CYBER OR FIBER - APRIL 2006

Is the much-hyped paperless office on the horizon? "I don't think we'll ever get there," Taylor said. People are still inclined to get a paper document for a backup record, for convenience or for simple reassurance, according to Taylor. He said that's especially the case when a matter involves a license or a regulatory action.

One only need to sit through a Governor's Council meeting in Concord to see there is no shortage of paper pushing in state government.

Executive Councilor Ruth Griffin and her four colleagues have on either side of their chairs U.S. postal boxes that usually overflow with correspondence, reports and proclamations. The phrase "paperless office" is now at least 30 years old. Most academics trace it back to an article in Business Week during the 1970s. The idea, however, has been around for much longer, Abigail J. Sellen and Richard H.R. Harper write in their book, "The Myth of the Paperless Office."

"One has only to look at any workplace to see how firmly paper is woven into the fabric of our lives," the authors write in the introduction of the 2003 paperback edition. The irony, they noted, was that their own offices were sinking in paper.

Yet, conduct an Internet search on paper today and some of the top results will invariably be companies and products dedicated to document management and digital filing. In fact, there's an entire competitive industry on it. "I think paper will always be here, what we won't have are file cabinets," said Chris Wacker, senior vice president of Laserfiche, established in 1987 and based in Long Beach, Calif.

The company supplies document management software to 21,000 clients, including such giants as the FBI and the government of Iraq. The software uses scanner technology to create digital records of documents. After a few mouse clicks, one can manage therecord via a computer or the Internet, and it is a search and retrieval database. It virtually allows one to access any document at any time from anywhere. Wacker said one of his clients, a property management firm, scanned all its tenants' leases into a digital file to be able to quickly track down tenant variables, such as the number of parking spaces available at any given time. Paper still has its place, Wacker noted, and he admits he has a lot on his desk - though he typically throws it out or recycles it after scanning it into a digital record.

Some people prefer paper as a way to differentiate from e-mail correspondence. Some people see it as more personal. Despite continued growth of electronic files and an industry of hand-held electronic gadgets, homes and businesses are using more paper. U.S. demand and prices for paper products generally increased as part of a global forest and paper industry resurgence, the international consulting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers recently reported. Its annual survey found U.S. forest product producers enjoyed a 7.3 percent increase in sales revenues, from $125 billion in 2003 to $135 billion in 2004.

But the paper does not all go to the circular file. The Paper Industry Association Council estimates that by 2012 the industry will recover 55 percent of all the paper Americans consume. Electronic records may soon be coming to your doctor's office as well. The Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative is this month launching a pilot in greater Newburyport, among two other regions, to demonstrate the use of electronic health records. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is funding the $50 million program.

Doctors' offices are finely tuned to paper records, but consumers have long gotten used to going to bank transactions in which all of their confidential information is available in a mouse click, said Micky Tripathi, president and chief executive officer of the eHealth Collaborative. The pilot's goal is to save money by making operations more efficient.

Advocates say it could help reduce the estimated 1 million serious and preventable medication errors each year. As electronic health records are about to undergo a good, first test in the region, Tripathi has actually discouraged his team from using the phrase "paperless office" because some documents will likely always remain as a hard copy. "It actually sets up false expectations," he said.