Every document automation vendor tells some version of the same story: "We're going to take you paperless." I used to tell it too. I don't anymore.
What "paperless" actually means
Paperless is a destination invented before anyone had to deal with real documents: the faxed lease with handwritten margin notes, the 2003 PDF that has never been updated, the contractor invoice that arrives as a photo on WhatsApp. These exist because the world is messy — not because the sender is being difficult.
Why it's the wrong goal
When "paperless" is the goal, you spend energy fighting documents instead of processing them. You reject the phone transcript because it doesn't fit your schema. The document desk never actually goes away — you just call the remaining work "exceptions."
The goal I believe in instead
A document workflow that doesn't punish you for the paperwork you inherited. The document desk gets smaller. The remaining work gets more interesting. The fax machine stays.
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