Although most Canadians prefer paying their bills online, the vast majority prefer receiving paper bills rather than electronic versions.
In her recent thesis, ‘Paperless Society - Not Yet’, Joanne McNeish, a PhD student at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University, discovered that the biggest reason for the popularity of paper-based bills is that consumers want to keep physical records and decide how long to keep their statements on hand.
McNeish’s study is another reminder that paper is still a major part of our lives, and this is true in the business world as well.
Many believe that the Internet and the ability to digitize documents will eliminate paper or, at the very least, drastically reduce its usage. The reality, however, is that we’re probably using just as much, if not more, paper than ever. Part of this is due to old habits, while some likely has to do with the fact that reading online takes 20% longer than reading on paper.
If you examine your own business habits, it is easy to see how paper is very much alive and well.
Aside from bills, we’re still printing plenty of documents – contracts, proposals, presentations and reports, as well as blog posts and newspaper and magazine articles. A quick look at your desk or briefcase will show you the amount of paper that still occupies our workspaces.
Another source of paper consumption is notebooks. There are still many people taking notes by hand rather than a laptop, even though these notes have to be typed up later on to be shared with colleagues.
Personally, I find that hand-written notes are somehow more tangible, so they resonate more with the person taking them, although this may be my own preferences.
Business cards are still a business staple even though it’s easy to get someone’s contact information via e-mail, LinkedIn or a Google search.
And the fax machine still hasn’t gone extinct, even though it seems a little antiquated these days. I’m still surprised how often I have to dust off the old fax machine to send documents, although I never receive faxes anymore.
In an ideal world, the amount of paper within the office would shrink but there doesn’t seem to be any indication that this is happening.
Is this a reality of your business world or have you embraced the digital revolution?
Special to The Globe and Mail
Mark Evans is a principal with ME Consulting, a content and social media strategic and tactical consultancy that creates and delivers ‘stories’ for companies looking to capture the attention of customers, bloggers, the media, business partners, employees and investors. Mark has worked with three start-ups – Blanketware, b5Media and PlanetEye – so he understands how they operate and what they need to do to be successful. He was a technology reporter for more than a decade with The Globe and Mail, Bloomberg News and the Financial Post. Mark is also one of the co-organizers of the mesh, meshUniversity and meshmarketing conferences.
