Canadian business and governments are staggering under a huge and growing load of documents and electronic communications that may be costing the economy $50 billion a year in lost productivity.

That's the conclusion of a study by Queen's University business professor Peter Richardson who has estimated document overload -- and that includes just about everything that comes across your desk, computer and phone line -- is eating up 50 per cent of the time of professional employees, managers and executives.

"We're being assaulted by information," said Richardson, the author of the paper. "Everyone feels the crisis. But not everyone recognizes a way out. We should take heart because there is a way out through effective document management."

A recent survey of private and public sector executives carried out at Queen's Business School by Richardson found they spend an average of 56 percent of their time dealing with paper and electronic documents. In the opinion of these executives, 40 percent of this time - spent on document administration - delivered 'little or no value' to their organizations and substantially lessened the amount of time available for strategy, business development, and interaction with customers and employees.

Cameron Hyde, president of Xerox Canada, said while paper use was supposed to diminish, people are printing out files from their computers and coupled with that has been "an explosion" in electronic documents. He said the management of documents in organizations is fragmented, so there is no one to consider the larger picture and assess how document management is pushing up costs and driving down productivity.

"Virtually every organization, it doesn't matter if it is the private or public sector, is looking to take costs out of business," he said. "And it's not just about cost cutting; people need to move beyond that to improve productivity."

Read more of this story in The Vancouver Sun.

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