Amcor boardroom goes paperless

2005/08/04 Ben Woodhead – The Australian FINANCIAL REVIEW (Page 58)

Amcor has banished paper from its boardroom in a project that has swapped reams of printed documents for tablet-style portable computers.

The move - which paper manufacturer Amcor insists does not signal the demise of its products in offices - has transformed board meetings, giving its seven board members speedy access to documents anywhere in the world.

It has also eliminated the need to courier last-minute papers to board meetings and reduced the risk of members losing critical information as they cart briefcases full of documents around the world.

"It's much simpler, there's more immediacy, and it gives board members more time to read papers because there is no transmission time," Amcor chairman Chris Roberts said.

"What's even more important than that is that instead of waiting until all papers are ready so that they can be bound in a binder and sent off, board members can receive papers progressively over a week before a board meeting, rather than, say, two days before."

Mr Roberts said one of the key features of the system, which uses wireless networking technology, was that the tablets came with pens that enabled company directors to make notations on electronic documents.

Those notations could be saved and recalled during meetings.

The ability to annotate electronic documents in the same way as paper was the determining factor in Amcor's decision to change to tablet PCs.

"It would be pretty useless without the pen," Mr Roberts said.

Another important feature of the tablets was their size less than 1.5 centimetres thick.

Mr Roberts said they were more portable than the binders full of documents directors used to have to take to board meetings, including sessions at the company's 40 subsidiaries around the world.

The Hewlett-Packard tablet PCs used by Amcor directors are fitted with 1GHz Intel processors, 40GB hard drives and 512MB of RAM.

"The online solution has just become par for the course now and has delivered a very cost-efficient and effective means of quick communications with maximum security," Mr Roberts said.

Amcor's directors have had few problems adapting to the technology. Mr Roberts said the only "tricky bit" was getting used to new security procedures protecting information carried across the company's wireless networks.

But directors who had installed a home wireless network were also embracing that technology outside work, giving them the luxury of preparing for board meetings anywhere in their homes, including the backyard.

See Also :
Case Study - Global packaging giant Amcor goes paperless in the boardroom (PDF)