Lyudmila Shusterova, Director, strategic development, BDO Unicon Outsourcing attended the roundtable entitled "The Optimization of Document Circulation: Cloud Technologies and Paper-free Operation". The meeting was a part of "The Protection of Business Interests" all-Russian business forum that took place in Moscow.
Lyudmila expanded on the perspectives of companies' switching to paperless document circulation and on what must be done to speed it up. She named the development of the market of outsourcing and the growth of the popularity of in-house servicing centers among the powerful drivers of the change and added that well-functioning electronic document exchange was among its sine qua non conditions.
Despite that paper-free document circulation is beneficial for practically everyone on the market, there remain a number of slowing-down factors. In order for the obstacle-free functioning of the new way of inter-organizational operation to be successfully launched, its methodological, organizational and legal aspects must be thoroughly taken care of. Also, the market so far lacks serious methods of influencing counteragents not all of whom can yet appreciate the drastic need for paper-free document circulation. Many companies are repulsed by the necessity of processing primary documents. This results in that companies actually have to do double work, using both paperless and paper-dependent document exchange.
One should also remember about our mentality and that many employees are used to preparing documents after the fact. This is often not just related to certain individuals but is also made necessary by business. The introduction of paper-free document circulation will, on the one hand, make all companies' processes orderly but, on the other hand, will take certain flexibility from users and make the preparation of documents after the fact impossible. Some organizations shy away from this.
The introduction of new IT solutions that will allow to improve document circulation and authorization often requires that companies invest certain amounts of time and money in it, which is also a slowing-down factor. Finally, Russia's organizations are not yet quite confident that the use of paper-free document circulation will not make them vulnerable during inspections by tax and other fiscal agencies.
Still another problem is the unpredictability of the regulations concerning paper-free document circulation. And yet, according to Lyudmila Shusterova, the introduction of paperless document circulation by outsourcing companies moves ahead of regulations because its financial benefits are obvious even though some documents still must be doubled on paper.
