In a November 2020 post, I explored the possibility of the COVID-19 pandemic boosting paperless, digitized activities and asked: Will 2021 be the “year of killing paper” ?

In a November 2020 post, I explored the possibility of the COVID-19 pandemic boosting paperless, digitized activities and asked: Will 2021 be the “year of killing paper” ?

In the middle of May 2022, everyone can answer. No, the year 2021 and the peaking COVID-19 pandemic was not the “year of killing paper”.

Read the original post Will 2021 be the “year of killing paper” ?

While many businesses went digital, by choice or by necessity, there was nothing like a digital tsunami flushing away paperwork.

The paperless factory will remain an (old) dream, often promised, never fulfilled.

In 2020 however, the COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdowns and people being massively hindered to go physically to work revealed all the drawbacks of paper-based processes.

Never before probably, so many companies faced acute problems because of their dependencies to paper at literally the same time. Therefore we can expect a real shift from a somewhat vague concept of paperless processes to a real need to get rid of paper.

From what I have seen, the most visible shift from paper to digital are menus in (some) restaurants. Initially digitized to avoid many customers touching the same document, the digitized format survived in some places.

But scanning a QR code and browsing the menu on a smartphone is not always very comfortable, depending on the quality of digitization and the ergonomics of the app. Well if the app is running and the smartphone is able to handle it, not to mention the need for appropriate wifi and battery levels.

The “year of killing paper” is still to come. I’ll make no guess when.