ThrowBack Thursday: Where Were You When Carbon Paper Went Out For Good?

Via Pinterest/BBC

"ONE of the happiest moments of Norma Carey's life was the day she threw away her carbon paper. It was the early 1970's when her employer, a law firm in Washington, switched from carbons to copiers."

Good Morning Folks,

ONE of the happiest moments of Norma Carey's life was the day she threw away her carbon paper. It was the early 1970's when her employer, a law firm in Washington, switched from carbons to copiers.

''I was absolutely delighted,'' said Ms. Carey, 64  a legal secretary for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld to the New York Times in a 1998 interview. No more ink on the hands from handling slimy black carbons. No more furious erasing. And no more retyping 20-page documents. Not once, Ms. Carey said, has she felt nostalgic about the messy stuff.

With today's laser and ink-jet printers, word processors, and voice-recognition and spell-checking software, carbon paper — invented by an Englishman named Ralph Wedgewood in the 1820's — is but a shadow of the crucial commodity it was. Using carbon paper today is like using a mortar and pestle instead of a food processor, or pounding your laundry against a rock instead of using a washing machine. Yet there remains a small but steady demand for it.

Carbon paper (originally carbonic paper) was originally paper coated on one side with a layer of a loosely bound dry ink or pigmented coating, bound with wax, used for making one or more copies simultaneously with the creation of an original document when using a typewriter or a ballpoint pen.

Carbon paper is placed between the original and a second sheet to be copied onto. As the user writes or types on the original, the pressure from the typebar or pen deposits the ink on the blank sheet, thus creating a "carbon copy" of the original document. This technique is generally limited to four or five copies.

As the ink is transferred from the carbon paper to the underlying paper, an impression of the corresponding text is left on the "carbon" where some of the ink was removed. A single piece of carbon paper can be repeatedly reused until the impression grows too light.

Demand for carbon paper has dropped by 85 percent in the last 20 years. The reason: computers have made manual and electric typewriters all but obsolete. Copying machines, laser printers and carbonless paper — which uses a chemical process to create copies without the need for carbon paper — were the final blow. But... ''As long as computers are not 100 percent foolproof, there will be a need for carbon,'' said Marc Leder, managing director of Frye Tech. Carbon paper is still used in multi-part forms from traffic tickets, to plumbing work orders to, lab work.

And the moniker "CC:" which used to stand for "Carbon Copy" now lives on in every document you mail or print.

For those who remember typing and retyping and making "carbon copies" in law firms, it's not a pleasant memory. So while we like to throw back on Thursday, think of it as one of the main reasons everyone is whistling while they work today.

The end of carbon paper ushered in decades of productivity and progress in law firms that their retirees could never have imagined.

On the other hand, with pressure on law firms to cut costs, an obvious starting point is in that expensive real estate you are using to store what may include "carbon copies" that you haven’t looked at in 50 years, nor ever will.

Over time — decades in many cases — the volume of retained records grows, as does the cost of storing them. But by (re)IMAGINING the records retention process, and with a thoughtful policy to change it, law firms who have been pressured to cut costs can find help from professionals like FSO who will help you solve it. 

Thanks to Wikipedia, The New York Times and to you for listening.

Have a GREAT Day. Love Life.

I'll be a seeing you soon.

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

==> Going Paperless 
We recently completed the largest and most successful document conversion in the New York area, migrating over 35 million pages to electronic format. Savings come not just from eliminating each $900 lateral file, but also from not buying or leasing Class A office space to store paper, and reducing the costs of utilities, equipment maintenance and consumables associated with paper copies.

Can your incumbent do this?

Revolutionizing Records Management In the Digital Practice of Law

"FSO has worked with organizations as varied as insurance companies and law firms to implement records management strategies and to offer significant reductions in paper."

Good Morning Folks,

Monday is always a great day to get organized which makes Mitch's Monday Musing today about the digital practice of record management where we'll explore the myth of the paperless office. Or is it a myth any more? Let's dig in.

In an age of workshifting, cloud computing and big data, digital and paper worlds are at the crossroads. 


With more access to information then ever, managed records services has the potential to drive business transformation.

Talk of a paperless office has been around for well over 40 years.

Wrote the BBC, “Today automation has displaced paper from some activities. On London Underground for example, over 80% of journeys are now undertaken without a paper ticket being issued.”

Yet paper remains at the heart of our culture.

Every time a paper cup is used for coffee, a banknote is used, an email is printed, the post arrives or a physical newspaper is read at a desk, the paperless ideal disappears back into the mythology it came from.

FSO is advising companies wanting to become paperless, but it agrees that in practice this often means "less paper."

Again, our own offices are not entirely without hard copies. But this appears to be true nearly across the board.

Many businesses still rely heavily on paper to support business processes – whether it is finance and accounting or HR. FSO can help intelligently organize information from both paper and electronic sources and make it more readily available to office, mobile and remote workers.

“Just in case

Attorneys Examine Evidentiary Documents at Weitz and Luxenberg

FSO has worked with organizations as varied as insurance companies and law firms to implement outsourced document and records management strategies" and to offer significant reductions in paper

FSO's Bobby Dillon

Our Bobby Dillon should know. As Best Practices Experience Director, he brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise across all of FSO’s services from mail, logistics, copy, print and scan to document production – just to name a few. 

At FSO Client Weitz & Luxenberg, Bobby got his MBA in Records Management during a massive 3 ½ year project, the largest and most successful document conversion in the New York market and surrounding areas - migrating over 35 million pages of paper to an electronic format at the famed barristers.

Bobby and his team achieved this by following rigorous checks and balances, quality control and document processing perfection. This is the type of success and model of perfection that Bobby leads across all of FSO’s client locations. 

Because Weitz & Luxenberg deals with Asbestos cases, the law still requires paper records retained for 30 years, so 25-30K bankers boxes were sent offsite to low cost storage, freeing up an entire floor of premium Manhattan office space for lease to others or more profitable venture.

Shawn Curwen joined FSO from Weitz & Luxenberg having run the client side of the legal document management services project with Bobby. Shawn will confirm the benefits delivered to his former employer are:

• Smart environmental and corporate stewardship helping to make for a better planet

• Cost savings- documents shipped off site pennies on dollar or shredded to free up a whole floor of premium office space previously used for file 

FSO's Shawn Curwen

• Reduction of footprint reduces costs

• Efficient and accessible lost paralegal billable hours searching for

° Keyword traceable if you use ocr, which helps find the smoking gun within a haystack of documents and can help win cases

• More accountability with a better chain of custody to identify where document is

"I look around many offices as I visit clients and they've got binders upon binders of paper that no one will ever look at again," says Denise Ngeow, FSO VP of Corporate Strategy.

As business moves into a digital world, FSO leads the way with end-to-end information management services that enhance every stage of the entire document lifecycle.

FSO works closely with our clients to develop continuity programs that provide our clients with a good night sleep when it comes to the safety of their records. FSO’s strategy to take our clients to a digital platform is a long-term dedicated approach to ensure long term success.

Our unique approach focuses on key aspects that define a comprehensive digital records management solution:

1. Establishing a Sponsor – 
FSO collaborates with clients to help identify and gain the buy-in of senior executives or partners to sponsor and support digitization initiatives.

2. Digital File Creation - 
FSO will work with our client’s IT department and stakeholders to review and streamline the manner in which data is exported or transferred to official virtual folders in our client’s records and document management systems.

3. Digital File Usage & Maintenance - 
FSO will work to communicate and train staff to ensure emails and attachments are digitally filed in official virtual public folders.

4. Scanning - 
FSO will take ownership of all scanning responsibilities through development of trust with administrative assistants or paralegals. This allows our clients to focus on more revenue generating and core business activities. 

5. Digital file retention and disposition - 
As with physical records management, FSO ensures that retention periods are tracked, with clients presented with lists of physical and digital  files for destruction approval at the appropriate times.

FSO's skilled Know-How Team™ of ROI, IT and strategy experts will put all aspects of your document processes under the microscope, analyze their findings then give you a blueprint for success. You'll get an unbiased solution that transforms your document lifecycle into an organizational memory bank providing employees, clients and all stakeholders with secure, convenient and timely access to the records and information they need.

According to Shawn, “We’ve gained more accounts, repeating the recipe for success mastered at Weitz. We’re different from the incumbents and competition. No one can match our knowledge base in records imaging and retention. Ultimately we take away non-revenue jobs, freeing up more of their time to practice law.”

FSO can provide the full outsourcing of business processes, for example managing invoice processing, HR, finance and accounts and also IT outsourcing. 

Using a single provider offers the potential to deliver further cost savings, increase productivity and also enable tighter process and financial controls through better regulatory compliance.

If you’d like to explore how FSO can bring your records management into the digital age, contact me personally at 212-204-1193.

Have a GREAT day as I look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

Learn more about what DIFFERENTIATES FSO here