Paperless Office in Coal India Ltd

Paperless Office: Pulp Fiction or Reality ?

A Road Map for Coal India Headquarters P.P.Sengupta

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Topics of Discussion

Industry Scenario :use of paper Paperless or less paper ? Coal India : “As is” case Technology scenario scan A proposed Road Map

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International Scenario

The number of pages consumed in U.S. offices is going up at a rate of 20% per year.

50% of information is still retained on paper,though more than 80% of the documents are already in a computer. (CAP Venture Group).

Organizations now maintain 35 times more data than in 1999. (Gartner, 2007).

The U.S. annually spends $25-35B filing, storing and retrieving paper.(IDC 2006).

An average office worker uses 10,000 pages of copy papers every year.

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International Scenario

– Companies spend:$20 in labor to file a document$120 in labor to find a misfiled document$220 in labor to reproduce a lost document$2,160 per year to maintain a four-drawer filing cabinet

– Every year companies produce 4.5 trillion pages of paper documents

– Over 42 billion pages were faxed last year alone

Source :Gartner 2007

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Saving Paper Saves Scarce Resources

Each ton of paper saved, saves.– 17 Trees.– 240 litters of crude oil.– 4210 KWH of electricity.– 26,500 litters of water.– 3 meter cube of space.

Every year,an average mid-sized Indian company transacts with papers that need 1.5 to 2 million trees.

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Some Industry Scenario in India

– 99.5% of our documents are in paper.– 60% of our desk-time is spent in attending to papers.– An average document gets copied 19 times.– 85% of the paper documents are never referred to again.– We spend 5–15% of our time reading information from paper

sources , but 30-50% looking for them.– 15% of documents are misfiled, another 15% are lost.– 30% of documents contain obsolete information.Source : NPC, 2004.

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Why We Are Fond of Paper?

The importance of Touch – We are used to touch,fold, tuck away, crumple and throw away paper.

Permanence – Unlike a digital file, paper cannot be imperceptibly altered.

Portability – Easily folded and taken with us. No need for computers or power.

Mark-up – Easy to make notes, highlight,or sign with pen.

Comfort – An original ink signed copy gives us “Just in case” comfort.

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Wrong Sides of Paper

Takes up considerable physical storage space. Requires extensive effort to organize,file and retrieve, and

dispose. Can be lost, misfiled or damaged. Can only be used by one person at a time, without making

costly copies. Is expensive to create or copy , requiring printers and

photocopies. Exposed to fire,flood, termite, dust, crumbling or ageing

damage. Difficult to store under total secured assurance.

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Why Paperless Office ?

Speedier decision making due to availability of “right document at right time at right cost”.

Lowering of cost of physical storage of files and documents.

Improved visibility , lesser waste of time in retrieving documents.

Lower risk of loss, wastage, deterioration ,disaster, and security associated with paper based records.

More environment friendly office.

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Can We Really Get Paperless ?

Paperless office prediction was initially made in an article at Business Week in 1975, during the introduction of the personal computer.

Still none has achieved the status of a really “paperless office”, not in India, not even anywhere in the world.What has been achieved is “Less paper” office.

But , today technology has reached a point where the paperless office is within reach.

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The Types of Documents

Documents created outside the company (Incoming)

Documents created within the company for destinations (a) within the company, (b) outside the company (Outgoing )

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Anatomy of Incoming DocumentsApprox Volumes /Month

Types Govt. Subsidiary cos.

Employees

Vendors/ Contractr

Consume Others

Letters 50 100 200 1500 1500 200

Circulars 10 10 NA NA NA NA

Forms NA 50 100 50 100 100

Reports/ Publctns

10 20 NA NA NA 10

Notesheets NA 20 NA NA NA NA

Notices 50 NA NA NA NA 10

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Anatomy of Outgoing Documents

Category Originating sources

Target destination

Copies to

others

Approx Nos/ month

Letters Departments Single/Multiple Yes/No 2000

Circulars Departments Multiple Yes/No 50

O/O/Memos Departments Multiple Yes/No 100

Forms Individuals Single/Multiple Yes/No 1000

Reports Departments Single Yes/No 20

Note-sheets Departments Single No 1000

Contracts/ DOs

Departments Single/Multiple Yes/No 200

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Technologies for Paperless Office

Electronic document management, Digital signatures Work-flow Electronic data interchange (EDI)

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Electronic Document Management System

A computer-based technique for storing and retrieving documents held in a wide variety of formats or in a number of geographic locations.

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Steps in Document Management

1. Document Capture

2. Document process

3. Document security

4. Document archival

5. Document integration with database

6. Document tracking and retrieval

7. Document viewing , editing , printing

8. Record management

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Features of Electronic Document Management System

Captures paper documents by scanning. OCR software converts these scanned images into

editable digital formats. Indexes the documents in a searchable database. Organises the documents , according to key words and

metadata and put in a Folder structure that is similar to the Folder / Taxonomy / filing Rules that we follow at CIL.

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Features of Electronic Document Management System

Organises and stores the documents in an encrypted form in a secured server.

Retrieves the documents, whenever required by using powerful context based search engines.

View, modify, edit, copy , print according to defined access control (users id and password) in an managed environment .

Log and Audit trail of all uses. Takes back-up, archives and arranges disaster

recovery.

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Hardware

Scanner – Automatic Sheet Feeding – Duplex– Speed

Secured High capacity storage– Remote encrypted storage– On line secured storage

Shredder

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Benefits of Electronic Document Management System

– Documents instantaneously searchable and accessible like our E-mails.

– Dependency on office staff shall reduce for the need of a physical File to arrive before the work begins.

– Needless photocopying can be eliminated.– We always refer to the latest version / revision /

modification of the document and not the old one by mistake.

– No need for keeping and maintaining Almirahs and record Rooms.

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Digital Signatures

A paper document consists of four components– the carrier ( the sheet of paper)– text and pictures ( the physical representation of information)– information about the originator– measures to verify the authenticity (written signature)

All the four components are physically connected– So, paper is the document

There is only one original– can be reproduced in innumerable copies

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Digital Signatures

Signatures– Supposed to be unique, difficult to be reproduced, not

changeable and not reusable– Its main functions

identification declaration proof

– The signature is used to identify a person and to associate the person with the content of that document

always related to a physical person

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Digital Signatures

Signature (contd).

In all legal systems.– Absence of a prescription of an exclusive modality of signing

e.g. Full name, initials, nickname, real or any symbol.– Token of will and responsibility.

From a legal point of view, nothing against the introduction of new types or technologies of signature.

Digital Signature is the new technology.

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Digital Signatures

Electronic document produced by a computer. Stored in digital form, and cannot be perceived without using a computer

– It can be deleted, modified and rewritten without leaving a mark

– Integrity of an electronic document is “genetically” impossible to verify

– A copy is indistinguishable from the original– It can’t be sealed in the traditional way, where the author

affixes his signature

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Digital Signatures

The functions of identification, declaration, proof of electronic documents carried out using a digital signature based on cryptography.

Digital signatures created and verified using cryptography.

Public key System based on Asymmetric keys.– An algorithm generates two different and related keys.

Public key. Private Key.

– Private key used to digitally sign.– Public key used to verify.

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Attributes of a Sealed Letter

Authentication – from a identified source (letterhead of writer).

Confidentiality- protected from others ( Sealed cover). Data Integrity- not modified in transit (written content ). Non-Repudiation (Ink signature). As per IT Act 2000, a digitally encrypted document

with digital signature of sender is as good as a signed paper document as it provides for all the above four.

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Work Flow Technology

One of the obstacle in the paper-processing world is waiting for a supporting document to arrive. – For example, an application for advance

may be received, but a medical or outstanding claims report must be ordered and received before the application can be considered.

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Work Flow Technology

Workflow technology is the automation of a business process, during which documents are passed from one state to another for action, according to a set of rules defined by your workflow scheme.

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Benefits of Work Flow Technology

Operational staff can process more transactions

More informed decisions can be made more quickly

Security is increased because only authorized personnel are able to view work in process

Errors are reduced due to less manual searching and more controls on data input

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Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

EDI is the computer-to-computer exchange of business documents.

Data accuracy – No manual re-keying of data. Faster processing times, easy to implement

and easy to maintain. All transactions are acknowledged. No need to mail or fax.

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What Others Are Doing :GOI E-trade Initiatives

Customs (35 locations) DGFT (39 locations) Port trust (12 locations) Airports( 7 locations) Concor (38 locations) Banks (160 locations) RBI Apparel export (24

locations)

Export promotion councils (12 locations)

DG commercial intelligence (all )

Inland container depots

( 50 locations)

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What Others Are Doing ?

Life Insurance Corporation (South Zone) to be a paperless office in the next two years. It has 3.5 crore policies which is about one sixth of the entire policies handled by the Corporation.

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A Roadmap for “Paperless Office”

Phased implementation– A file tracking system– A file management system– Digital signatures to all – An electronic document management system– Work flow technology– EDI with trading partners

Pilot projects At every stage, roll out after successful pilot

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Key to Success

Top management support Involve all users in planning Written standards, policies & procedures End-user training Change management Hand holding BOOT model for hardware ASP model for software

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Key to Success

Define requirements clearly Form Task Force Identify Champions Place Technology Committee Empower Project Manager

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Paperless Culture

Create right mind set Coping with cultural change Retention policy Conversion of legacy documents Cut-off date Implementation & training

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A Final Thought !

It’s not hardware or software, it’s people ware.– 20% of the solution is the technology . 80% is the

process and people.

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Summing Up

Paperless office is a journey, not a destination. A phased implementation plan is

recommended. A cultural change is essential, all of us need to

agree to reduce paper and then eliminate it. ASP model is best suited for us. There may be obstacles , but we shall

overcome.

Thank You !

Questions? Comments ?