Hullistic

In justifying to people their need to convert paper to digital many point to a study allegedly done by Coopers & Lybrand containing statistical data about the cost of finding, handling, and losing paper documents. I use the term ‘allegedly’ because after searching all over online, in the public library and the university library…I can’t find this study or any reference to it. (A Google search on “Coopers & Lybrand Document Management” yields plenty of results…I looked through the first hundred. Neither library returned a single relevant hit. The best I found was a website that claimed the study was done in 1998). 

The companies that make reference to this study, if they provide any citation at all, keep it vague saying things like “according to a recent study.” Even AIIM articles that reference the study fail to provide enough in the citation to locate the source material.

 When the supposed results of a study are pitched at you, ask to see the source material and judge for yourself it’s efficacy in general and it’s relevance to your situation in particular. Who funded this study? What was the research methodology? What were the ultimate findings? Do the findings reasonably represent my situation? 

The point here is not whether it is a good idea to go digital. This is about whether you are content to do business with lazy, dishonest vendors who cannot back up their claims. 

By the way…if there really is a Coopers & Lybrand study, please point me to it.