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106 P P a r t I I I : a r t I I I : W h a t Y o u C a n D oh a t Y o u C a n D o

Paper and Your Office
We’ve talked about the costs of paper—both to the environment and to your pocketbook.
But how will your organization benefit from going paperless on a functional level? This
section looks at your organization and how getting rid of paper and automating can help.

Practicality
Let’s say you’ve got an appointment with an important client. You need to land the
Oberscheimer account. It’s huge, and it’s critical to your business. As you sit down with
Mr. Oberscheimer—a busy man who is getting on a plane in a couple hours—you realize
that you don’t have an important document that you need. By the time you drive back to
the office and return, Mr. Oberscheimer’s plane will be somewhere over Kansas. You just
lost the Oberscheimer account. You might lose your job.
Now let’s reconsider the situation. Again, you’re meeting Mr. Oberscheimer, and—
again—you don’t have that important document. No problem. You take out your laptop,
and Mr. Oberscheimer allows you to access his wireless network. You log onto your office
server using your corporate VPN connection. In moments, you’ve got the document on the
laptop screen, and mere moments after that, you’ve secured the Oberscheimer account. In
fact, your boss is so thrilled, you’re now a partner with the firm. Okay, the “being promoted
to partner” part was a bit fanciful, but the rest happens every day around the world.

Your laptop

Client’s office

You can access all your
files from remote locations.

Server

Your office

Although e-mail has removed the need for many interoffice memos, company
announcements, and snail mail, there is still an enormous amount of paper changing
hands—or being filed—in organizations around the world.
Years ago, the photocopier changed the face of business. And although it would be
unheard of for a company not to have a photocopier, those machines are the biggest and most
expensive machines in the office. Let’s say Mr. Oberscheimer wants a copy of a report.