Blutwurst Sausage

Close Your Eyes... You've heard the expression: "There are two thing that you don't want to see made -- sausage and politics." Well, I'm thinking that we might want to add the "paperless office" to the mix. OK, I'm exaggerating. But the reality is that creating a truly digital workplace requires a formidable investment in people and systems to catalog documents, scan images, and train users. It's a huge task. And some of it's not very pretty.

Few organizations are as serious about eliminating paper as GMAC Commercial Mortgage, which services a $100 billion loan portfolio. During my visit to their headquarters in Horsham, PA, in June, Ned Finkenstaedt, COO of MortgageRamp showed me their scanning room with its rows of computers, scanners, and operators, each with a big stack of documents. Hour after hour, day after day, these operators index and scan mortgage documentation. Obviously it's not the most glamorous job in the world. But think about how important it is to do correctly.

Then after GMACCM digitizes all the documents, the staff has to learn how to use the new system. So it was fun to listen to Mike Wolfel, Business Development - Paperless Solutions, make a training presentation to an internal GMACCM group. No doubt the new system is superior to the old paper-based file system. But it's different. Everything is now accessible via a web browser -- site inspections, digital signatures, financial documents. So you have to learn a new way of doing business. But once you do, it sure looks powerful. No question that we're all headed toward a digitized workflow. Please pass the mustard!

--Peter Pike