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OPINION
Last December, just as everyone
was preparing to head home for
the festive break, a worrying story
hit the scientific research press.
A team at the University of British
Columbia had been attempting
to collect original research data
from a random set of 516 studies
published between 1991 and
2011. They discovered that 80%
of the scientific data that informed
the studies had been lost.
They noticed that for the first two
years after publication, data was
properly filed, protected and stored.
Then it started to disappear at a rate
of 17% a year. Never to be found
again.
It is easy to convince ourselves
that this couldn’t happen today in our
connected, backed-up, data-driven
universe, but the fact is that the
majority of business information still
spends much, if not all, of its lifespan
on paper.
Every January, the information
management sector stops to take
stock of whether and how firms
are reducing their dependence on
paper; and every year it discovers
that once again progress is slow.
A 2013 study by the American
Institute of Information Management
(AIIM) showed that just one in four
organisations has a specific goal to
drive paper out of its business.
Somehow we just can’t seem to
wean ourselves off the hard copy.
According to Waste & Resources
Action Programme (WRAP), the
average office employee still uses
around 45 sheets of paper a day,
with around half of that discarded
almost immediately.
The truth is that, left unmanaged,
paper can pose a very real threat
to your business. Firms questioned
by Iron Mountain and PwC for the
latest iteration of the
Information
Risk Maturity Benchmark
study
1
,
highlighted employee management
of paper records as the single
greatest threat to information safety.
It topped the list for 66% of UK firms,
more than double the number that
are concerned with external threats
such as hacking and malware.
Bigger challenge
We also found that the challenge
presented by paper is becoming
greater, not smaller, as firms move
towards integrated and automated
processes.
For example, two-thirds of firms
in the UK
2
are struggling to integrate
paper into their digital customer
management processes and 63%
say someone has to enter the details
manually into the automated system,
a process vulnerable to error and
inaccuracy. Four in ten (39%) office
workers admit that they don’t really
know what to do with paper when
it comes in and it just gets filed
somewhere.
Paper can be photocopied, shared
and removed – not just once, but
many times. It can be left lying
around on desks and printers, filed
randomly in unlocked drawers and
cabinets or thrown in a public bin. It
can be lost, damaged or destroyed in
a way that is near-impossible to track.
We found that very few companies
are addressing their concerns with
concerted action. Just 31% of the
UK organisations we spoke to have
introduced guidance for employees
on how to store and dispose of paper
documents and then monitored the
effectiveness of these measures.
In contrast, 39% have done so for
digital data.
Taking paper out of the equation
can remove many of the risks, but
it’s hard to achieve. If a paper-free
environment feels beyond reach, try
starting with a paper-light approach.
Decide what information is business-
critical, sensitive, confidential, most
frequently used or just new – and
scan that into a digital format so
it can be injected seamlessly into
automated processes and systems.
Ensure the journey of each digital
document can be tracked end-to-end
and that someone is accountable for
its integrity. Then you can securely
archive the rest of your paper off-site,
where it can be indexed, managed
and protected.
Alongside this, you need to ensure
your employees understand the risk
and vulnerability of information;
educate and support them and
provide them with the tools they
need to get it right.
The enduring use of paper by
employees is often a product of its
convenience. It’s easy to scribble on,
read on a train and useful to have
to hand when the Wi-Fi connection
to the office gets a bit shaky. If
employees can access and use
information just as easily in digital
format, they will do so.
Phil Greenwood explains
why paper poses a real
threat to business efficiency.
Businesses need to deal
with paper’s invisible
footprint
Phil Greenwood is Commercial Director of Iron Mountain, a
leading provider of storage and information management
solutions. Its services, which include records management,
data backup and recovery, document management
and secure shredding, help organisations lower storage
costs, comply with regulations, recover from disaster and
use their information for business advantage. Founded
in 1951, Iron Mountain stores and protects billions of
information assets, including business documents, backup
tapes, electronic files and medical data in in more than
1,000 storage facilities in 36 countries.
(1) The third Information Risk Maturity Index surveyed
1,200 mid-sized businesses (250-2,500 employees)
and 600 enterprise businesses (over 2,500 employees)
in Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands,
Spain, the United Kingdom, Norway and the United States.
(2) Opinion Matters for Iron Mountain, February 2014.
Opinion Matters surveyed 1257 Office workers who work
in either, manufacturing & engineering, legal, financial,
pharmaceutical or insurance from the UK, France, Ger-
many, Netherlands and Spain. The research was carried
out between: 10/01/2014 and 22/01/2014.
