Initial response to computers, wordprocessors, and laser printers was an increase in paper: To understand their gain in efficiency made possible by the shift from paper to electronic records, let us review the technological advances in an office. The technological revolution of the 19th century was the typewriter. The creation, filing, and transmission of documents and letters on paper were labor intensive operations. The initial application of microelectronics to paperwork led to an increase, not a decrease, in the amount of paper because the initial applications were to standalone equipment such as wordprocessors and laser printers. The introduction of wordprocessors into the office increased the productivity of secretaries by a factor of four. This technology increased the quality and reduced the cost of producing reports on paper and provided no mechanism for electronic communication. The volume of paperwork increased not decreased. Indeed in 2001 the MIT press published a book, The Myth of the Paperless Office, by Sellen and Harper giving the reasons why such a transformation is not likely to come quickly. The reduction in paperwork requires the creation of communication networks and standards to automatically communicate messages. The switch will be slow and gradual.
Impact of computer commuications networks within a firm or public institution: Organizations have been linked by computer communications networks discussed in communications. These networks are LANs, WANs, and the Internet. Creating a LAN within a single office was the easiest step because the office could buy compatible equipment and network software. Also, it was relatively easy to install a broadband (high capacity) communications line within an office. Large organizations lease lines to create a WAN, which is more difficult than creating a LAN, and almost everyone has access to the Internet. Let use consider how wordprocessors and computer networks changed much paperwork within an office starting in the 80s.
We shall use the economics department here at UT as an example. When I came to UT in 1972 and I needed to get a paper typed, I took a pencil/pen version to a secretary and she typed it using a IBM typewriter that had two balls: one for letters and one for math symbols. The process was laborious because of the difficulting communication the mathematics in the paper. In general, professionals in offices had secretaries type papers and file the documents. As wordprocessors were develped for various types of documents such as mathematics, the task of typing and filing the document shifted from the secretary to the professional, himself or herself.
The move towards reducing paper depended on linking all office equipment into a LAN so that filing and communicating documents can be performed automatically by software. For example, this reduces the flow of paperwork throughout the office because messages and documents can be sent by E-mail. Today, some institutions such as the insurance firm for military personal and their dependents, USAA, has moved to have all paperwork transferred to electronic memory when it enters the office. At USAA, worker at their workstations in their client-server networks can retrieve the complete file for any customer. Increasingly USAA clients interact with USAA through the Internet. Unlike USAA, the insurance firm, Lloyd's of London tried to convert from paper to electronic records with the project Kinnect, but this project was a failure. We should not expect the conversion to electronic records to be an easy transformation.
The shift from paper to electronics is slowly gaining momentum. A good example is UT that is making an effort to reduce paper. Manuals for faculty and students are now part of the Intranet and are only provided in hard copy on request. I have been a member of the UT economics department since 1972. When I first came my mail box every day had one memo or another. Today all these memo are delivered as Word documents through email. The amount of paperwork has been drastically reduced, but not entirely eliminated. Perhaps only 20% of business paperwork has been converted from paper to electronics. As experience is gained in the conversion process and equipment improves in the form of better cheaper scanners and character converters the pace could start accelerating.
The rapid growth of computer communications networks is beg to decrease the flow of paper, this assertion is reflected in the fact that the number of administrative support workers peaked several years ago at 19M workers.
Paperless medical records: Since 2000 the Veterans Health Administration has been converting their paper medical records to electronic records. Their new paperless system has been so sucessful that they won a American Government Award presented by the JFK public affairs school at Harvard. As part of his 2009 stimulus Obama allocated about 35B$ to convert all physicians office, hospital, Medicare, and Medicaid records over the next ten year. The act provides large incentives, which decline the longer the participants wait to start, to make the conversion. To earn bonuses they must adopt a qualifying Electronics Health Records and use them. An effort is being made to deal with the fact that propietary digital record systems are not compatible.
This effort should improve medical efficiency by reducing paperwork and integrating physicians offices with hospitals. It should also reduce medical mistakes in drug perscriptions and promote the adoption of artificial intelligence software in diagnostics.
A former TA in this class, John Lubrano, set up a consulting company and now is engaged in the business of converting MD offices from paper to paperless. The transformation cost is considerable and there is a learning curve. Before Obama medical record program, the longer a doctor had before retirement the greater the incentive to make the shift. Now medical practioners and organizations have an incentive to start the shift now. With the Obama paperless medical initiative his business should explode.
Medical paperless
Intranets: Currently a large decrease in paperwork internal to corporations is taking place through the creation of intranets within corporations. Within an intranet are a group of WEB folders relating to an institution that can only be accessed by members of the institution usually by using a password. One example is Dell, right here in river city. A student Brad Holt sent me an E-mail discussing how he uses the intranet at Dell. Rather than paraphrase his E-mail, I have incorporated it into the notes with some minor editing:
Hello,
I briefly looked through the notes that I printed out and I noticed that Intranets could go into the notes talking about Automation: Information.
I am not sure what you are looking for about Intranets, so I will just tell you how it helps me in my job.
I work in Tech support at Dell computers. I have access to the dell computer intranet. This intranet contains everything that I want to know about the company: job postings, Salary brackets, different benefits, my 401k information, all technical information on all the computers that we manufacture, my teams information, different solutions about each of the computers, a BBS system of how to fix different SW problems, and many other pieces of information.
I use the intranet everyday in my job. When a customer calls in I get the tag number off his computer a plug into a through the intranet and it brings up all the information pertaining to that specific computer. This is invaluable to my job, because I do not have to remember everything that each computer configuration that we manufacture, and with at least 12 new computers coming out every year, it is hard to stay on top of everything. I still have to rely on my Troubleshooting skills to narrow down the problem, but having all the information right there, helps.
I also use it when I am trying to find out anything about Dell. The intranet is a huge wealth of information. I look at my 401k information and benefits information to make sure that I am saving money and I am taken care of with my insurance. They also have a place to see how the Employee Stock purchase program is going to work this half of year.
Of course this is all not accessible by the general public. The Intranet here at Dell looks like the real Internet, but it is contained here at Dell.
I hope this helps. If you have any questions, please let me know, and I will try to answer them. Thanks.
Brad Holt
As Brad points out by using an intranet, Dell has eliminated all paper in the form of various types of corporate manuals. Other corporations are doing the same. Public institutions are usually lagards in technological change. In as much at UT Austin is shifting to paperless in terms of manuals and records for students and faculty I assume there is a major push in this area.
Manufacturers that order parts from suppliers for manufacturing products or retailers or wholesalers the order goods for resale have been shifting from paper to electronic order for the past decade. At first the process went through private networks, but now electronic ordering of parts and inventory is shifting to the Internet
Surf the Net: Intranets
Reorganization of paperwork processes: Now let us consider an example of how technological innovations on paperwork processing reorganized the role of workers. Paperwork administration in offices prior to the computer was generally organized in paperwork assembly lines. Each person was responsible for a single box on a form. This approach was very inflexible and errors were hard to detect and, thus, correct. With the introduction of mainframes, the paperwork assembly line was entered into the mainframe as a batch job. A major technical advance was linking hundreds of terminals to the mainframe coupled with much better software. A single person using this software, which had prompts to aid the worker, could handle the entire flow of information for an administrative action. In services such as insurance, this enables customer representatives to handle all the needs of a customer using a software program. The customer representative was much more productive because (1) errors were reduced, (2) the customer related to one individual customer representative, and (3) the firm could offer all kinds of new services supported by software.
Shift to micromanagement: Corporations are purchasing WANs to communicate text, data and frequently images. Such networks change business decision making. Consider the supermarket. By installing optical scanners, supermarkets are creating an integrated information system linking market transactions with their internal operations. One factor leading to the installation of scanners is that scanners are more efficient in checkout. Scanners also provide opportunities for new innovations in business practice. For example, by reading the Universal Product Code, the computer is able to keep track of inventory and reorder. Controlling the inventory of retail stores via the sales terminal by computer means lower levels of inventory are required. This reduces costs and raises profits. In addition, the computer can compute the profitability of every square inch of shelf space. This new approach enables the seller to perform scientific analysis of his advertising budget. In pharmacies, the computer can cross-check drugs for potentially dangerous interactive effects. Corporatewide data networks make for much more detailed decision-making and faster response to changing conditions. Analysis of the new large databases is called data mining.
Decrease in levels of management: The creation of WANs for corporations is causing major hierarchical reductions in firms. In corporations, the management hierarchy acts as a filter of information proceeding up the chain of command. With all records in electronic memory and English type languages to manipulate this data, executive assistants of the top management can prepare the reports which formerly flowed through the chain of command. This enables the corporation to automate the chain of command and create effective organizations with many fewer levels of management. Toyota has four levels of management compared to GM's fourteen. Part of the drive for efficiency in the US aims to reduce bloated management by reducing the levels of management together with their associated staff.
Some interesting sites to surf for the switch away from paper are: