Paper vs. Technology

May. 19, 2010  |  By: Cindy Brittain  |  Category: Economic Development, Technology
Tags: communication, paperless, Technology

April 8, 2010 was my anniversary date—14 years ago I started working at KCADC as the business development coordinator. I haven’t moved very far—just across the hall and into the manager of research & information position.

It seems like ages ago, especially when I think of days gone by and how we actually lived in the 90’s. It makes me think of big hair styles, funky clothes, and the movie Jerry Maguire (still one of my favorites). Oh, and let’s not forget that was the year when the Macarena was born. Does it seem I’m being a bit nostalgic? I guess I am, but when I think of working in the 90’s, I can’t help but think about paper and technology and the way things use to be compared to the way things are now.

In 1996 we printed everything—and filed everything. Filing was a big chore and if I didn’t “file” at least once a week, my work space would become a wasteland of paper. I remember, more than once, being told it’s time to clean it up. I would spend the next day or so getting paper cuts and back aches from bending and stretching over the file cabinets.

If you think that’s archaic here’s another one for you—we had a system that required me to actually write postcards to brokers reporting of a property that we showed to clients. While I do believe a personal handwritten note is a wonderful thing, it is becoming more of an antiquity in the business world. Why would I send a handwritten note when I can send an e-mail or a text instantaneously? Seriously, I don’t even need to talk on the phone anymore to keep up with my friends and colleagues. I just get on Facebook and can find out all sorts of things. Like what they had for breakfast or where they’ve been in the last hour.

Technology is a wonderful thing and I’m all for it. Instead of writing those handwritten postcards, I open a program and send everything electronically. Instead of printing and filing an e-mail or document, we attach it to the project in our system via e-mail. It all seems so easy when it works, but I have to say the process to get where we are today was very complex.

We worked for many months to get a program in place so we wouldn’t have to print and file all of those documents and e-mails for each project. What we found out was that what we were lacking was trust. We didn’t really trust the program to work correctly. We didn’t really trust our server to keep all of the data. We didn’t really trust that when we go into an electronic file that the one piece of information we need will actually be there. Turns out—it was all for naught. The programs work, the e-mails and documents are there. We just needed to trust ourselves.

After months of getting the program in place, we found out our partners not only opened the electronic postcards, but they contacted us more often to find out more about the projects. Turns out, they love to know what we’re up to and love to know what we’re involved with on their behalf.

Since 1996 we’ve gone from a large file room to a large server which only takes up 2’ x 3’ x 6” on a shelf. Talk about getting rid of paper—goal accomplished!  It took 14 long years to go from tons of paper in files to high-tech programs on a server and I know we’ve saved thousands of trees and dollars by doing so.

There is no way I would ever have dreamt of where we are technologically today. I wonder what our systems will be like in 2016 on my 20^th anniversary! I can’t wait to find out.