The paperless office - is it worth the hassle?

Information is one of the most valuable commodities; however it is often stored in remote places, unrecorded, un-catalogued and basically irretrievable. Electronic Document Management (EDM) offers sustained electronic access to PC-generated documents such as word processing files, spreadsheets, e-mails and other electronic documents.

Many companies in the construction industry still face the gruelling task of transferring information (letters, reports, hand-written notes, sketches, databases, drawings, catalogues, etc.) into electronic format, scanning paper versions if not available electronically. Once scanned, documents are indexed with one of many values that can be used to retrieve the document. The data, in a file format, is entered in a database that can be accessed throughout the company via a user-friendly interface, or by clients via the Internet or an extranet.

An Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) centralises data in an easily accessible environment, that allows users to store, control, access and modify information easily and fast. Documents are usually stored centrally on a web server and users interact with this central repository through interfaces using standard web browsers.

In addition to basic file management capabilities of operating systems, EDM systems contain enhanced features related to the life-cycle and versioning of particular classes of documents. EDM systems tend to treat the documents they circulate as "faceless items" with little interest in the content.

Companies are often deterred from moving towards a paperless solution by the costs and complexity involved in implementing an EDMS. Undoubtedly, using an EDMS requires a major change in the organisation, its practices, systems, processes and workflows. Workflow in this context means a program that queues, tracks and manages documents, work items and collection of these, as they progress from entry into the system from various individuals or offices in the organisation until a business process is completed.

Behavioural barriers - it is very difficult to get people to change their way of work - are most likely to stand in the way of EDMS implementation. To ensure effective reuse and access of information within an EDMS system, those producing the documents, for instance in completion of forms with meta-data, need to demonstrate a considerable degree of discipline. The more standardised the meta data and storage, the easier it is for users downstream. Motivation and training of users is another essential ingredient for successful implementation. People are used to organising their personal archives, including their own hard disks, as they see fit, but now they may be forced into using a structure which many find confusing and impractical.

Systems offered by vendors tend to differ greatly in the features they offer, due to the highly competitive market. Development costs for basic systems are not particularly high and so the barriers to entry are low. This combined with the low marginal cost of taking on new customers has led to rapid reductions in the price of EDM services.

The role of standardised meta data as a possible integrator between different systems has been recognised by researchers and international standardisation bodies, but has not been a priority for development by system vendors, although this situation is slowly changing.