re: Moving to a paperless office, your experiences

subtle "I have a job" thread bubba

It's amazing how much paper I still accumulate in my "paperless" office

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Further, I'm hoping to get us to where we don't have to phone each other in the office or walk around to ask where such-and-such info in a file is, or just where a file is. Cuts down on searching time. "When is so-and-so's next court date?" No need to ask. Go to their file on the computer and look at their notes. It should be quicker and cut down on letting dates or other matters slip the mind.

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yes. i can't believe that some firms don't operate more cloud-like, especially with moving parts

biggest piece of advice, and it gets right into the lawyer gearbox, is you have to have a clear, streamlined policy that everyone has to follow and buy into 100%. you have to also be mindful of overlapping responsibilities, so you have an input and someone else doing quality control. i've seen firms slow to a crawl for weeks at a time when the one filing/organizing workhorse leaves

As a nurse, everything is supposed to be paperless.

However, there still are tangible patient charts filled with patient/family signed paper consents, printed out history & physical sent by the transferring hospital, and occasional nurse assessments/notes on paper from a temp nurse who doesn't know or have access to our particular computer charting program.

All that has to be scanned in and digitized just to technically meet the "paperless" criteria.

We have made a move at my company to "paperless" as much as possible. We use Windows based computers for our drafting and project management for the use of AutoCad and some specialized cutting software. We use microsoft 365 which requires a license for everyone through microsoft exchange for email and use of the program. Everything is saved to the cloud and is secure and backed up, constantly. It also allows for seamless syncing and multiple users can access the same file at the same time. Coincidentally,sInce 365 is cloud based, I use a MAC in the office with parallels for windows based and accounting program and a MacBook Pro, iPad and iPhone for mobile use and microsoft provides apps that allow integration on Mac devices. Just my experience...

Paperless works pretty great in Texas. Less so in Louisiana Bc they don’t know about efile yet. You still print some things but it’s drastically less paper.

I’m coming from an engineering standpoint, so I’m sure there are a bunch of issues specific to law firms that I haven’t seen. That said:

PROS:
- Everything archived and available electronically, and on-the-go if you use network drives and VPN. While you can try and make people scan every little thing and file it away correctly, you’ll never get complete buy-in. Scanning documents for the sake of scanning them is a royal PITA. When you work paperless this process is already done for you.
- Vastly improved collaboration, especially when using cloud-based editing suites and a good work management system.
- Improved productivity due to less time spent searching for documents.
- Reduced paper costs (though I’m not sure how this compares to the increased software licensing fees).
- Reduction in physical space needed for filing cabinets.
- Documents look more professional, especially after revisions.

CONS:
- Software licensing fees and infrastructure costs.
- Security concerns.
- Reading and revising documents can be tedious on a computer for some, compared to paper.
- You will still wind up printing/scanning documents that require any kind of client signature.
- E-signatures can look less professional at times. This depends on the document and the client but there’s something about good ole fashioned penmanship that just looks classy.
- Work processes will change rapidly with technology/software improvements, causing confusion.
- People don’t like change. They will complain.
- You REALLY need to spend time laying the groundwork before implementing a paperless system. Be prepared for hours of research, and you’ll still likely wind up paying a consultant anyway.
- You’ll never be 100% paperless, though I realize this is not your stated goal.

CONSIDERATIONS:
- Make sure your office equipment is top-notch, user-friendly, and set up for efficiency. One big one is having scan-to-email capabilities with everyone’s email addresses pre-populated on the machine, or scan-to-folder (on a network drive) capabilities. Nobody wants to have to bring a damn thumb drive to the scanner or type their email address every time.
- Have a solid protocol from day one and make sure everyone STICKS TO IT. Be prepared with policies for: What gets stored in shared locations vs private folders? How are folded hierarchies organized? What are the file naming conventions? What do you do with revisions? If these things aren’t black-and-white from day one you’ll have a shite show on your hands in no time.
- The key is to only use paper for things that either a) require paper or b) don’t affect your company’s electronic workflows. For example, if old man Rick wants to print out a 10 page document to review then let him. Just make sure that any edits he makes get transferred to the electronic copy.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
- OneNote 365 is great. If you have shared drives with VPN, people can work collaboratively from anywhere.
- For engineering-type pdf markup functionality, you can’t beat BlueBeam. However, for text-only documents I’ve found that the standard Acrobat Professional is my favorite.
- If you have a techie who can implement/maintain it, Microsoft Access can work wonders for small teams. Large organizations need something more purpose-built for databasing.

Make sure you have a locked up disaster recovery plan


Also set a time frame for all paper documents to be converted digitally

Edit... Make sure all data is backed up daily

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maybe I am just a little old school on this, but I think it is always a good idea to have a hard copy as well just because you have it available in two different formats. If, for some reason the electronic file gets deleted or systems go down and you don't have access to it

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It's called a backup

My entire family, on both sides, made their living in the paper industry. Do not support.