Clarke Claims Victory in Paper War

Good-bye Paper...  Todd Clarke, a broker with Grubb & Ellis-Lewinger Hamilton in Albuquerque, NM, publishes the comprehensive NM Apartment Report.  As he describes in the following excerpts he has attacked paper with a vengeance.  "I have had a paperless office for 5 or 6 years now. ... I have worn out half a dozen PaperPort scanners and currently use the Visioneer Strobe. ...  My database shows a 'file drawer' icon on its screen.  When I click on a property, it opens that file on the PaperPort desktop, from there I can convert to text, edit the graphics, send as an e-mail, etc.

"I replaced an 8-foot tall, 16-foot wide bookshelf with a piece of art.  The shelf once contained every scrap of information I had on every apartment in the state of New Mexico.  Updating it was a pain.  My notebooks were all alphabetized by street name.  So if the 'A' notebook became too full, then we had to have two 'A' notebooks.  My assistant spent 20% of her time updating the notebooks.

"Then I scanned them all into my database-- over a million pages in a month -- each was saved with the KEY ID from my database.  Now when I want to update a file, I open it, add the new pages and save it --done in 30 seconds. ... I have several million pages scanned into the computer -- all of which I carry around in my 1.5 lb Toshiba Libretto with a 20-gigabyte hard drive.  I've got everything -- every deal, every letter, appraisal, phase I report, receipt, and note -- all easily accessible. ...

"When on the road, I use the handheld HP Capture 920 (about the size of a small paperback).  I wave it over the top of a page (up to 24-inches x 36-inches), then 'beam' it via infrared to my Libretto.  Now when a client signs a purchase agreement, I scan it and leave the original with him.   When I travel, I never return with paper. ...

"When I have a shared project with clients and vendors, I use Intranets.com to set up a virtual closing room, file cabinet, etc., to provide access for everyone.  This saves money on FedEx and long distance charges, and everyone has the same document at the same time. Besides 'space' the biggest savings has been time.  I no longer have to spend time moving items around in the analog world (fax, FedEx, printer, US Mail, etc.); now it's digital (e-mail, web site).  If I need a reimbursement from a client, I can e-mail him the invoice and the receipts at the same time -- with the expense invoice arriving often before I have returned home..."    Wow, can anybody top that?

--Peter Pike / ppike@pikenet.com