
So why was the dream of the paperless office never realized? Why did MIT publish a book titled The Myth of the Paperless Office in 2001? In the 1980s there was a short-lived reduction in the amount of paper used as businesses began to transition to electronic documents, but this didn’t last long. More transparent and efficient finance processes,.The ability to offer a better customer experience,.Easier onboarding and other HR processes,.Better document management and less time searching for files,.While a number of factors contributed to the dream of the paperless office, the overriding consideration is the fact that organizations are under constant pressure to optimize business processes and resource usage.ĭriving factors behind the paperless office concept include The Motivation Behind the Paperless Office Despite advances in communication technologies such as the advent of email, paper documents continued to proliferate. However, while Business Week’s prediction of a personal computer on every desk came true, the paperless office has not yet become a reality.

Prolific paper users like schools and universities would use screens to teach students and even homework assignments and exams would eventually be conducted using computers.

With the rise of personal computers and office automation, the use of paper for tasks such as bookkeeping, record-keeping and sending memos would be made redundant, as everything could be stored and displayed on computers. So what is a paperless office? Exactly what it sounds like: a work environment where paper usage is either wholly eliminated or greatly reduced by using digital formats instead. It’s no wonder the dream of the paperless office captivated the popular imagination: the thought of being able to process – and locate – information within seconds had enormous appeal.
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Processes involving large numbers of people like university admissions and student registration generated mountains of paperwork, all of which had to be processed by hand. The concept arose as a publicist’s slogan for the IBM 2260 in 1964, which proclaimed the computer terminal as the harbinger of the “office of the future.”īack then, paper documents were kept in filing cabinets and storage boxes, and when items were misfiled, it could take weeks to track them down. In 1975, a Business Week article titled “The Office of the Future” predicted the rise of the paperless office.
