One thing I did learn from my first real boss, John P Woods, is to Trust nothing you don't see in writing! Our office may have been cutting edge and we may have been thrilled we could send Mail Merged letters to our clients printed on our Dot Matrix printer but John, knew we would never escape our need to Hold the Records in our hands.
During my whole career as an Insurance Agent I have watched the records go "paperless" supposedly. What I saw in most cases however, was a lot of double work with one foot in both realms. Add all the security issues related to the Lack of Paper, and computer hackers and there is the big obstacle for going 100% paper free.
Today, I am of the mind that some parts of business can and should be 100% paperless and where that's possible do it and don't worry about keeping a paper copy. For example it should matter much if your Advertising, Newsletters, and Website Content is kept virtual (just remember to back it all up), but the contracts made for the advertising and the access to create the website--is going to and should require a certain amount of Hard Copy.
I have tried to go paperless for well over 20 years now and would have to say that I am pretty close to 90% paper free! I would be silly to print out the pages I publish on the Internet, and I don't need to keep hard copy of advertising or newsletters--but, I sure do need some kind of secure--off line--record keeping system to Keep Up with all the legal and security related issues!
Paperless is still a wonderful goal for any business, but clearly 25 years after the first rumblings it would be the way of the future the goal might need to be made a little more realistic! Reduced Paper record keeping is my approach and will be until it is a easy and secure as opening the locked file cabinet in my office can be.
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