One day your prints won’t come…maybe

Electronic filing, Paperless Office… no, wait, come back! I’ve blogged previously about the benefits of electronic versus paper documents in terms of risk, disaster recovery, searchability etc., but what might appear to be a no-brainer turns out to be a fiendish maze beset by towering hurdles and gaping trap-doors. Anyone who’s attempted it will vent no little frustration with trying to prise paper out of the hands of lawyers (and everyone else in the firm). Then again, even as a technophile, it’s hard to argue with some of the kickback on ditching paper, and at the end of the day we’re all guilty of some of the behaviours: “I’ll just print that off so I can read it”, “I need to take the file to Court”, “I need to take the document with me to a meeting” and so on.

Paper is a fantastic medium: light, portable and flexible, it can be scribbled on, folded up and shoved in a bag/pocket. It is precisely its malleability and ease of use that makes paper so hard to dislodge from its coveted spot in the hearts and files of lawyers (and to be fair, support staff too). A visit to some (but not all) UK Courts may cause the most ardent e-Filer to wave the white flag too – few power outlets, very little space to put a portable computer and often the requirement to locate and circulate documents quickly.

However, there are signs that there may be a light at the end of this particularly long tunnel. The arrival of the iPad to much acclaim is an interesting development, though perhaps one not to be overstated. However, the impact of the iPad may not necessarily be the device itself, but the way it opens up the doors for a flood of other similar devices. Let’s look at what’s interesting about it with relation to reducing paper usage: ten hour battery life, 3G and Wireless connections for fast downloading, the possibility to run Citrix and other “thin” remote desktop solutions. What about e-Readers, for example Amazon’s Kindle? Cheap (around the £100 mark), easy to read “E-Ink” and smooth page-turning, one month battery life (wireless off), WiFi enabled. Flexible electronic paper will be coming down the line too (as previewed in the documentary “Minority Report”).

These are just a few developments, there are and will be many others, but what they point to is a future where wirelessly downloading content onto an ultra-portable device for use in meetings, in court or on the go will start to make paper the less attractive option. We are not there yet and the change will to a large degree be cultural as well as technological, but the positive signs are there. As consumers become more comfortable with devices such as these for personal use, and as their IT departments find ways to fit them into the corporate toolkit, we may just see a day when the Print button starts to gather binary dust.

Damien Behan is IT director at Brodies LLP.