"Our vision was the virtually paperless office"

30 per cent more efficient with electronic files

By Bosse Jönsson Photo Håkan Flank

“Paperless? Well not quite, but almost,” says Peter Friedrichsen, MD at Bergenstråhle & Lindvall. “It took us one year to shrink the paper archive – and to save 30 per cent of the time we spent on the administration of files and documents.”

Peter Friedrichsen and Bergenstråhle & Lindvall are ahead of their time. Peter Friedrichsen was appointed MD at Bergenstråhle & Lindvall in 2006. At that time they used a lot of paper in the office, by force of habit, despite the fact that more rational methods were available. The paper archive was the single biggest room in the premises. “We used the IP management software Patrawin to keep track of dates and deadlines,” says Peter Friedrichsen. “But we wanted to do more. We’d spend days walking around the place looking for a physical paper file. Of course we didn’t have one particular clerk searching around on desks and in cabinets, but if we add up all of those five-minute strolls by our various employees, that’s a lot of time…
Our vision was the virtually paperless office. The objective was: no paper originals, unless they were genuinely valuable documents. In two years we wanted to save 30 per cent of the time that people in the office spent on administration of documents and files.”

“We did it in one year. We started the transition in 2007 and had finished in 2008.” The paper archive at Bergenstråhle & Lindvall has now been reduced dramatically, and the 30 square metres or so of shelves in the archive are only half full. Bergenstråhle & Lindvall are consultants specialised in Intellectual Property Management.
The company is based in Stockholm, Sweden and employs 40 specialists with global customers and
a European focus.It was not inevitable that Bergenstråhle & Lindvall would choose Patrawin when the company set off on its journey towards paperlessnes. “But we already knew that one of Patrawin’s major benefits was that it had been developed in close collaboration with our sector, and we could see that the program worked well in the way we were already using it.” “My specification of requirements was that I wanted us to work with as few systems as possible. So we looked for a basic IP management software that could integrate several functions. In that respect, Patrawin with the integrated document management module was best, and we also got userfriendliness and the modern interface into the bargain.” “We can also now provide our clients with access to their documents online via IPR Control, which is integrated into Patrawin.”

Smooth transition
When Bergenstråhle & Lindvall launched their vision to become paperless, many employees were sceptical. But once the process had started, the transition was smooth – and quick. “The biggest step proved to be a psychological one,” explains Peter Friedrichsen. The difficult thing, for all of us, has been to appreciate that the original is the electronic document, not the paper copy.”

When you decide to minimise the use of paper in an office like Bergenstråhle & Lindvall, two processes above all simply have to work: a reliable version management function for the electronic documents is absolutely crucial – people must know for sure which is the latest version – and documents must be named intelligently, so they can be found quickly and easily. Despite his initiative, Peter Friedrichsen is not a sworn enemy of paper, “There’ll always be paper in our offices,” he says. “But much less than is the case today.” “My generation and I like paper. But younger people certainly find it easier to simply not bother reading on paper. Within five years I think we’ll have a totally new way of working. By then I believe that we, our clients and authorities will increasingly be working shared documents in real time.”