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According to IDC (News - Alert) there were an estimated 2.98 trillion pages printed from digital hardcopy devices in 2012, which is enough to cover the surface area of New York City 237 times. Paper is rapidly becoming an inconvenience and negative PR because of the environmental impact it represents, for a form that can easily be lost, damaged or stolen. Although the same can happen to digital content, it provides more options as to how it can be protected, and you won't be killing any trees in the process. As long as organizations still have to deal with paper, they are facing challenges on how to capture and protect this content on hardcopy and digitally.

A new survey conducted by Omtool, provider for document process automation solutions, reveals how industries across many different sectors can better understand document-based initiatives.

Even though many organizations are making a concerted effort to go completely paperless, there are still many industries such as the legal profession and others which are document-intensive. These professions by their very nature still require paper documents to conduct different transactions, and until new governance is implemented making digital formats acceptable, paper will be the norm.

While paper continues to be used, it is being incorporated into digital solutions with document capture and workflow solutions with paper-to-electronic such as scanning so it can be saved, stored or delivered through email. The use of fax also combines paper and digital technology, allowing companies to use document-process automation solutions.

The survey by Omtool revealed 52 percent of respondents were automating document processing in parts of their organization where documents are sent and received in paper copy using traditional mail, which include accounts payable and receivable. Document assembly represents the next highest percentage with 43 percent as organizations put together documents that come from different locations, formats and times. Some of the examples include loan application processes that come from different organizations and need to be part of the document-assembly process.

The study also found enterprises are still holding onto fax solutions and a third of the companies are investing and looking to improve fax-based communications for the organization. This includes the migration to FoIP (Fax over IP) as the adoption of VoIP continues to increase.

"The results of this study highlight the move from common, everyday scanning activities to focus on high-value workflows where significant cost and productivity savings may be realized. What was most surprising was the number of companies that are continuing to invest in fax-based communications and are moving to Fax over IP. This is a transition that we will be focusing on and supporting with our client base," said Karen Cummings, Executive Vice President, Omtool.