When I first joined Xerox, I stumbled upon this Businessweek article from 1975 entitled, “Office of the Future”.  It predicts the paperless office. My favorite quote comes from the head of the (then) newly formed think-tank in Palo Alto known as PARC, George E. Pake, who says “… that in 1995 his office will be completely different; there will be a TV-display terminal with keyboard sitting on his desk. “I’ll be able to call up documents from my files on the screen, or by pressing a button,” he says. “I can get my mail or any messages. I don’t know how much hard copy [printed paper] I’ll want in this world.”

Full of quotes like this, the article may seem comical in retrospect – however, it’s worth a read.  Here’s an ironic one given the current global economic climate “…the current recession has brought a real awareness by companies that they have to identify and control office costs and improve productivity.” A Quantum Science Corp. survey showed that while the recession had forced a cut in overall office spending, it was also responsible for increasing text-editing typewriter installations. Nearly one-fifth of all offices surveyed, and 39% of the larger ones, either planned or had recently added automatic typewriters.”

Fast forward 35+ years and we’ve got that “TV-display terminal” (better know as a computer screen) sitting on our desks – but we still have a whole lot of paper sitting there, too. What happened? Maybe the future of the document is not what we first thought.

Interestingly enough, Xerox still talks about documents and the future, but in a whole different way.  Instead of focusing on the paper – we focus on the document and explain how people use it as a strategic business tool.  John Kelly, Executive Vice President, Major Account Development, here at Xerox wrote a book recently, called “Between the Lines“, on this exact topic.  You can read the ebook on your Kindle or iPad, or print it as a pdf if you’re still a “paper person”. We are digital vs. physical neutral on this one.  But do have a look, especially at the first chapter. As we predicted in the 70s — and we’ve demonstrated in the last decade – we’re moving with our clients in the digital direction. Yet we still recognize the role the document plays in our lives and the value it delivers to business regardless of its physical form.

John’s book is full of real world examples about how companies use documents to reduce costs, improve investment returns, and a whole host of other business advantages you might not expect.  My favorite example focuses on futuristic technology like erasable (reusable) paper – very James Bond – and very real.

Here’s your chance to get a glimpse at other cool technology that we think will become commonplace over the next decade and beyond.

I hope you will download it. It reads quickly and may get you to look at the lowly document in a whole new light.