Technology futurists began predicting the death of paper-based documents as early as the
1980’s, which led to numerous articles about a utopian paper-free work place. Almost
thirty years later, these predictions have been proven wrong as the adoption of new
technologies has ironically contributed to a massive increase in the use of paper
While not explicitly referring to physical documents, one study estimated that 161 exabytes
of data were created in 2006 and that, by 2010, that number would increase exponentially
to a staggering 988 exabytes a year
With this level of new content growth, there is no
doubt that the use of paper-based documents will also rise.
Take for example the process of buying a property. This paper intensive process requires
over 20 unique documents to be filled out, initialed, signed and processed, which then
generates numerous additional paper-based documents. Each of the documents that pass
through the hands of the mortgage broker and real estate agent must be processed and
shared with multiple parties, such as an attorney, insurance company, county clerk, bank,
Title Company, and more. In addition, many of the documents generated must be archived
for months, years or decades depending on corporate governance policies and government
regulations.
When considering the sheer number of paper-based documents involved in a business
transaction such as buying real estate, it’s clear that eliminating paper documents is
impractical and, due to the fact that paper documents are the preferred standard, trying to
remove them from the process could lead to unacceptable business delays. Instead of trying
to eliminate paper, careful attention should be paid to the business processes that create
paper-based documents in order to discern how to best integrate the management of paper
documents, electronic conversion and storage to help alleviate the pain points of paper
whilst maintaining its advantages.
