The title of this post could easily be the paperless office myth. The promise of multiple software vendors that they are the answer to eradicating paper and ensuring everything is electronic.
It’s the unachievable goal!
I’ve posted a lot about managing emails recently and just before I left my vacation I had a great phone call with a partner. The phone call was about the electronic file and how current systems didn’t cut it. I’ve mulled this over for a week or so and realised it’s just not possible to eradicate the paper!
One part of the conversation summed it up for me. It was when the partner was talking about preparing for a call with the client, picking up the lever arch folder with the correspondence in and flicking through recent discussions with the client on the matter. Doing this in the electronic file was a pain, and I’m sure from this simple scenario you can see why.
And this wasn’t the grumblings of a few non-tech savvy old partners, this mainly came from the younger lawyers who have grown up with technology.
Underneath it’s the same conundrum as eBooks. Paper books are just, well, easier. You can flick about, scan pages easily, stick post-its on pages, write in margins etc.
We talked briefly of options available (one of which has been aired at numerous Autonomy iManage WorkSite user groups – that of the blue arrows to navigate backwards and forwards through open emails in a folder, why isn’t it available in WorkSite as in Outlook?). But afterwards I concluded that non of these will truly solve the problem.
That is not solve it yet!
In the world of eBooks things are slowly starting to change. Specifically designed devices like Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader are starting to offer a real alternative to paper books.
Also better user interfaces are appearing like Microsoft’s Surface, where you can move documents around the “surface” like you would paper on a desk.
Yes I know it’s all a bit Tomorrow’s World, a little bit of future gazing. But imagine if your desk was a “surface” type device and you had a handheld tablet device (like a Kindle). These were linked to the firms document/email management system seamlessly. The desk would also recognise your “eBook device”, so you could simply push electronic documents around your desk, identify the ones you wanted to read and then push them onto your “eBook device”. Then you can simply pick up your “eBook device”, read through, bookmark and make notes.
It’s then and only then can I see a paperless office!
Until that time it needs to be a case of not focussing on the storage capacity of our SAN’s, the disaster recovery solutions, the global access issues, the information security requirements etc etc (still important yes, but not #1). No, we should be refocusing on making it easier for the lawyer to file and handle the electronic versions of their email and documents, in as logical and easy way as the current technology will allow.
