Moving Towards A Paperless Work Place

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Change Management
Moving Towards a Paperless Work Place
David Lash Project Manager StickyDigital
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Brief History of the Paperless Workplace

•          Early 1970s Xerox at the time an
  industry leader in computer networking and
  printing declares that by 1975 a digital
  workplace will all but eliminate the need for
  paper.
•       1980s IBM develops desktop terminals that
  can access large mainframe computers in the
  workplace.

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Brief History

•     Mid 1990s Al Gore creates the Internet.
  Internet gives us access to large amounts
  information in the work place. Internet based
  businesses spring up overnight.  
•   Late 1990s The Dot Com Fallout.

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Present

• Businesses are bit suspicious of investing in
  Internet technologies as a business tool.
• We still have access to large amounts of
  unstructured information.
• We use email to distribute and print office memos
  that were once placed on our desks. Where is the
  paperless office?

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The Paperless Office- Where Is It?

• Answer Theres no such thing.
• Employees, on average, are printing 33 internet
  pages each day.
• For a company with 100 employees, thats 3300
  pages per day.
• For a company of 5000 employees, thats 165,000
  pages per day.
• Printing is costing corporations an amount equal
  to 1 3 of their revenue.

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Where do we start?

• Instead of striving for a paperless workplace
  think about how to maximize the benefits of paper
  in a digital format?

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Reduce the Paper in your Process Organize

•    Use Internet based technologies (web browser)
  to
•    Reduce the physical transmission and printing
  of paper.
• Centralize the storage of information.
• Increase the availability, organization and
  retrieval of relevant information across your
  organization

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Key Benefits

• Increased productivity - reduce the amount
  of time employees spend on a task or retrieving
  information.
• Space savings- how many square feet of file
  cabinets are taking up expensive office space?
• Cost savings- centralized web based storage and
  access to information can reduce printing and
  mailing costs from 20- 30.
• Custom solutions faster and more cost
  effectively. (The MS windows paradox).

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Drawbacks

•         Easy to create a paperless solution that
  causes more work in a different format.
•         Reliance on pesky computers and computer
  networks. They do go down from time to time.
•         Can be difficult to implement due to
  corporate culture and employee skill level.

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Example of Paperless Process

• NATEF- National Automotive Technicians
  Education Foundation
•  
• An association that certifies the education
  standards of schools that teach automotive and
  truck repair.

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Problem

• In order to become a certified school such as
  Daves Monster Truck University. A school had to
  complete the following time consuming process.

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Process Before

•      Call the NATEF office and request the
  appropriate application.
•     NATEF faxes or mails the application to
  Daves Monster Truck University.
•     Administrator at school fills out
  application and faxes or mails back application
  with payment information.
•       NATEF staff must check for errors and
  omissions in application and process payment.

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Process Before

•      
• Application faxed or mailed by NATEF to a 3rd
  party examiner that must review the application
  and visit the school site for an inspection
  before the application is accepted.

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The Solution

• Build a new section upon the current NATEF
  website. Online Applications
• Combine the application and payment process.
• Reduce the amount of time it takes for NATEF
  staff to fulfill an application

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New Process

•   Applicant fills out application and submits
  payment in a single online process.
• Errors and omissions are greatly reduced with the
  use of required fields within the online form.
  Prevents user from accidentally submitting a
  partially filled out application.
• Applicants payment is approved and processed in
  real time.

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New Process Cont

•         Application is submitted to a secure web
  based database.
•         System automatically generates email
  notifications to appropriate NATEF staff when a
  new application has been submitted.
•         NATEF staff notifies 3rd Party Examiner
  to review the application online through a secure
  web browser interface.

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Loudoun Hospital

• A community not-for-profit hospital in one of
  the fastest growing counties in the nation.

Problem- In order to register a
patient into the hospital for an operation
or procedure that requires an overnight stay,
hospital staff had to go through the following
registration process.
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Loudoun Hospital Process

•        Patient schedules procedure date with
  doctor.
•         Hospital staff checks doctors white board
  many times a day for new procedures that have
  been scheduled.
•       Hospital staff calls the patient on the
  phone and gathers the needed information or faxes
  application to patient.

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Loudoun Hospital Cont

•         Patient fills out application and mails
  or faxes back to hospital.
•         Hospital staff checks for errors and
  omissions and resends to patient if necessary.
•         Hospital staff enters application
  information into a legacy system.

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Solution
To improve customer service and reduce the amount
of time it was taking to collect the needed
information to register the patient. A patient
registration section was added prominently to the
home page of the hospitals website.  
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New Process

•         Patient schedules procedure with doctor.
  Doctor enters patient information into
  centralized calendar. Doctor gives patient
  brochure (option) on how to register for
  admittance to the hospital using the website.
•         Central calendar notifies hospital
  registration staff (via email) when a physician
  has scheduled a patient for a procedure and the
  patients contact information.

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New Process Cont

•         Patient fills out and submits secure
  registration application online. Errors and
  omissions are reduced by using pop up text boxes
  with simple definitions of medical terminology
  currently used on the form.
•         System notifies appropriate hospital
  staff that a new application is ready for review.
  Staff accesses application through secure web
  browser interface.

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Finally

• After reviewing the application the hospital
  staff can submit the application information
  directly into the legacy system at the touch of a
  button.

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Questions to help Identify

•     Does your organization rely on gathering
  information from customers?
•     How much time does it take to gather and
  enter this information into a central location?
•      How critical is it that multiple people
  have access to the same information?
•    How long does it take for your organization
  to process payments such as membership or
  registration fees?
• Currently, how frequently are you communicating
  with your customers?

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Internal Paper Organization

• Weve looked at few examples of how to remove
  the paper and streamline a few specific processes
  that have customer interaction. Now lets take a
  look a way to organize information within an
  organization

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Intranets- What are they?

• Intranets are essentially private company
  websites that are specifically designed for the
  employees of an organization to
•         Facilitate communication (recent news,
  group email lists, remote workers)
•         Knowledge management (combat brain
  drain)
•         Employee management (benefits, training,
  company manuals and policies, online brochures.
•       

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Key Features

•  
•         Easy to update information (no technical
  expertise)
•         Only accessible by employees
•         They Evolve.

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Intranet Example

• Problem
•   TechAssure is a national trade association
  that provides Insurance and Risk Management
  services to high tech companies. The member
  agencies are located in different geographic
  locations through out North America. They needed
  to be able to communicate effectively and manage
  the vast amounts of knowledge capital generated
  by their industry.

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Solution

• Created a secure intranet site that can be
  accessed 24 x 7 with the following features.
•         Employee contact list with the ability
  to send group email.
•         Recent News and Events that can be
  updated through a simple web browser interface.

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Intranet Feature Cont

•         Document Management System. Allows
  agents and principals to easily upload white
  papers, PPT presentations, and other documents by
  specific category to further the education of its
  members and for the interest of prospective
  clients.
•         Forum Board- Allows members to post a
  question to other members. Any replies to the
  question are automatically posted to the forum
  for future reference.

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Questions to Consider

• Do you have multiple copies of outdated
  documentation?
• Percentage of storage space to people space?
• People doing repetitive tasks?
• Email reliance for Documentation?
• Cubicle walls covered with paper?
• Staff uses Rolodexs

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Implementing Change- The Hard Part

• One of the key factors in implementing a
  change in any organization is having the support
  of leadership. Because this can be a presentation
  unto itself we will assume for the sake of this
  presentation that leadership has identified that
  there needs to be a change in a process and is
  supportive of a need for that change.

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Implementing Change

• Identification
• Involvement
• Metrics
• Scope Limit
• Training
• Implementation
• Feedback
• Continued Monitoring

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Identification

• What isnt working?
• How many people are working on process?
• How much paper is being moved?
• Dont discuss Technology!
• How do you want to use your information?

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Involvement

• Who uses the process?
• How do they use it?
• Invite participation at beginning phases /
  ownership. (most commonly overlooked)
• Small group with individuals who have desire to
  participate.

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Metrics

• How will we judge success?
• Time Savings?
• Reduced Transaction Costs?
• Increased Revenue?

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Scope Limit

• Resistance to change and acceptance can be
  achieved by limiting the scope of a system.
• Design solution to allow an increase in
  functionality. A wish list
• Habits form from use in about 30 days.

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Training

• Setup a training regiment before implementation.
• Many different formats to choose from, one on
  one, online, and interactive formats.

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Roll Out

• Test your new process within a single department.
• Write down what works well and what doesnt
• Set a date for review and comment. IMPORTANT.

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Feedback

• Require users to give individual feedback on
  new process in writing.
• Address problems or concerns with process.
• Fix functional aspects of system
• Set date for organizational Roll Out.

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Last but not Least- Easy Access to Information
for Training

• Create a training regiment to train new
  employees
• Reference for current employees
• Online training
• Web based interactive movies.

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Continued Monitoring

• How has the process worked?
• Did it meet the objectives that were stated at
  the beginning of process?
• What should we have done differently.

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Wrap Up

• Many options for web based processes.
• Dont get caught up in the technology needed for
  solution.
• Focus on whats not working and how you would
  like it to work.
• Be patient.

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In the Interest of Saving Trees

• If you found any or part of this presentation
  informative or in the least bit interesting you
  may download it at www.stickydigital.com

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Questions?

• Hopefully I have some answers!