Ruskin is not the only business entrenching itself in an electronic solution. Toyota Financial Services, Torrance, Calif., increasingly limits its paper documents to ones legally required to be mailed through postal services. Documents such as collection notices, internal messages and customer service forms are backed up on hard drive, not hard copy. Borklund places his faith in the software. It's a big, multimillion dollar system.
Opportunities remain for distributors who offer online services and new software.
Purchasers are just starting to transform their businesses into paperless environments. We're about 10 years behind where we should be. Some of her forms include training materials and standard operating procedures books. Linke has a host of questions about logistics and the ways Home Depot employees will realistically use electronic documents. She says she might consider the expertise of sources outside the company.