once, such as a box that has been retrieved from off-site storage. Walk-up scanning tends to focus on active matters and usually is handled in small quantities by attorneys or support staff.

Getting Adoption

While there are numerous impediments to the adoption of a less paper strategy, they can be overcome by educating firm leaders about the “three R's”: Risk, ROI and Recalcitrance.

• Risk. There is really no rational reason to be afraid to scan and shred most documents. Those who feel this way are probably overestimating the security of paper. Electronic files can be encrypted, backed up and are easier to find. However, retention policies and quality assurance programs are a must.
• ROI. It is not too common for a technology initiative to have such a clear and easily achieved ROI as the one defined above. A succinct argument that a less paper strategy should save even a small firm hundreds of thousands of dollars should help carry the day.
• Recalcitrance. If the risk/reward scenario outlined above is not enough to convince firm leaders, it is likely because new policies, technology and workflow can seem complicated. So it is critical to make the scanning and storing process as simple as possible.

Whenever an attorney walks up to any device, there should be a single common workflow and interface so that it acts the same way as all other devices. It should be easy to route the newly scanned document ' in fact that process should be automated with the scanning technology anticipating selections to allow for routing with a single button. And the same workflow should be in place for both “bulk” and “walk-up” scanning, so that scanned documents can, in fact, be easily found when needed.

Conclusion

Law firms worldwide struggle with managing paper, but a truly paperless office is probably beyond their reach. Taking an iterative approach that immediately stops the influx of paper and gradually reduces the amount being stored will make the firm more efficient and profitable. Such a program is achievable if the program is set up so that the easiest thing to do is to follow the policy of scanning and shredding. The key is to build the rational cost/benefit argument, develop a strategy and set up processes and technology in a way that makes it truly easy which will allow the firm to achieve a significant ROI.

John Gilbert is senior vice president at nQueue, a provider of cost recovery and document scanning and routing solutions worldwide. He can be reached at [email protected].